Mary, Queen of Scots (23 page)

That Darnley’s aims were not widely known in Spanish diplomatic circles is perhaps confirmed by a letter written by the Duke of Alva—soon to be the Spanish Governor of the Netherlands—to Philip II on 29 June, informing him that “Your Majesty, being in Flanders, could more easily encompass that which would further her [Mary’s] interests.”
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Alva was not specific, but was probably referring to the furtherance of Mary’s claim to the English crown, or to the restoration of the Catholic faith in Britain, and he is hardly likely to have mentioned such things if he had been aware that Philip was supporting Darnley in a plot to dethrone Mary, which is highly unlikely anyway, not least because Philip was counting on the support of the pro-Spanish Guises when he led his invading army along the French border. Nor is there any evidence in contemporary sources that Philip lent support to Darnley’s schemes.

Unable to trust those around her, Mary was turning again to Bothwell. On 30 June, she conferred upon him the priory of North Berwick, and by the end of the following month, Bedford was reporting that Bothwell “had a great hand in the management of affairs.” Buchanan goes further, of course, claiming that “Bothwell was everything: he alone managed all affairs, and so much did the Queen wish to display her partiality for him that no request was granted unless presented through him.” Further evidence of the trust Mary reposed in Bothwell can be found in her dealings with one Christopher Rokesby. Mary believed Rokesby to be a Catholic agent, but he was in fact one of Cecil’s spies. Around this time, she granted him a private audience in Edinburgh Castle, during which she rashly revealed to him her dynastic and religious ambitions, which had burgeoned with the birth of her son.

She told him that she was cultivating the support of those English nobles whom she believed “to be of the old religion, which she meant to restore with all expedition. After she had friended herself in every shire in England, she meant to cause wars to be stirred in Ireland, whereby England might be kept occupied; then she would have an army in readiness, and herself with her army to enter England, and she proclaimed Queen.” She had asked Spain, France and the Vatican for aid—on 17 July, she would write to the Pope to say she was looking forward to the arrival of the Bishop of Mondovi “with no little longing”—and added that soothsayers had told her “that the Queen of England shall not live this year.”
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Randolph had earlier reported that Mary had agents in England inciting Catholic support, one of whom had informed her “that the papists are ready to rise in England when she will have them.” Given the fact that Alva expected Philip II to support Mary in such an enterprise, and that Philip’s arrival in the Netherlands was imminent, the English would have had every cause for alarm. By early August, de Silva was aware that Elizabeth was more suspicious than ever of Mary.
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Rokesby advised the Queen to consult her Privy Council, but she told him she preferred to deal with Bothwell, Mar, Melville and himself, and “willed” him “to confer further of these causes with Bothwell, whom I might well perceive was in more secret favour with her than any other.” Probably as a result of Rokesby’s meeting with Bothwell, Mary became suspicious of the former and ordered his arrest. After letters from Cecil were found in his possession, he was imprisoned in Spynie Palace, the Highland stronghold of Bothwell’s uncle, where he remained for nearly two years.
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According to Bedford, writing on 4 July, Morton and the other exiles were busy with plans for their repatriation, and soon afterwards Killigrew observed that “many are like to venture all for their relief.”
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Darnley, however, was fiercely opposed to them being pardoned for he feared their return more than anything else; Leicester wrote on 11 June that Darnley and Bothwell were making further efforts to procure a pardon for “the shameless butcher” George Douglas, who, in return, was willing to incriminate Moray and Maitland in the Rizzio plot, which would at a stroke rid them of two of their greatest enemies.
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But the Queen refused to pardon any of the fugitives, and was instead concentrating her efforts on reconciling her feuding nobles. Hence, she was deaf to the persuasions of Darnley and Bothwell and unwilling to listen to any allegations against her half-brother. On 13 July, Sir John Forster expressed the opinion that she was reluctant to inquire too closely into Moray’s guilt. Elizabeth, reading these reports, was also loath to have Moray’s role in the Rizzio affair subjected to scrutiny, and had George Douglas put under guard in order to prevent him from returning to Scotland.

On 5 July, William Rogers wrote a second report to Cecil, having been informed by the Standens how Darnley had “said before twenty gentlemen that he was not so ill-loved in England but that forty gentlemen there would serve him, and more soon after conveyance of my Lady’s [his mother’s] letters”; one Master Poule (or Pole, which perhaps makes him a relative of Arthur Pole) “and divers gentlemen in his company are looked for shortly in Scotland, offering to serve the King at their own charges.” Darnley was also in possession of a chart of the Scilly Isles, doubtless given him or drawn up by Martin Dare, and was plotting with some men in the north of England to seize Scarborough Castle “and have all the North at his command.” Both the Scillies and Scarborough were strategically placed as bridgeheads for a Spanish invasion of England. Furthermore, Arthur Pole had written claiming that he could raise the west of England in Darnley’s cause, and a man surnamed Moon, who was later in Lennox’s employ, was regularly bringing the King letters from his friends in that region.
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Cecil read all this with mounting dismay.

Moray was still apparently stirring up trouble in the Borders and, as rumour had it, covering the conspirators’ traces. On 17 July, Bedford reported that William Ker, Abbot of Kelso, had spoken “infamy and words of dishonour” of Glencairn, and hinted at the latter’s involvement in Rizzio’s murder. As a result, two of the Abbot’s kinsmen savagely murdered him, chopping off his head and arms. The chief suspect was his nephew and godson, the young Laird of Cessford, whom Bothwell was sent to apprehend.
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But it was Moray whom many suspected of being the real culprit.

Mary was now recovering from her confinement, and it was felt that a change of air would greatly benefit her, so around 27/28 July,
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she left Edinburgh Castle and travelled to Newhaven, where she boarded a boat for Alloa, further up the Forth, having been invited by the Earl of Mar to be his guest at his fourteenth-century family seat, Alloa Tower. According to Bedford
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and Buchanan, the Queen left Edinburgh early in the morning without telling anyone where she was going. Darnley was “so far out of her books” that he knew nothing of her plans.
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Buchanan claims that her boat was manned by notorious pirates, William and Edmund Blackadder, Leonard Robertson and Thomas Dickson, who were all “avowed men and dependants of the Earl Bothwell,” who accompanied Mary on her journey; he adds that “honest persons” were astonished that “she should hazard her person among a sort of such ruffians.” The tale is suspect, however, because, although, as Lord High Admiral, Bothwell was in charge of the preparations for the trip, he did not travel with Mary, but remained in Edinburgh as Captain of the Prince’s Bodyguard; it was Moray, Mar and other leading nobles who made up the Queen’s escort.
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As for William Blackadder, although he and his brother Edmund had received pardons for the crime of murder, on 2 September following, he was appointed “general and universal Searcher to the Crown” with authority to “search, seek, apprehend and take all and sundry pirates, thieves, robbers, rebels and malefactors upon the seas”;
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such a commission would hardly have been granted to a notorious pirate.

As soon as Darnley discovered where Mary had gone, he followed her on horseback via Stirling “as fast as he could, with the hope and purpose of being alone with her, that he might enjoy his conjugal rights.”
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But he was clearly “an unwelcome intruder,”
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and Buchanan says that Mary ordered him to “depart or do worse. So great was her disdain that she could not suffer him to remain in her company, nor yet would she declare any good cheer in his presence.” This may well have been true, because Darnley departed after only a few hours
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and went to Dunfermline.
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Buchanan alleges he was “hardly allowed time to refresh his servants.” Nau, however, says that Darnley had merely made, “as it were, a passing call,” yet reveals that the original arrangement had been “that they should go back to Edinburgh Castle together.” Melville and others were of the opinion that Mary, in going to Alloa, “had fled from the King’s company.” Obviously, the relationship between the royal couple was now fraught with suspicion and resentment, at the very least, and had all but broken down.

At Alloa Tower,
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Mar laid on dancing, masques and sports for his royal guest. According to Buchanan, Mary “passed several days there, if not in princely magnificence, yet in rather unprincely licentiousness. How she behaved herself I had rather every man should imagine it than hear me declare it,” for she “demeaned herself as if she had forgot not only the majesty of a queen but even the modesty of a matron.” Buchanan was writing on the erroneous premise that Bothwell was with her, although elsewhere he claims that their alleged affair did not commence until the following month. Lennox, writing independently, incorrectly states that Mary visited Stirling, not Alloa, and that she took her pleasure “in most uncomely manner, abandoning herself to all riotousness, forgetting her princely state and honour.”
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Nau, however, says that Mary remained at Alloa for several days, but “in the company of the ladies of the court” and the Earl of Mar.

Given her recent confinement, and the fact that Buchanan at least was in the business of character assassination, it is unlikely that Mary’s stay at Alloa was one long round of hedonistic indulgence. Moreover, official records show that she did not neglect affairs of state whilst there, and Bedford reported that one purpose of her visit had been to meet and make her peace with Maitland, who was certainly in the district on 28 July.
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She also held a reception for the newly arrived ambassador from France, Philippe (or Philibert) du Croc, whom de Silva heard was “a good Catholic” but “restless or unreliable,”
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and whom Nau later derided as a “creature” of Catherine de’ Medici. Mary was aware of this, and, in order to keep an eye on him, appointed him a temporary gentleman-in-waiting, so that he would be in daily attendance on her.
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The Scottish Lords, however, seeing this and knowing that du Croc had been “advanced by the House of Guise,”
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came to regard him as the Queen’s man. Melville calls du Croc “a grave, aged, discreet gentleman”; he was certainly a diplomat of many years’ experience, and had already served on an embassy to Scotland, back in 1563. Now he had returned, ostensibly to convey Charles IX’s official congratulations on the birth of the Prince.

On 31 July, Mary returned to Edinburgh, where, according to Buchanan, “she stayed not in her palace but in the nearby home of a private citizen.” But her stay in the capital was not to be tranquil. The bitter feud between Moray and Bothwell had been aggravated by Bothwell’s increasing credit with the Queen. Early in August, Bedford informed Cecil that, thanks to Moray’s efforts, Morton’s friends, notably Lord Home, the Scotts of Buccleuch, the Kers of Cessford and other Border malcontents, had formed a confederacy against Bothwell, which Bedford meant to support as far as he dared without prejudicing peaceful relations with England.

A few days later, Bedford, whose informant was Kirkcaldy of Grange, reported that Bothwell “hath now, of all men, greatest access and familiarity with the Queen, so that nothing of importance is done without him.” Consequently, he was “the most hated man among the noblemen of this realm, and it is said that his insolence is such as David was never more abhorred than he is now.” If Bedford was implying that Mary and Bothwell had become involved in an illicit affair, then, given the widespread bad feeling about Bothwell’s closeness to the Queen, Darnley would certainly have known about it; but although Bedford states that relations between the Queen and her husband were “rather worse,” and that Darnley was jealous of Mary’s familiarity with men and women, especially “the ladies of Argyll, Moray and Mar, who keep most company with her,” he makes no mention of any jealousy on Darnley’s part specifically towards Bothwell. In fact, he states, in the same letter, that Darnley was jealous of Mary’s reliance on Moray, and had threatened to kill him, “finding fault that she bears him so much company.” Nau says that Darnley, being “naturally of a very insolent disposition,” had begun to “threaten all the Lords, especially Moray, whom he told that the Laird of Balfour had promised him [Darnley] that he would kill him [Moray].”

Bedford’s use of the word “familiarity” with regard to both men and women indicates that he is not trying to imply a clandestine relationship between Mary and Bothwell. If that had been the case, he would have been more specific about any rumours he had heard. As for Darnley, Bedford added that Mary “eateth but very seldom with him, but lieth not nor keepeth company with him, nor loveth any such as love him,” and concluded, “It cannot for modesty, nor with the honour of a queen, be reported what she said of him.” Mary “fell marvellously out” with Melville for giving Darnley an Irish water spaniel, and called him a dissembler and flatterer, saying “she could not trust him who would give any thing to such one as she loved not.”
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Mary warned Moray that Darnley bore him ill will and had told her that he was determined to kill him. Then, before the whole court, she took her husband to task, saying “she would not be content that either he or any other should be unfriendly to Moray,” and constraining him to confess to Moray that his enmity had arisen from reports made to him “that Moray was not his friend, which made him speak that of which he repented.”
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After this humiliating interview, Darnley sped off to grumble about his wife to Lennox, complaining that she refused to sleep with him. He told his father that he was contemplating leaving his troubles in Scotland and going abroad.
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Mary was not deceived by Darnley’s apology; she had seen “the great danger” in his antipathy towards Moray, “which was calculated to lead to serious troubles within the kingdom. She contrived, therefore, to be always busy near the King, so as to thwart his project. But in private he did not abandon the idea.”
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Mary was now in the unenviable position of having to spend time in the company of a husband for whom she felt little but contempt and revulsion, and who had outlived his usefulness to her. It is to her credit that, as will be seen, she tried to make the best of it.