Mary, Queen of Scots
A closer look at the turbulent reign of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Reading time: 8 minutes
On 14 December 1542, Mary, Queen of Scots, aged only six days old, succeeded to the throne of Scotland upon the death of her father, James V. Her reign was short, turbulent and filled with dramatic episodes, many of which took place at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
Mary's life in France
In 1544, Henry VIII invaded Scotland after the Treaty of Greenwich was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland. The treaty agreement stipulated marriage between the infant Mary and Henry’s son, Prince Edward (the future Edward VI). It was intended to unite both kingdoms and weaken French influence in Scotland. Henry feared that a Franco-Scottish alliance would be formed against him, especially as James V’s second wife, Mary of Guise (Mary, Queen of Scots’ mother), belonged to one of the most powerful noble families in France.
Henry’s attempt to secure a union between Mary and his son, initiated a series of wars between England and Scotland known as ‘The Rough Wooing’. During this time, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Holyrood Abbey were repeatedly attacked by English troops. In the face of an increasingly hostile environment, Mary, aged only five years old, was sent to France for safety and to secure French support against the English, leaving her mother to act as Regent for Scotland.
Mary was betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin of France, and they were married in 1558. Following the sudden death of Henry II, King of France, a year later, Mary became queen of France as well as Scotland when her husband succeeded to the throne as Francis II. Back in Scotland, Mary of Guise died in June 1560, and Mary was left bereft when Francis died six months later aged only 16.
In Franćois Clouet's portrait of the 19-year-old Mary (below), she wears a type of aristocratic mourning dress known as ‘en deuil blanc’ to mark the loss of three members of her immediate family: her father-in-law, Henry II; her mother, Mary of Guise; and her husband, Francis II, who all died within a period of 18 months.
Mary returned to Scotland as a widow in 1561, intending to rule her country in person. During her absence, the Scottish Reformation had taken place, and Mary was now a Catholic queen ruling over a strongly Protestant country. She predominantly lived at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, occupying the Queen’s apartments on the second floor of the tower built by her father James V.
Marriage to Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley
Henry Stewart, shown in this portrait aged 17, had a claim to the English throne through his grandmother, Margaret Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII. Darnley’s mother Margaret, Countess of Lennox, hoped for his marriage to the young Mary, Queen of Scots. In February 1565, Darnley travelled to Edinburgh and attended the queen, dancing a flirtatious galliard with her. Mary fell for him very quickly, and on 29 July 1565, they were married in the Chapel Royal of Holyroodhouse.
The murder of David Rizzio
Mary’s marriage to Darnley quickly turned unhappy. Darnley proved to be idle, vain and violent. He wished to be granted the Crown Matrimonial, which would have made him king of Scotland in his own right, meaning he would retain the throne if he outlived his wife. Mary increasingly grew close to her Italian secretary, David Rizzio, who first entered her service as a musician, and later became her secretary and close companion.
Darnley was jealous of Rizzio’s influence over Mary and plotted to murder him. On the night of 9 March 1566, while the pregnant queen dined in the Supper Room with her ladies and Rizzio, Darnley and his accomplices climbed up the private staircase to the Queen’s Bedchamber. They burst in on the queen and dragged Rizzio to the adjoining Outer Chamber, where they stabbed him over 50 times. Mary was initially taken prisoner but managed to escape to the safety and security of Edinburgh Castle.
The mysterious death of Lord Darnley
On 19 June 1566, Mary and Darnley’s son James (later James VI and I) was born. The marriage was effectively over, and Mary met with her council to discuss ‘the Darnley problem’. According to a contemporary record, Mary wanted to be ‘…quit of him without prejudice to [her] son’, as divorcing Darnley could risk making James illegitimate.
The following year, a group of nobles led by James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, blew up the house Darnley was staying in. The bodies of Darnley and his servant were found in a nearby garden, having been murdered while trying to escape.
Darnley was buried in the vaults at Holyrood Abbey. This painting by the Flemish artist Livinus de Vogelaare, was commissioned by Darnley’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Lennox. They kneel beside Darnley’s tomb with their infant grandson, the future James VI and I, and Darnley’s brother Charles Stewart. If you look closely, there are two reliefs on the tomb: one depicting Darnley and his servant being dragged from their bed, and the other showing their bodies lying in the garden.
Marriage to James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell
Shortly after Darnley’s death under mysterious circumstances, Mary married her third husband, the Earl of Bothwell, at Holyroodhouse. The marriage was universally condemned, particularly as Bothwell was implicated in Darnley’s murder. Just one month later, during a confrontation at Carberry Hill on 15 June 1567, Scottish lords who were unhappy with Mary’s reign and intent on avenging Darnley’s death, forced Mary to abdicate and imprisoned her at Lochleven Castle.
In the Darnley memorial painting, there is a small inset picture. It shows Mary surrendering to the insurgent lords and supporters of the Lennox family. In the distance, Bothwell can be seen riding from the field, having been allowed to escape.
Mary's escape to England
In 1568, after an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim the throne, Mary fled to England to seek help from her cousin, Elizabeth I. But instead of providing refuge, the English queen put her in the custody of George, Earl of Shrewsbury.
Although Elizabeth had succeeded to the English throne in 1558 after the death of her half-sister, Mary I, many Catholics believed Elizabeth to be illegitimate – the product of an unlawful marriage between Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. As the great-niece of Henry VIII, Mary, Queen of Scots had a strong claim to the English throne. She posed a threat to Elizabeth’s reign, not least because she also had support from Catholics in both England and Scotland.
Mary was held captive in England for 19 years, until she was eventually found guilty of plotting against Elizabeth and was executed on 8 February 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. During these years, Mary was on good terms with Shrewsbury’s wife, known as Bess of Hardwick. Both adept at needlework, they devised many embroideries together, usually small panels of canvas that could be worked easily in coloured silk threads on a portable frame. In the example below, which depicts a ginger cat with its paw on the tail of a mouse, it has been suggested that Mary was alluding to herself as the mouse and Elizabeth I as the cat.
Fascination with Mary’s reign
From the second half of the 18th century, fascination with Mary’s doomed reign sent visitors flocking to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where it was claimed that the bloodstains from Rizzio’s body were still visible. This 19th-century painting by Alexander Fraser was thought to show the Queen’s Bed Chamber preserved exactly as it was on the night of Rizzio’s murder. Learn more about Fraser’s painting in our Collection Online.
The housekeeper of the Duke of Hamilton (Hereditary Keeper of the Palace of Holyroodhouse) regularly showed visitors around Mary's apartments in expectation of a small payment.
As they led visitors through the rooms they described in grisly detail Rizzio's murder, using an alleged bloodstain on the floor as illustration. In 1760, Elizabeth Baroness Percy visited the Palace, and wrote in her diary:
I went also to see Mary Queen of Scots’ Bedchamber (very small one it is) from whence David Rizzio was drag’d out and stab’d in the ante room where is some of his Blood which they can’t get wash’d out
Elizabeth Baroness Percy
As part of this simulated history, many of the 'old-fashioned' furnishings from the Duke of Hamilton's apartments were moved to Mary's chambers and gradually became passed off as her own possessions. This included the red damask bed featured in Fraser's painting, now on display in the King's Bedchamber. While Sir Walter Scott romantically referred to it as ‘the couch of the rose of Scotland’, it was actually made for the Duke of Hamilton in the 1680s.
The ceilings of Mary’s apartments were completed during her lifetime. Today, visitors to the Palace of Holyroodhouse can see the heraldic decoration which celebrated the union of the Scottish and French crowns, which Mary would have looked at daily. Also on display are a number of objects and paintings associated with Mary’s life, including one of the most important early jewels in the Royal Collection, the Darnley Jewel.
