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

These minorities had also bred rivalries and factions, as different families struggled for power. As a result, the nobility had grown in strength and autonomy, having become used to long periods without royal interference during which they enjoyed the unfettered exercise of power. Scotland was used to royal minorities, for every one of its monarchs since 1406 had succeeded as a child. When news was brought to him of the birth of his daughter, he turned his face to the wall and, recalling that the crown had descended to the Stewart dynasty through Marjorie, daughter of King Robert the Bruce, muttered, 'It came from a woman, and it will end in a woman.' Soon afterwards he died, 'wherefore there was great mourning in Scotland.'Īt only six days old, the infant Mary became Queen of Scots. For James V was already mortally ill, and following a crushing defeat by the English at the Battle of Solway Moss on 24 November, he had taken to his bed at Falkland Palace. After the deaths of two infant sons in 1541, her father had hoped for another boy to succeed him, because Scotland needed a man's strong hand to rule it. Her conclusions will shed a brilliant new light on the actions and motives of the conspirators and, in particular, the extent of Mary's own involvement.TO EVERYONE'S DISMAY, THE BABY born to James V of Scotland and his second wife, Marie de Guise, on 8 December 1542 at Linlithgow Palace was a girl.

Alison Weir's investigation of Darnley's murder is set against one of the most dramatic periods in British history. For this reason Elizabeth I had opposed his family's longstanding wish to marry him to Mary Stuart, who herself claimed to be the rightful queen of England. Darnley was not a popular king-consort, but he was regarded by many as having a valid claim to the English throne. It was clear that they had been murdered and the house destroyed in an attempt to obliterate the evidence. Neither had died in the explosion, but both bodies bore marks of strangulation. Those arriving at the scene of devastation found, in the garden, the naked corpses of Darnley and his valet. The noise was heard as far away as Holyrood Palace, where Queen Mary was attending a wedding masque. On the night of 10 February 1567 an explosion devastated the Edinburgh residence of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.

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