The murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, took place on 10 February 1567 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Darnley's lodgings were destroyed by gunpowder; his body and that of his servant were found nearby, apparently having been strangled rather than killed in the explosion. Suspicion was placed upon Queen Mary and the Earl of Bothwell, whom Mary went on to marry three months after Darnley's murder. Bothwell was indicted for treason and acquitted, but six of his servants and acquaintances were subsequently arrested, tried, and executed for the crime.
Darnley was murdered at the "Old Provost's House" of the Kirk o' Field (formally, St Mary in the Fields).[1] The kirk was named for its original situation outside the early town walls, in fields to the south. It was founded by the Augustinians of Holyrood Abbey. First mentioned in 1275, it became a collegiate church before 1511, with a provost, ten prebendaries and two choristers,[2] and was enclosed within the city with the building of the adjacent Flodden Wall along the south boundary of the church grounds in 1513. The Old Provost's House was built against this wall. The kirk's hospital, built against the north boundary of the grounds, succumbed to the Burning of Edinburgh in 1544, the kirk building itself to the Reformation, in 1558.[1][3]James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, built a mansion on the site of the hospital in around 1552, this became known as the Duke's Lugeing (lodging), or Hamilton House.[1][2] Kirk o' Field was approximately ten minutes' walk from Holyrood Palace, near to the Cowgate.
The lands at Kirk o' Field were later granted to the city by charters from King James VI in 1582, specifically for the foundation of a new university, the Tounis College. Hamilton House was then incorporated as the first major building of the University of Edinburgh. The Old Provost's House was adjacent to the Flodden Wall, and is generally thought to have stood at the current south east corner of the Old College, at the junction between South College Street and South Bridge (the National Museum of Scotland is sited to the west of the Old College).[1][2] During archaeological investigations following the Cowgate fire of 2002, a genealogist raised questions about the exact location of the house.[4]
Assassination
On his return to Edinburgh with Queen Mary early in 1567, Darnley took residence in the Old Provost's lodging, a two-storey house within the church quadrangle. The house was owned by Robert Balfour, whose brother Sir James Balfour was a prominent councillor of Queen Mary. Adjacent was the lodging of James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault. At first Darnley's household thought he would be accommodated in the Hamilton Lodging.
Mary, Queen of Scots visited Darnley from Holyroodhouse. His chamber servant Thomas Nelson mentioned how the queen and Margaret Beaton, Lady Reres would play and sing in the garden at night time.[6]:501 On the night that Darnley was killed, Mary attended the wedding banquet and masque for her servant Bastian Pagez and Christily Hog at Holyrood, and then visited the Kirk o' Field lodging.[7] According to one narrative of the events, Mary was dressed in men's clothing on that night, "which apparel she loved oftentimes to be in, in dancings secretly with the King her husband, and going in masks by night through the street".[8][9] Costumed performances at weddings were not unusual at the Scottish court.[10]
Early in the morning of 10 February, the house was destroyed by a gunpowder explosion. The partially clothed bodies of Darnley and his servant were found in a nearby orchard, apparently either smothered or strangled but unharmed by the explosion. Another servant was killed in the house by the explosion. The blast was so powerful, it was said, that:
"The house quhair umquhill the Kingis Grace wes ludgeit, was in ane instant blawin up in the air with sic a force and vehemencie, that of the haill ludgeing, walles and uthir, their is na thing left unruinated and doung in drosse to the verie ground stane"
The house where the late King's Grace was lodged, was in an instant blown up in the air, with such a force and vehemency, that of the whole lodgings, walls and other, there is nothing left which is not ruined and struck down in fragments to the very foundation stone[11]
Three witnesses made sworn statements on the following day. Barbara Mertine said she was looking out of the window of her house in Friar's Wynd, and heard 13 men go through the Friar Gate into Cowgate and up Friar's Wynd. Then she heard the explosion, the "craik", and 11 more men went by. She shouted after them that they were traitors after an "evill turn." May Crokat lived opposite Mertine, under the Master of Maxwell's lodging. Crokat was in bed with her twins and heard the explosion. She ran to the door in her shirt and saw the 11 men. Crokat grabbed at one man and asked about the explosion, receiving no answer. John Petcarne, a surgeon who lived in the same street heard nothing, but was summoned to attend Francisco de Busso, an Italian servant of Queen Mary.[12]:307–8[13]
Later, James Melville of Halhill wrote in his Memoirs that a page said Darnley was taken out of the house before the explosion and was choked to death in a stable with a serviette in his mouth, then left under a tree. Melville went to Holyroodhouse the next day and spoke to the Earl of Bothwell, who told him that thunder or a flash had come out of the sky, saying "souder came out of the luft", and burnt the house and there was "not a hurt nor a mark" on the body.[14] Melville said that the royal servant Alexander Durham (of Duntarvie) kept the body and stopped him seeing it.[15]
On 12 February the Privy Council issued a proclamation that the first to reveal the names of the conspirators and participants in the murder would be pardoned, if they were involved, and have a reward of £2,000.[16]
Aftermath
Accused of the murder, the Earl of Bothwell escaped to Norway, but was imprisoned for the rest of his life at Dragsholm in Denmark and buried at Fårevejle Church, shown above.
According to his statement, the next morning the queen's servant Nicolas Hubert, known as French Paris, came to the queen's bedchamber at Holyrood Palace to hang her bed with black curtains for mourning and light candles in the "ruelle", a space between the bed and the wall. A lady in waiting, Madame de Bryant gave him a fried egg for his breakfast. He noticed her speaking privately with James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, concealed behind a curtain.[17]
Suspicion was placed upon Queen Mary and the Earl of Bothwell. Although Bothwell was accused of being the lead conspirator in Lord Darnley's murder by Lord Lennox, he was found not guilty in April 1567 by the Privy council of Scotland. After his acquittal, Bothwell made his supporters sign a pledge called the Ainslie Tavern Bond. Queen Mary married Bothwell the following month, three months after Darnley's murder. In her letters, Queen Mary defended her choice of husband, stating that she felt that she and the country were in danger and that Lord Bothwell was proven both in battle and as a defender of Scotland: "...the true occasions which has moved us to take the Duke of Orkney [Bothwell] to husband..."[18][12]:342
Bothwell's enemies, called the Confederate Lords, gained control of Edinburgh and captured the Queen at the battle of Carberry Hill. The Confederate Lords said that their disapproval of the marriage to Bothwell was the cause of their rebellion. Bothwell escaped and sailed to Shetland and then Norway. Four of his men who were already in prison were tortured on 26 June 1567, being "put in the irnis [irons] and turmentis, for furthering the tryall of the veritie." The Privy Council, led by the Earl of Morton, noted this application of torture was a special case, and the method was not to be used in other cases.[19] Mary was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle and persuaded to abdicate.
Darnley's death remains one of the great unsolved historical mysteries, compounded by the controversial Casket letters which were alleged to incriminate Queen Mary in the plot to murder her husband, while Mary's half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, who became Regent of Scotland after Mary's abdication, is reputed to have signed a bond at Craigmillar Castle with other Lords in December 1566 pledging to dispose of Darnley.
Trials and convictions
Old College, University of Edinburgh, replaced the medieval Kirk o' Field buildings, the Flodden Wall formed its south boundary. South Bridge street goes north over the College Gardens which had replaced the church quadrangle, in modern terms the house where the murder occurred was located at the junction between South College Street and South Bridge.
Records of the subsequent trials with statements from the accused and witnesses are an important source of information on the events of February 1567. Most were published in Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland and Malcolm Laing's History of Scotland.[20] The accused were interrogated after Mary's abdication. Alternative theories of the murder have to disregard their evidence. Captain William Blackadder, an associate of Bothwell, was one of the first to be executed on 14 June 1567, although it was said he was only a bystander. Lord Herries wrote in 1656 that Blackadder rushed out of a tavern at the Tron on the Royal Mile at the sound of the explosion and was arrested.[21] He swore he was innocent before an assize made of Lennox men, tenants of Darnley's father, and was hanged, drawn and quartered.[22] In December 1567, John Hepburn of Boltoun (John of Bowtoun), John Hay heir apparent of Tallo, William Powrie and George Dalgleish, all servants of Bothwell, were put on trial. They were condemned to be hanged and quartered. The head of Dalgleish, who had delivered the casket letters to the Earl of Morton, was set on the Netherbow gate of Edinburgh.[6]:488–492
William Powrie had made a statement in June, which describes how he and his companions carried the powder to the King's Lodging. He included the detail that as they were carrying the empty chests back up Blackfriar's Wynd, they saw the Queen and her party, "going before thame with lit torches."[6]:493 Thomas Nelson, a servant in Darnley's bedchamber noted that it was first thought they would go to stay at Craigmillar Castle, then the Duke's Lodging at Kirk o' Field. When they arrived at the Provost's Lodging, Mary made her servant Servais de Condé provide hangings for the chamber and a new black velvet bed. Robert Balfour, the owner, gave Nelson the keys, except those of the door in the cellar which exited south through the town wall. After a couple of nights the Queen had the black bed replaced with an old purple one, because bath water might spoil the new bed, and she put a green bed for herself in a lower (laich) chamber.[6]:501–2George Buchanan argued in the "Book of Articles" and his History of Scotland published in 1582, that this substitution for the new bed proved Mary's involvement in the murder.[23]
The French valet, Nicolas Hubert, called Paris, said that Bothwell came to the lodging with Mary, and making the excuse that he needed the toilet, took Paris aside and asked him for the keys. Paris explained that it was not his role to hold the keys. Bothwell told him of his plans. Paris was troubled by the conversation, and went to pace up and down in St Giles Kirk. Fearful of the conspiracy he considered taking ship at Leith. In his second interrogation Paris named Captain Blackadder, who had already been executed. Paris was executed on 16 August 1567.[6]:503–511
Some conspiracy theories
One longstanding theory is the suggestion that the Earls of Morton and Moray were behind the murder, directing Bothwell's actions, to forward Moray's ambitions. These Earls made a denial of their involvement in their lifetime. The later and partisan Memoirs written by John Maxwell, Lord Herries in 1656, follow and develop this line of reasoning. Herries, after considering the arguments of previous writers, believed that Mary herself was innocent of involvement, and the two Earls arranged her marriage to Bothwell.[24]
After the explosion, Sir William Drury reported to the English Secretary of StateWilliam Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, that James Balfour had purchased gunpowder worth 60 pounds Scots shortly beforehand.[18] Balfour could have stored the powder at the property next-door, also owned by the Balfours, and then mined the prince's lodgings by moving the powder from one cellar to the next.[18][12]:295 However, this James Balfour was the captain of Edinburgh Castle and was likely to buy powder for use at the Castle.
The home of James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, lay in the same quadrangle, and Hamilton was an old enemy of Darnley's family, as they had competing claims in the line of succession to the Scottish throne. Hamilton was also related to the Douglas family, who were no friends of Darnley either. There is no shortage of suspects, and the full facts of the murder have never been deduced.
Sketches sent to England
A contemporary drawing of the murder scene at Kirk o' Field includes at the top left the infant James VI sitting up in his cot praying, "Judge and avenge my cause, O Lord". In the centre lie the rubble remains of the house; to the right Darnley and his servant lie dead in the orchard; below, the townspeople of Edinburgh gather round and four soldiers remove a body for burial. The artist was employed by Sir William Drury, Marshall of Berwick, who sent the sketch to England.[25][26]
The sketch includes several cryptic elements. At first it appears to be an eye-witness account of the murder scene. However the infant James was not present, nor could he speak the words attributed to him at the time. Thus the image changes by its inclusion from an eye-witness account, to a propaganda poster, as an allegory. This same motto and a similar image of father and son was used on the banner of the rebel Confederate Lords, first displayed at Edinburgh castle,[27] then at the battle of Carberry Hill. This banner was described by the French ambassador, Philibert du Croc, and a sketch of the banner was also sent to England. The drawing shows the town wall and the open door to the lodging (mentioned in Thomas Nelson's statement) in the background.[28] A mystery in the Kirk o' Field plan may be the image of the mounted riders in the far right picture. Some riders at night were mentioned a week later as being a band of men led by Andrew Kerr who were present the night of the murder. It is unclear how the artist drawing the scene the following day knew to include the image of these night riders, if such they are, not known to be present until a week later.[18][12]:293
A placard was created and distributed throughout Edinburgh which portrayed Mary as a seductive mermaid. The author of the mermaid placard was never identified, and again a copy was sent to England.[29]
Related Research Articles
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the father of James VI of Scotland and I of England. Through his parents, he had claims to both the Scottish and English thrones, and from his marriage in 1565 he was king consort of Scotland. Less than a year after the birth of his son, Darnley was murdered at Kirk o' Field in 1567. Many contemporary narratives describing his life and death refer to him as simply Lord Darnley, his title as heir apparent to the Earldom of Lennox.
James Hepburn, 1st Duke of Orkney and 4th Earl of Bothwell, better known simply as Lord Bothwell, was a prominent Scottish nobleman. He was known for his marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, as her third and final husband. He was accused of the murder of Mary's second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a charge of which he was acquitted. His marriage to Mary was controversial and divided the country; when he fled the growing rebellion to Norway, he was arrested and lived the rest of his life imprisoned in Denmark.
David Rizzio or Riccio was an Italian courtier, born in Pancalieri close to Turin, a descendant of an ancient and noble family still living in Piedmont, the Riccio Counts di San Paolo e Solbrito, who rose to become the private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, is said to have been jealous of their friendship because of rumours that Rizzio had impregnated Mary, and he joined in a conspiracy of Protestant nobles to murder him, led by Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven. Mary was having dinner with Rizzio and a few ladies-in-waiting when Darnley joined them, accused his wife of adultery and then had a group murder Rizzio, who was hiding behind Mary. Mary was held at gunpoint and Rizzio was stabbed numerous times. His body took 57 dagger wounds. The murder was the catalyst of the downfall of Darnley, and had serious consequences for Mary's subsequent reign.
James Balfour, Lord Pittendreich (c. 1525–1583) was a Scottish legal writer, judge and politician.
George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, was Lord Chancellor of Scotland and major conspirator of his time.
The Casket letters were eight letters and some sonnets said to have been written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Earl of Bothwell, between January and April 1567. They were produced as evidence against Queen Mary by the Scottish lords who opposed her rule. In particular, the text of the letters was taken to imply that Queen Mary colluded with Bothwell in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley. Mary's contemporary supporters, including Adam Blackwood, dismissed them as complete forgeries or letters written by the Queen's servant Mary Beaton. The authenticity of the letters, now known only by copies, continues to be debated. Some historians argue that they were forgeries concocted in order to discredit Queen Mary and ensure that Queen Elizabeth I supported the kingship of the infant James VI of Scotland, rather than his mother. The historian John Hungerford Pollen, in 1901, by comparing two genuine letters drafted by Mary, presented a subtle argument that the various surviving copies and translations of the casket letters could not be used as evidence of their original authorship by Mary.
Archibald Douglas, Parson of Douglas, was also Parson of Glasgow, a Senator of the College of Justice, Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and a notorious intriguer.
The Battle of Carberry Hill took place on 15 June 1567, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, a few miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland. A number of Scottish lords objected to the rule of Mary, Queen of Scots, after she had married the Earl of Bothwell, who was widely believed to have murdered her previous husband Lord Darnley. The Lords were intent to avenge Darnley's death. However, Bothwell escaped from the stand-off at Carberry while Queen Mary surrendered. Mary abdicated, escaped from prison, and was defeated at the battle of Langside. She went to exile in England while her supporters continued a civil war in Scotland.
Elizabeth Keith, Countess of Huntly, was a Scottish noblewoman and the wife of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, Scotland's leading Catholic magnate during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1562, Elizabeth encouraged her husband to raise forces against Queen Mary which led to his being outlawed, and after his death, his titles forfeited to the Crown. Elizabeth's son Sir John Gordon was executed for having taken part in his father's rebellion.
Anne Hamilton, Countess of Huntly, was a Scottish noblewoman and a member of the powerful Hamilton family which had a strong claim to the Scottish crown. Her father James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, 2nd Earl of Arran was heir presumptive to the throne of Scotland after Mary, Queen of Scots prior to the birth of the latter's son Prince James in 1566. Anne was the wife of George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, Lord Chancellor of Scotland and a chief conspirator during the reign of Queen Mary.
Jean Hepburn, Lady Darnley, Mistress of Caithness, Lady Morham was a Scottish noblewoman and a member of the Border clan of Hepburn. Her brother was James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Jean's first husband was John Stewart, 1st Lord Darnley, an illegitimate half-brother of Queen Mary, which made Jean a double sister-in-law of the queen. Jean married three times. She was also Lady of Morham, having received in 1573 the barony of Morham and lands which had belonged to her mother, Lady Agnes Sinclair and was forfeited to the Crown subsequent to her brother, the Earl of Bothwell's attainder for treason.
Whittingehame Tower, or Whittingehame Castle, is a fifteenth-century tower house about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of East Linton, on the west bank of Whittinghame Water in East Lothian, Scotland.
The Ainslie Tavern Bond was a document signed on about 20 April 1567 by a number of Scottish bishops and nobles. The bond approved the Earl of Bothwell's acquittal on 12 April of implication in the murder of Lord Darnley, recommended him as an appropriate husband for Mary, Queen of Scots, and pledged to assist in defending such a marriage.
Margaret Carwood, was a maid-of-honour at the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. Her wedding to John Stewart of Fincastle was celebrated at the time of the murder of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, the Queen's consort.
Bastian Pagez was a French servant and musician at the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was born in Auvergne. He devised part of the entertainment at the baptism of Prince James at Stirling Castle in 1566. When Mary was exiled in England, Bastian and his family continued in her service. The 19th-century historians Agnes Strickland and William Barclay Turnbull considered his court role as equivalent to the English Master of the Revels; in England he was Mary's chamber valet and designed her embroidery patterns.
Patrick Lindsay, 6th Lord Lindsay of the Byres, (1521–1589), Scottish courtier and Confederate lord.
Margaret Beaton, Lady Reres was a Scottish courtier and companion of Mary of Guise and Mary, Queen of Scots. She was blamed by the enemies of Mary, Queen of Scots, for her involvement in alleged immorality at court.
The Collegiate Church of St Mary in the Fields was a pre-Reformation collegiate church in Edinburgh, Scotland. Likely founded in the 13th century and secularised at the Reformation, the church's site is now covered by Old College.
Arthur Erskine of Blackgrange was a Scottish courtier.
The Book of Articles is a list of allegations against Mary, Queen of Scots and James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. The document was produced for the Westminster Conference in December 1568. The manuscript, held by the British Library, was written by Alexander Hay of Easter Kennett, and is sometimes known as Hay's Articles. The material resembles George Buchanan's published Detection and his Indictment of Mary. The text was published by John Hosack in 1869.
↑ Alison Weir, Mary Queen of Scots: And the Murder of Lord Darnley (Vintage, 2008), p. 244: Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power (London: Sceptre, 2022).
↑ Gordon Donaldson, The first trial of Mary, Queen of Scots (New York: Stein and Day, 1969), 169: R. H. Mahon, Mary, Queen of Scots, a study of the Lennox Narrative (Cambridge, 1924), 99, 130.
↑ Lord Herries, Historical memoirs of the reign of Mary queen of Scots and a portion of the reign of king James the Sixth (Edinburgh, 1837), p. 84.
↑ Thomas Thomson, Diurnal of Occurrents (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 114–5.
↑ James Aikman, George Buchanan's History of Scotland, vol. 2 (Glasgow, 1827), 493: Gordon Donaldson, The first trial of Mary, Queen of Scots (New York: Stein and Day, 1969), 168: Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power (Sceptre, 2020), 188-9.
↑ A. Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, vol. 7 (London, Dolman, 1852), p. 121, M. Du Croc to Charles IX, 17 June 1567: Calendar of State Papers Foreign, Elizabeth, vol. 8: 1566–1568 (London, 1871), pp. 241–252 no. 1300.
↑ Calendar of State Papers Foreign, Elizabeth, vol. 8: 1566–1568 (1871), pp. 241–252: illustrated in David Loades, Elizabeth I (London: National Archives, 2003), p. 73.
Weir, Alison (2004). Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley. London: Pimlico. ISBN0-7126-6456-4.
Armstrong Davidson, Meredith H. (1965). The Casket Letters: A Solution to the Mystery of Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley. Washington DC: University Press. ASINB0000CMRLB.
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