Copy Book Archive

Mary Queen of Scots Henry VII’s great-granddaughter Mary never grasped that even royalty must win the people’s respect.

In two parts

1560-1587
Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
Music: George Frideric Handel

From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image. Source

About this picture …

Detail from ‘The Return of Mary Queen of Scots to Edinburgh’, painted in 1870 by James Drummond (1817-1877). Notwithstanding the title, the scene shows Mary leaving Edinburgh on 17th June 1567, having resigned her throne to her infant son James VI, and bound for imprisonment in Lochleven Castle. She escaped, was defeated at Langside, and fled to England. More at National Galleries Scotland.

Mary Queen of Scots

Part 1 of 2

Perhaps it was spending her formative years in the French court that did it, but after the teenage widow came back to be Queen of Scots, she never seemed to understand that on this side of the Channel, people-power was on the rise, and royalty could no longer behave as they pleased.

JAMES V of Scotland enraged his uncle, Henry VIII of England, by refusing to support the spread of Protestantism, and paid for it with defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542.* James, broken-hearted, died shortly after, leaving his crown to his infant daughter Mary, barely a week old.

At the age of six, Mary was packed off to the French court, and in 1559 married the young King Francis II. Sadly, he died the following year; and now that the dowager Queen of Scots, Mary of Guise, was also gone, her sixteen-year-old Catholic daughter returned to Scotland to a decidedly chilly reception from the Protestant Lords of the Congregation who had assumed effective control.

But the poor judgment that was so characteristic of Mary now intruded. Her first mistake was marrying her handsome but peacock-vain cousin Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley, in 1565; her second, having realised her folly, was to engage the equally handsome Italian musician David Rizzio as confidential secretary.

Jump to Part 2

Henry VII’s daughter Margaret, sister of Henry VIII, married James IV of Scotland in 1503. Their son James V married Mary of Guise in 1538, and Mary Queen of Scots was their daughter.

** After James IV died in 1513, his widow Margaret (Henry VII’s daughter) married Archibald Douglas. Their daughter Margaret Douglas married Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox, and Henry was their son. So Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stewart were cousins.

Précis

Mary Queen of Scots was a great-granddaughter of Henry VII. After her husband, Francis II of France, died young, she returned as Queen to Scotland but she was a Catholic in an increasingly Protestant country. By 1566, a disastrousmarriage to her cousin Henry, Lord Darnley, and her friendship with Italian musician David Rizzio had increased the tension to breaking-point. (58 / 60 words)

Part Two

© Otter, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source

About this picture …

The ruins of Loch Leven Castle just north of Edinburgh. Mary Queen of Scots was confined here following her forced abdication in 1567, but escaped the following year with the connivance of the owner, George Douglas.

ON March 9th, 1566, Darnley made his pregnant wife watch as David Rizzio was savagely knifed to death. The following February, Darnley himself was found strangled amid the wreck of an explosion at his Edinburgh lodgings.

Just three months afterwards, Mary married James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, universally suspected of Darnley’s murder.* Disgusted, the Scots handed the crown to her infant son, James, and confined Mary in Lochleven Castle. She escaped, but following defeat at Langside in 1568 fled to England and her cousin, Elizabeth I.**

For two decades, the disgraced Queen was passed around England’s castles, attracting scandal and conspiracy; yet Elizabeth was loth to execute an anointed Christian monarch. She signed the order on February 1st, 1587, but felt sufficiently guilty to send her secretary, William Davison, to the Tower for carrying it out.

And Mary was, after all, family. When Elizabeth died in 1603, young James VI of Scotland was her closest living relative, and Darnley’s boy became James I of England.

Copy Book

It is not clear how much choice Mary was given. Bothwell’s men probably kidnapped her, and he may have raped her; the marriage service was Protestant, hardly Mary’s style, and Bothwell’s political support was not what Mary may have been led to believe.

** Henry VII’s daughter Margaret, sister of Henry VIII, married James IV of Scotland in 1503. Mary Queen of Scots was their granddaughter. Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn in 1533. Elizabeth I was their daughter. So Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots were cousins once removed.

Précis

Mary’s jealous husband murdered Rizzio, and was murdered in turn. When Mary married the prime suspect, the Scots made her resign her crown to her infant son James, and drove Mary into exile in England. Persistent intrigues eventually induced Elizabeth I to execute her cousin, but in 1603 Mary’s son James nevertheless inherited Elizabeth’s English crown. (55 / 60 words)

Suggested Music

1 2

Violin Sonata Op. 1 No. 12 in F major

2: Allegro

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Performed by Andrew Manze (violin) and Richard Egarr (harpsichord).

Media not showing? Let me know!

Violin Sonata Op. 1 No. 12 in F major

1: Adagio

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Performed by Andrew Manze (violin) and Richard Egarr (harpsichord).

Media not showing? Let me know!

Related Posts

for Mary Queen of Scots

Tudor Era

The Plea of Pocahontas

In 1607, settler Captain John Smith was captured by the Algonquin near the English colony at Jamestown, and watched his captors’ ceremonies with rising anxiety.

Tudor Era

No Smoke Without Fire

Sir Walter Raleigh was within his rights to experiment with the Native American habit of smoking tobacco, but he should have told his servants first.

Tudor Era

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh’s first attempt to found an English colony in the New World failed, but two years later he was keen to try again.

Mediaeval History

Flodden Edge

The Scots paid a heavy price for honouring their ‘Auld Alliance’ with France.

Tudor Era (38)
All Stories (1522)
Worksheets (14)
Word Games (5)