Mary, Queen of Scots (22 page)

On 3 June, Mary ceremonially withdrew into seclusion to await her confinement. A midwife, Margaret Asteane, was appointed and provided with a new black gown, the royal bed was hung with blue taffeta and velvet, ten ells of Holland cloth were purchased for the cradle, and the relics of St. Margaret of Scotland were sent for from Dunfermline, in the belief that they would protect the Queen while she was in labour.

On the same day, as well as receiving the Sacrament, as “one who is in proximate danger of death,”
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Mary made her Will, leaving everything but specific bequests to her child. To Darnley, she left twenty-six items of jewellery, including two watches and the red-enamelled diamond ring that he had placed on her finger on their wedding day. This was the largest of her bequests, and it suggests not only a softening in her attitude towards him, but also an attempt to ensure his future security; Mary would hardly have done this if she were contemplating getting rid of him by annulment, revenge killing or murder, as the later libels allege.
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The Queen also left items to her Guise relatives, the Earls and Countesses of Moray, Argyll and Huntly, old Lady Huntly, Lady Seton, the four Maries, Arthur Erskine and even the Lennoxes; a ring that Rizzio had given her was willed to his brother Joseph, who was to convey it to a secret beneficiary.

This cannot have been Bothwell, for he was openly to receive two bequests, a table diamond set in black enamel, and a miniature figurine of a mermaid set in diamonds, holding a diamond mirror and a ruby comb.
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This may well have had a certain significance, for, in the symbolism of the day, a mermaid represented a siren or temptress, whose involvement with mortals was inevitably followed by disaster; in the popular understanding, the word “mermaid” was synonymous with “prostitute.” Mary was hardly likely to refer to herself in this context, especially in her Will, therefore it is possible that this bequest bore a subtle warning about Bothwell’s involvement with Bessie Crawford and other women who might lead him astray. The Privy Councillors, including Bothwell, all signed a document binding them to honour the Queen’s Will.
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On 7 June, Randolph reported that Bothwell and Huntly, who must have been concerned about Moray’s influence over the Queen, had had their request for lodgings in Edinburgh Castle turned down by Mary, on the advice of Moray.
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This suggests that Moray’s influence had now superseded Bothwell’s. Soon afterwards, Randolph was recalled to London, and on 13 June, Elizabeth I dispatched Sir Henry Killigrew to Edinburgh to inform Mary that his Queen “prayed God to send Her Majesty a quick and happy delivery” and had banished the fugitive Lords from her realm.
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Yet, for all Elizabeth’s fine words, they remained unmolested in their northern refuges.
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Morton was “now in a hard condition,” being reduced to near penury, but Mary would not permit his friends to send him money.
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Ruthven died at Newcastle on 13 June, having “showed great repentance for his wicked life.” Morton witnessed the final ravings of the old warlock, who cried “that he saw Paradise opened and a great company of angels coming to take him”; Nau commented acidly that they were probably “diabolical illusions wrought by evil spirits.”
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The grieving Morton, however, reported that Ruthven’s end “was so godly that all men that saw it did rejoice.”
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Ruthven’s heir was his son, William, but he could not succeed to the title because of his father’s forfeiture.

Two days after Ruthven’s death, there were premature rejoicings in Edinburgh as a result of a false report that the Queen had given birth to a son.
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In fact, Mary’s labour did not commence until 18 June, at which time she withdrew from her state bedchamber into the adjoining cabinet, a tiny room with a window overlooking the city. Here, she would be attended only by the midwife and her ladies-in-waiting until after the birth. For the first time in twenty-four years, an heir to Scotland’s throne was about to be born.

“AN UNWELCOME INTRUDER”

THE QUEEN’S LABOUR WAS PROTRACTED and exceptionally painful. As the contractions became more severe, “she began to wish that she had never been married.”
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At one stage, her suffering was so great that Margaret Fleming, Countess of Atholl is said to have resorted to sorcery in an attempt to transfer the Queen’s pains to Mary Beaton’s aunt, Margaret, Lady Reres.
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Predictably, Mary’s agony abated not one jot and, being warned by her ladies that she and her child were in great peril, she beseeched God to save her baby rather than herself.
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Melville later recalled that he “lay within the Castle of Edinburgh, praying night and day for Her Majesty’s good and happy delivery of a fair son.” His prayers were answered when, between nine and eleven
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on the morning of Wednesday, 19 June 1566, after twenty hours of labour, Mary was delivered of a healthy boy, who was named James and bore the title Duke of Rothesay from birth. Years later, the Queen wrote to Lady Lennox, “I have borne him, and God knoweth with what danger to him and me both.”
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The birth boosted Mary’s popularity, ensured the future of her dynasty, put paid to Darnley’s pretensions to the Crown, and immeasurably strengthened the Queen’s claim to the English succession. From now on, however, her ambitions were not just for herself, but for her son, and Melville was dispatched within the hour to London to convey the happy news to Elizabeth.

After the Prince was born, “all the artillery of the Castle shot, and bonfires were set forth in all parts for joy of the same.”
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The nobles, rejoicing, gathered in the Queen’s state bedchamber to congratulate her and greet the new heir.

At about two in the afternoon, Darnley visited Mary, “and was desirous to see the child.” This was a crucial and somewhat humiliating moment for Mary, for her reputation and honour had so far been called into question that she had no choice but to force her husband publicly to recognise the child as his own.

“My Lord,” she said, “God has given you and me a son, begotten by none but you.” At her words, “the King blushed and kissed the child.” This was not sufficient acknowledgement, so Mary took the baby in her arms and, uncovering his face, said, “My Lord, here I protest to God, and as I shall answer to Him at the great Day of Judgement, this is your son, and no other man’s son. And I am desirous that all here bear witness, for he is so much your son that I fear it will be the worse for him hereafter.”

Mary then spoke to an English envoy, Sir William Stanley: “This is the son whom I hope shall first unite the two kingdoms of Scotland and England.”

“Why, Madam,” answered Stanley, “shall he succeed before Your Majesty and his father?”

Mary nodded, and said sadly, “It is because his father has broken to [with] me.” Darnley asked her, “Sweet Madam, is this your promise that you made, to forgive and forget all?” She answered, “I have forgiven all, but will never forget. What if Fawdonside’s pistol had fired? What would have become of the child and me? Or what estate would you have been in? God only knows, but we may suspect!”

“These things are all past,” Darnley said tersely.

“Then let them go,” retorted Mary.
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Their bitter discourse struck a jarring note on what should have been a day of triumph. It was obvious that there was no longer any need for Mary to keep up a pretence of reconciliation. Darnley had played his dynastic part, and was no longer of political importance to her. Now she need not see him if she did not wish to.

It seems that Darnley had had no intention of refusing to acknowledge the Prince as his own, for earlier in the day he had written to the Cardinal of Lorraine proudly announcing “an event which, I am sure, will not cause you less joy than ourselves,”
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and informing him that he and the Queen had both written asking Charles IX to stand godfather to their son.

Soon after the birth, a popular rumour arose that the Queen’s baby had been stillborn or had died at birth, and that a changeling had been substituted in order to block Darnley’s pretensions to the Crown. Some said they had seen a basket containing a baby being winched up over the castle rock to the Queen’s window; others that the Prince was in fact the son of the Earl of Mar, whom he much resembled in looks. However, no one seriously questioned his identity, although the rumours were given apparent credence in 1830, when it was alleged that some bones—not necessarily those of an infant or even a human being—wrapped in woollen cloth (not cloth of gold, as some versions state) had been discovered in a wall during building works at Edinburgh Castle. In 1944, however, this tale was proved to be a fabrication.
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On the day after the birth, St. Giles’s Kirk in Edinburgh was packed to overflowing with the nobility and the citizens, who had come “to thank God for the honour of having an heir to their kingdom.”
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Two days later, the Queen received the Pope’s letter informing her of the sending of a nuncio, and Sir Henry Killigrew, Elizabeth’s envoy, reached Edinburgh. Hearing of his coming, the Queen sent him word “that I was welcome and should have audience as soon as she might have any ease of the pain in her breasts”; despite this, he was told she was “in good state for a woman in her case.”
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The observant Killigrew quickly summed up the political situation and, on the day after his arrival, reported to Cecil, “I find here an uncertain and disquiet sort of men.” The Scottish Lords were divided into factions, with Moray, Argyll, Mar and Atholl in one party, and Bothwell and Huntly in the other. Notwithstanding the birth of the Prince, small account was made of Darnley and his father. Bothwell was in the Borders, apparently dealing with a threat “to bring in Morton during [Mary’s] childbed,” but he had absented himself because he “would not gladly be in danger of the four above-named that lie in [Edinburgh] Castle. Yet it is thought and said that his credit with the Queen is more than all the rest together.”
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Bothwell himself later explained that “it was as much through the faithful service I had rendered the Queen’s mother in her wars, as much as my service to the Queen herself, that I was in such favour. I had on several occasions risked my life and incurred considerable expense, which she had most generously made good to me, both by presents and by the appointments with which Her Majesty has honoured me.”
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Killigrew also noted that Henry Gwynn, servant to Francis Yaxley, who had drowned in January whilst bringing the subsidy from Philip II, had arrived in Edinburgh with “letters and tokens from Flanders,” including Philip’s long-delayed reply to Darnley’s letter of September 1565, which de Silva had held on to in London, ostensibly because he could not find a safe messenger, although he could of course have entrusted it to James Thornton; clearly, this letter was not meant for Mary’s eyes. Evidently Darnley found Philip’s words encouraging, even if he perhaps interpreted them to suit his own purposes.

Killigrew concluded his report with a mention of a spy, William Rogers, who had come in secret to Edinburgh. Without a doubt, something suspicious was going on.
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Rogers was an escaped felon, who hoped to evade justice and obtain Cecil’s favour by acting on his own initiative as a spy for the English government. He stayed only a few days in Scotland before going south, and when he reached Oxford, sent a report to Cecil.
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In it, he revealed he had won the confidence of Sir Anthony Standen and, through him, gained the favour of Darnley, with whom he had gone hunting and hawking. Rogers had learned that Gwynn had brought Darnley 2,000 crowns from an English merchant, with more to come if he needed it, as well as letters from Lady Lennox and, more ominously, from two English traitors, Arthur and Edward Pole, who themselves had pretensions to the English throne—both were descendants of the Royal House of Plantagenet—and were at present imprisoned in the Tower for inciting an abortive rebellion. In his letter, Arthur Pole had offered to resign his claim to the English throne to Mary and Darnley, but it is unlikely that Mary was told anything of this, for Darnley was formulating grandiose plans of his own. It seems that he not only meant to become the champion of Catholicism in Scotland, but also King of Scots in Mary’s place, and then, after deposing Elizabeth, King of a united Britain, which would be achieved with the support of the Catholic powers in Europe and disaffected English Catholics.

It is impossible to assess to what degree this scheme existed only in Darnley’s fevered imagination, or to what extent his supposed allies were involved. At present, it appears he had secured at least the goodwill of Philip II and perhaps the Papacy, and the support of a number of Catholic malcontents in England.

In Scotland, Darnley’s chief ally at this time appears to have been Sir James Balfour. On 7 June, Randolph had noted that Balfour was out of favour, and Killigrew now reported, “Balfour’s credit [with the Queen] decays” and that Bishop Leslie “manages all her affairs of state.”
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According to Rogers, a friend of the Pole brothers, Martin Dare, was also in attendance on Darnley. He had been a sea captain in the Scilly Isles, and had nautical skills that would prove useful to the King in time to come. Sir Anthony Standen, however, was removed from the King’s orbit when Mary sent him to France to announce the Prince’s birth to Charles IX; Standen would not return for a year.
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After a lightning journey lasting just over four days, Sir James Melville arrived in London and informed Elizabeth of the safe delivery of Mary’s son. The Queen “seemed glad of the birth of the infant,” and told de Silva that the birth would prove “a spur to the lawyers” to resolve the matter of Mary’s right to the English succession, which would, she assured the ambassador, be decided in the next session of Parliament.
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Melville had his doubts about this, but when Mary heard, she was jubilant, confidently anticipating that Elizabeth would at last acknowledge her as heir presumptive to the English throne.

Elizabeth told Melville that she would gladly stand godmother to Prince James, but would be unable to go to Scotland herself; in her place, she would send “honourable lords and ladies.” She also consented to receive a letter from Darnley pleading for his mother’s release from the Tower, an indication that she was thawing towards the Lennox Stuarts.

Mary had also asked Charles IX of France and Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, to be godparents; on 25 June, in a letter to Philip II, de Silva implied that there were reasons why she had not asked him to act as sponsor or send a representative to the baptism, such reasons being connected possibly with Philip’s coolness after Rizzio’s murder; however, she had asked the Duke of Savoy “as she considered him a person attached to Your Majesty.”
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As Sir Walter Raleigh was later to proclaim, “Savoy from Spain is inseparable.” Mary had effectively enlisted the might of Catholic Europe to protect the interests of the infant Prince.

Back in Scotland, on 24 June, Mary received Sir Henry Killigrew in her bedchamber. He reported that she was too weak to extend to him more than a formal welcome, but he was allowed to see her child “sucking of his nurse, and afterward as good as naked,” and found James to be “well proportioned and like to prove a goodly prince.” The Queen, he added, “was so bold immediately after delivery that she has not yet recovered; the few words she spoke were faintly, with a hollow cough.”
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Darnley’s behaviour during Mary’s lying-in period was appalling. Nau later wrote of this time, “The King led a very disorderly life.” Every night, he left the castle and went out “vagabondising” and drinking heavily with his young male friends in the streets of Edinburgh. He would return at all hours of the night, so that the castle gates had to be unlocked for him, which left Mary feeling “there was no safety, either for herself or her son.” Darnley also went off for long rides on his own to the coast, where he would strip and bathe in secluded places, thereby leaving himself vulnerable to attack and his wife “apprehensive of the danger which might follow, because of the ill will which the greater number of the Lords bore towards him.” She begged him to be careful “and not to put himself so indiscreetly into the power of his enemies,” but he paid very little attention to her.
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Not surprisingly, Killigrew again reported on 28 June that Darnley was not in favour.
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In every way, he was a liability and a constant thorn in Mary’s side.

Catherine de’ Medici, learning of the birth of Prince James, expressed fears that Darnley was “so bad” that she could not be sure if he felt as he should towards his son. Fearful that he might plot with her enemies to seize her child and rule in his name, Mary decided to keep James with her for the present, rather than establish a separate household for him, as was customary for royal children in that era. James spent his first weeks being cared for in his mother’s chamber by his wet-nurse, Helena Little, and four rockers, and sleeping in his cradle beside Mary’s bed at night, so that she could watch over him herself.
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Mary’s fears about Darnley’s intentions were almost certainly justified, and she was not the only person to entertain suspicions about his activities. On 29 June, de Silva reported that the English ambassador in Paris “was surprised at the friendship the King of Scotland had with Don Francis[co] de Alava,” the Spanish ambassador to the French court, and that he had learned “that they were intimate friends in Paris.”
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It is possible that they had never even met, for de Alava did not arrive in Paris until February 1564; however, the short visits he had paid there before then may have coincided with one of Darnley’s trips to France. The term “intimate friends” may imply a homosexual connection, but could equally mean that they became confidants in the platonic sense. Regardless of this, the friendship must have been conducted mainly through correspondence, and it is possible, although there is no proof, that Darnley was using de Alava to gain Spanish support for his dynastic schemes.