On August 19, 1561, in a dense fog, and almost unexpected and unwelcomed,
Mary landed in Leith. She had told the English ambassador to France that
she would constrain none of her subjects in religion, and hoped to be
unconstrained. Her first act was to pardon some artisans, under censure
for a Robin Hood frolic: her motive, says Knox, was her knowledge that
they had acted "in despite of religion."
The Lord James had stipulated that she might have her Mass in her private
chapel. Her priest was mobbed by the godly; on the following Sunday Knox
denounced her Mass, and had his first interview with her later. In vain
she spoke of her conscience; Knox said that it was unenlightened.
Lethington wished that he would "deal more gently with a young princess
unpersuaded." There were three or four later interviews, but Knox,
strengthened by a marriage with a girl of sixteen, daughter of Lord
Ochiltree, a Stewart, was proof against the queen's fascination. In
spite of insults to her faith offered even at pageants of welcome, Mary
kept her temper, and, for long, cast in her lot with Lethington and her
brother, whose hope was to reconcile her with Elizabeth.
The Court was gay with riotous young French nobles, well mated with
Bothwell, who, though a Protestant, had sided with Mary of Guise during
the brawls of 1559. He was now a man of twenty-seven, profligate,
reckless, a conqueror of hearts, a speaker of French, a ruffian, and well
educated.
In December it was arranged that the old bishops and other high clerics
should keep two-thirds of their revenues, the other third to be divided
between the preachers and the queen, "between God and the devil," says
Knox. Thenceforth there was a rift between the preachers and the
politicians, Lethington and Lord James (now Earl of Mar), on whom Mary
leaned. The new Earl of Mar was furtively created Earl of Murray and
enjoyed the gift after the overthrow of Huntly.
In January 1562 Mary asked for an interview with Elizabeth. Certainly
Lethington hoped that Elizabeth "would be able to do much with Mary in
religion," meaning that, if Mary's claims to succeed Elizabeth were
granted, she might turn Anglican. The request for a meeting, dallied
with but never granted, occupied diplomatists, while, at home, Arran
(March 31) accused Bothwell of training him into a plot to seize Mary's
person. Arran probably told truth, but he now went mad; Bothwell was
imprisoned in the castle till his escape to England in August 1562.
Lethington, in June, was negotiating for Mary's interview with Elizabeth;
Knox bitterly opposed it; the preachers feared that the queen would turn
Anglican, and bishops might be let loose in Scotland. The masques for
Mary's reception were actually being organised, when, in July, Elizabeth,
on the pretext of persecutions by the Guises in France, broke off the
negotiations.
The rest of the year was occupied by an affair of which the origins are
obscure. Mary, with her brother and Lethington, made a progress into the
north, were affronted by and attacked Huntly, who died suddenly (October
28) at the fight of Corrichie; seized a son of his, who was executed
(November 2), and spoiled his castle which contained much of the property
of the Church of Aberdeen. Mary's motives for destroying her chief
Catholic subject are not certainly known. Her brother, Lord James, in
February made Earl of Mar, now received the lands and title of Earl of
Murray. At some date in this year Knox preached against Mary because she
gave a dance. He chose to connect her dance with some attack on the
Huguenots in France. According to 'The Book of Discipline' he should
have remonstrated privately, as Mary told him. The dates are
inextricable. (See my 'John Knox and the Reformation,' pp. 215-218.)
Till the spring of 1565 the main business was the question of the queen's
marriage. This continued to divide the ruling Protestant nobles from the
preachers. Knox dreaded an alliance with Spain, a marriage with Don
Carlos. But Elizabeth, to waste time, offered Mary the hand of Lord
Robert Dudley (Leicester), and, strange as it appears, Mary would
probably have accepted him, as late as 1565, for Elizabeth let it be
understood that to marry a Catholic prince would be the signal for war,
while Mary hoped that, if she accepted Elizabeth's favourite, Dudley, she
would be acknowledged as Elizabeth's heiress. Mary was young, and showed
little knowledge of the nature of woman.
In 1563 came the affair of Chatelard, a French minor poet, a Huguenot
apparently, who, whether in mere fatuity or to discredit Mary, hid
himself under her bed at Holyrood, and again at Burntisland. Mary had
listened to his rhymes, had danced with him, and smiled on him, but
Chatelard went too far. He was decapitated in the market street of St
Andrews (Feb. 22, 1563). It is clear, if we may trust Knox's account,
singularly unlike Brantome's, that Chatelard was a Huguenot.
About Easter priests were locked up in Ayrshire, the centre of
Presbyterian fanaticism, for celebrating Mass. This was in accordance
with law, and to soften Knox the girl queen tried her personal influence.
He resisted "the devil"; Mary yielded, and allowed Archbishop Hamilton
and some fifty other clerics to be placed "in prison courteous." The
Estates, which met on May 27 for the first time since the queen landed,
were mollified, but were as far as ever from passing the Book of
Discipline. They did pass a law condemning witches to death, a source of
unspeakable cruelties. Knox and Murray now ceased to be on terms till
their common interests brought them together in 1565.
In June 1563 Elizabeth requested Mary to permit the return to Scotland of
Lennox (the traitor to the national cause and to Cardinal Beaton, and the
rival of the Hamiltons for the succession to the thrones), apparently for
the very purpose of entangling Mary in a marriage with Lennox's son
Darnley, and then thwarting it. (It was not Mary who asked Elizabeth to
send Lennox.) Knox's favourite candidate was Lord Robert Dudley: despite
his notorious character he sometimes favoured the English Puritans. When
Holyrood had been invaded by a mob who, in Mary's absence in autumn 1563,
broke up the Catholic attendants on Mass (such attendance, in Mary's
absence, was illegal), and when both parties were summoned to trial, Knox
called together the godly. The Council cleared him of the charge of
making an unlawful convocation (they might want to make one, any day,
themselves), and he was supported by the General Assembly. Similar
conduct of the preachers thirty years later gave James VI. the
opportunity to triumph over the Kirk.
In June 1564 there was still discord between the Kirk and the Lords, and,
in a long argument with Lethington, Knox maintained the right of the
godly to imitate the slayings of idolaters by Phineas and Jehu: the
doctrine bore blood-red fruits among the later Covenanters. Elizabeth,
in May 1564, in vain asked Mary to withdraw the permission (previously
asked for by her) to allow Lennox to visit Scotland and plead for the
restitution of his lands. The objection to Lennox's appearance had come,
through Randolph, from Knox. "You may cause us to take the Lord
Darnley," wrote Kirkcaldy to Cecil, to stop Elizabeth's systems of
delays; and Sir James Melville, after going on a mission to Elizabeth,
warned Mary that she would never part with her minion, now Earl of
Leicester.
Lennox, in autumn 1564, arrived and was restored to his estates, while
Leicester and Cecil worked for the sending of his son Darnley to
Scotland. Leicester had no desire to desert Elizabeth's Court and his
chance of touching her maiden heart.
The intrigues of Cecil, Leicester, and Elizabeth resemble rather a
chapter in a novel than a page in history. Elizabeth notoriously hated
and, when she could, thwarted all marriages. She desired that Mary
should never marry: a union with a Catholic prince she vetoed,
threatening war; and Leicester she offered merely "to drive time." But
Mary, evasively tempted by hints, later withdrawn, of her recognition as
Elizabeth's successor, was, till the end of March 1565, encouraged by
Randolph, the English ambassador at her Court, to remain in hope of
wedding Leicester.
Randolph himself was not in the secret of the English intrigue, which was
to slip Darnley at Mary. He came (February 1565): Cecil and Leicester
had "used earnest means" to ensure his coming. On March 17 Mary was
informed that she would never be recognised as Elizabeth's successor till
events should occur which never could occur. On receiving this news Mary
wept; she also was indignant at the long and humiliating series of
Elizabeth's treacheries. Her patience broke down; she turned to Darnley,
thereby, as the English intriguers designed, breaking up the concord of
her nobles. To marry Darnley involved the feud of the Hamiltons, and the
return of Murray (whom Darnley had offended), of Chatelherault, Argyll,
and many other nobles to the party of Knox and the preachers. Leicester
would have been welcome to Knox; Darnley was a Catholic, if anything, and
a weak passionate young fool. Mary, in the clash of interests, was a
lost woman, as Randolph truly said, with sincere pity. Her long
endurance, her attempts to "run the English course," were wasted.
David Riccio, who came to Scotland as a musician in 1561, was now high in
her and in Darnley's favour. Murray was accused of a conspiracy to seize
Darnley and Lennox; the godly began to organise an armed force (June
1565); Mary summoned from exile Bothwell, a man of the sword. On July
29th she married Darnley, and on August 6th Murray, who had refused to
appear to answer the charges of treason brought against him, though a
safe-conduct was offered, was outlawed and proclaimed a rebel, while
Huntly's son, Lord George, was to be restored to his estates. Thus
everything seemed to indicate that Mary had been exasperated into
breaking with the party of moderation, the party of Murray and
Lethington, and been driven into courses where her support, if any, must
come from France and Rome. Yet she married without waiting for the
necessary dispensation from the Pope. Her policy was henceforth
influenced by her favour to Riccio, and by the jealous and arrogant
temper of her husband. Mary well knew that Elizabeth had sent money to
her rebels, whom she now pursued all through the south of Scotland; they
fled from Edinburgh, where the valiant Brethren, brave enough in throwing
stones at pilloried priests, refused to join them; and despite the feuds
in her own camp, where Bothwell and Darnley were already on the worst
terms, Mary drove the rebel lords across the Border at Carlisle on
October 8.
Mary seemed triumphant, but the men with her--Lethington, and Morton the
Chancellor--were disaffected; Darnley was mutinous: he thought himself
neglected; he and his father resented Mary's leniency to Chatelherault,
who had submitted and been sent to France; all parties hated Riccio.
There was to be a Parliament early in March 1566. In February Mary sent
the Bishop of Dunblane to Rome to ask for a subsidy; she intended to
reintroduce the Spiritual Estate into the House as electors of the Lords
of the Articles, "tending to have done some good anent the restoring of
the old religion." The Nuncio who was to have brought the Pope's money
later insisted that Mary should take the heads of Murray, Argyle, Morton,
and Lethington! Whether she aimed at securing more than tolerance for
Catholics is uncertain; but the Parliament, in which the exiled Lords
were to be forfeited, was never held. The other nobles would never
permit such a measure.
George Douglas, a stirring cadet of the great House was exciting
Darnley's jealousy of Riccio, but already Randolph (February 5, 1566) had
written to Cecil that "the wisest were aiming at putting all in hazard"
to restore the exiled Lords. The nobles, in the last resort, would all
stand by each other: there was now a Douglas plot of the old sort to
bring back the exiles; and Darnley, with his jealous desire to murder
Riccio, was but the cat's-paw to light the train and explode Mary and her
Government. Ruthven, whom Mary had always distrusted, came into the
conspiracy. Through Randolph all was known in England. "Bands" were
drawn up, signed by Argyll (safe in his own hills), Murray, Glencairn,
Rothes, Boyd, Ochiltree (the father of Knox's young wife), and Darnley.
His name was put forward; his rights and succession were secured against
the Hamiltons; Protestantism, too, was to be defended. Many Douglases,
many of the Lothian gentry, were in the plot. Murray was to arrive from
England as soon as Riccio had been slain and Mary had been seized.
Randolph knew all and reported to Elizabeth's ministers.
The plan worked with mechanical precision. On March 9 Morton and his
company occupied Holyrood, going up the great staircase about eight at
night; while Darnley and Ruthven, a dying man, entered the queen's supper-
room by a privy stair. Morton's men burst in, Riccio was dragged forth,
and died under forty daggers. Bothwell, Atholl, and Huntly, partisans of
Mary, escaped from the palace; with them Mary managed to communicate on
the morrow, when she also held talk with Murray, who had returned with
the other exiles. She had worked on the fears and passions of Darnley;
by promises of amnesty the Lords were induced to withdraw their guards
next day, and in the following night, by a secret passage, and through
the tombs of kings, Mary and Darnley reached the horses brought by Arthur
Erskine.
It was a long dark ride to Dunbar, but there Mary was safe. She pardoned
and won over Glencairn, whom she liked, and Rothes; Bothwell and Huntly
joined her with a sufficient force, Ruthven and Morton fled to Berwick
(Ruthven was to die in England), and Knox hastened into Kyle in Ayrshire.
Darnley, who declared his own innocence and betrayed his accomplices, was
now equally hated and despised by his late allies and by the queen and
Murray,--indeed, by all men, chiefly by Morton and Argyll. Lethington
was in hiding; but he was indispensable, and in September was reconciled
to Mary.
On June 19, in Edinburgh Castle, she bore her child, later James VI.; on
her recovery Darnley was insolent, and was the more detested, while
Bothwell was high in favour. In October most of the Lords signed, with
Murray, a band for setting Darnley aside--_not_ for his murder. He is
said to have denounced Mary to Spain, France, and Rome for neglecting
Catholic interests. In mid-October Mary was seriously ill at Jedburgh,
where Bothwell, wounded in an encounter with a Border reiver, was
welcomed, while Darnley, coldly received, went to his father's house on
the Forth. On her recovery Mary resided in the last days of November at
Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh. Here Murray, Argyll, Bothwell,
Huntly, and Lethington held counsel with her as to Darnley. Lethington
said that "a way would be found," a way that Parliament would approve,
while Murray would "look through his fingers." Lennox believed that the
plan was to arrest Darnley on some charge, and slay him if he resisted.
At Stirling (December 17), when the young prince was baptised with
Catholic rites, Darnley did not appear; he sulked in his own rooms. A
week later, the exiles guilty of Riccio's murder were recalled, among
them Morton; and Darnley, finding all his enemies about to be united,
went to Glasgow, where he fell ill of smallpox. Mary offered a visit
(she had had the malady as a child), and was rudely rebuffed (January 1-
13, 1567), but she was with him by January 21. From Glasgow, at this
time, was written the long and fatal letter to Bothwell, which places
Mary's guilt in luring Darnley to his death beyond doubt, if we accept
the letters as authentic. {129}
Darnley was carried in a litter to the lonely house of Kirk o' Field, on
the south wall of Edinburgh. Here Mary attended him in his sickness. On
Sunday morning, February 9, Murray left Edinburgh for Fife. In the night
of Sunday 9-Monday 10, the house where Darnley lay was blown up by
gunpowder, and he, with an attendant, was found dead in the garden: how
he was slain is not known.
That Bothwell, in accordance with a band signed by himself, Huntly,
Argyll, and Lethington, and aided by some Border ruffians, laid and
exploded the powder is certain. Morton was apprised by Lethington and
Bothwell of the plot, but refused to join it without Mary's written
commission, which he did not obtain. Against the queen there is no
trustworthy direct evidence (if we distrust her alleged letters to
Bothwell), but her conduct in protecting and marrying Bothwell (who was
really in love with his wife) shows that she did not disapprove. The
trial of Bothwell was a farce; Mary's abduction by him (April 24) and
retreat with him to Dunbar was collusive. She married Bothwell on May
15. Her nobles, many of whom had signed a document urging her to marry
Bothwell, rose against her; on June 15, 1567, she surrendered to them at
Carberry Hill, while they, several of them deep in the murder plot, were
not sorry to let Bothwell escape to Dunbar. After some piratical
adventures, being pursued by Kirkcaldy he made his way to Denmark, where
he died a prisoner.
Mary, first carried to Edinburgh and there insulted by the populace, was
next hurried to Lochleven Castle. Her alleged letters to Bothwell were
betrayed to the Lords (June 21), probably through Sir James Balfour, who
commanded in Edinburgh Castle. Perhaps Murray (who had left for France
before the marriage to Bothwell), perhaps fear of Elizabeth, or human
pity, induced her captors, contrary to the counsel of Lethington, to
spare her life, when she had signed her abdication, while they crowned
her infant son. Murray accepted the Regency; a Parliament in December
established the Kirk; acquitted themselves of rebellion; and announced
that they had proof of Mary's guilt in her own writing. Her romantic
escape from Lochleven (May 2, 1568) gave her but an hour of freedom.
Defeated on her march to Dumbarton Castle in the battle of Langside Hill,
she lost heart and fled to the coast of Galloway; on May 16 crossed the
Solway to Workington in Cumberland; and in a few days was Elizabeth's
prisoner in Carlisle Castle.
Mary had hitherto been a convinced but not a very obedient daughter of
the Church; for example, it appears that she married Darnley before the
arrival of the Pope's dispensation. At this moment Philip of Spain, the
French envoy to Scotland, and the French Court had no faith in her
innocence of Darnley's death; and the Pope said "he knew not which of
these ladies were the better"--Mary or Elizabeth. But from this time,
while a captive in England, Mary was the centre of the hopes of English
Catholics: in miniatures she appears as queen, quartering the English
arms; she might further the ends of Spain, of France, of Rome, of English
rebels, while her existence was a nightmare to the Protestants of
Scotland and a peril to Elizabeth.
After Mary's flight, Murray was, as has been said, Regent for the crowned
baby James. In his council were the sensual, brutal, but vigorous
Morton, with Mar, later himself Regent, a man of milder nature;
Glencairn; Ruthven, whom Mary detested--he had tried to make unwelcome
love to her at Lochleven; and "the necessary evil," Lethington. How a
man so wily became a party to the murder of Darnley cannot be known: now
he began to perceive that, if Mary were restored, as he believed that she
would be, his only safety lay in securing her gratitude by secret
services.
On the other side were the Hamiltons with their ablest man, the
Archbishop; the Border spears who were loyal to Bothwell; and two of the
conspirators in the murder of Darnley, Argyll and Huntly; with Fleming
and Herries, who were much attached to Mary. The two parties, influenced
by Elizabeth, did not now come to blows, but awaited the results of
English inquiries into Mary's guilt, and of Elizabeth's consequent
action.