Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley by Alison Weir

She read poetry, history, and theology in several languages. Magnusson imparts, too, that Mary's life was not all frivolous. There were much dancing and merry-making, much playing of billiards, cards, and dice late into the night, and much riding and hunting during the day.' It was crowded with scholars, poets, artists, and musicians. He describes it as: 'a glittering, cosmopolitan Renaissance court in the style of.

She did not ratify the Reformation Act of 1560, but she made no attempt to revoke it.įollowing her return, the royal court was once again, according to Magnusson, the focus of the cultural life of the kingdom. Though she continued to practice her Catholic religion privately, she scrupulously showed no favors to her fellow Catholics. Predictably, the religious issue became an obstacle in Mary's reign, and she recognized immediately that in order to avoid rebellion she would reconcile the interests of her Catholic and Protestant nobles. The Catholic religion, in which she has been strictly educated, was a great blemish in the eyes of her people. Her youth, for she was only 18 when she returned to Scotland, increased the liveliness of her disposition. Magnusson speculates that Darnley had tried to escape just before the blast but had been intercepted by his murderer before he could flee. Curiously, he appeared not to have been killed by the explosion but by strangulation. But, in an adjoining garden beside a pear tree, townsmen found Darnley's nightgown-clad corpse. And at around 2 am the building exploded, a blast heard and felt throughout Edinburgh.Īccording to Scottish historian Magnus Magnusson, nothing was left of the building. Unknown to Darnley and perhaps unknown to Mary, miscreants had for some time been packing the cellars of Kirk o' Field with enough gunpowder to blow the structure to smithereens. Across the city, Queen Mary and the baby prince were safely ensconced at Holyrood House. For weeks he had rested there, convalescing from either smallpox or syphilis. On a Sunday morning in February 1567, Darnley lay sleeping on the upper floor of an Edinburgh house known as Kirk o' Field. Engraved by H.Robinson and published in ''Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain'',UK,1829. King consort of Scotland during 1565-1567. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1545-1567) on engraving from 1829.

Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley by Alison Weir