Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, were married at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on 29 July 1565, when she was 22 years old, and he was 19.Jane E. A. Dawson, Scotland Re-formed (Edinburgh, 2007), p. 254. The wedding took place in the Chapel Royal.George Powell McNeill, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. 19 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 475. The two were first cousins. The marriage lasted less than two years, less than Mary's first marriage to Francis, Dauphin of France. The two would have one son, James I of England.
Background
Mary, Queen of Scots had married Francis II of France at Notre-Dame de Paris on 24 April 1558,Lucinda H. S. Dean, 'In the Absence of an Adult Monarch', Kate Buchanan, Lucinda Dean, Michael Penman, Medieval and Early Modern Representations of Authority in Scotland and the British Isles (Routledge, 2016), p. 155. and, after his death, she returned to Scotland to rule in person in September 1561. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who had been brought up in England, was the son of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox and Lady Margaret Douglas, and a grandson of Margaret Tudor.Jenny Wormald, Mary, Queen of Scots: Politics, Passion and a Kingdom Lost (Tauris Parke, 2001), p. 151.
Darnley's mother was keen to advance a dynastic marriage, and sent her son's tutor Arthur Lallart or Lilliard to meet Mary.Simon Adams, 'The Release of Lord Darnley', Innes Review, 38:38 (1987), pp. 130–131. Darnley's uncle, the Earl of Sutherland, helped him gain access to Queen Mary.William Fraser, Sutherland Book, 1 (Edinburgh, 1892), pp. 117–118. Lallart met her at Stirling Castle on 15 September 1561 before she rode to Kincardine and Perth.Retha M. Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 72. Mary conferred with Lallart while walking up and down her chamber, and sat on a coffer to discuss Darnley's qualities and ability. Lallart also discussed the Countess' Scottish lands with Mary, and was accompanied by one of Lennox's falconers.Morgan Ring, So High A Blood (Bloomsbury, 2017), pp. 160–161: Joseph Stevenson, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 5 (London, 1867), p. 13 no. 12William Barclay Turnbull, Letters of Mary Stuart (London: Dolman, 1845), 148. Another servant of the Lennoxes, Thomas Fowler, was also credited with bringing Lord Darnley to Scotland.William K. Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 9 (Glasgow: HMSO, 1915), p. 636 no. 542.
Mary, Queen of Scots, considered marrying the Spanish prince, Carlos, Prince of Asturias, known as Don Carlos. Philip II of Spain decided not to allow this match. Lennox was restored to his Scottish estates by Parliament,Simon Adams, 'The Release of Lord Darnley', Innes Review, 38:38 (1987), pp. 123–153: James Aikman, History of Scotland by George Buchanan, 2 (Glasgow, 1827), p. 465. and by a ceremony and proclamation made at Edinburgh's Mercat Cross by William Stewart of Luthrie.Diurnal of Occurrents (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1833), p. 73. Darnley came to Scotland and met Mary at Wemyss Castle in February 1565.Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power (London: Sceptre, 2022), p. 138: Charles Wemyss, Noble Houses of Scotland (Prestel Verlag, 2014), p. 80: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 125–126: Memoirs of his own Life by Sir James Melville (Edinburgh, 1827), p. 134.
Darnley was shown increasing favour at court. When he fell ill with measles in April, he was lodged and nursed at Stirling Castle, where he played games, teamed with Mary, against Mary Beaton and the English diplomat Thomas Randolph.Joseph Stevenson, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 7 (London, 1870), pp. 328 no. 1085 In May 1565, Mary ordered the cleaning of the king's lodgings at Holyrood Palace and the construction of a site in Holyrood Park for picnics or banqueting.Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (Edinburgh: RCAHMS, 2015), p. 103. Mary's French uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, criticised Darnley as an amiable fool, literally a young chicken, "un gentil huteaudeau".Alison Weir, Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 69.
Mary sent William Maitland of Lethington to Elizabeth I with news of her marriage plan, and Nicholas Throckmorton was sent to Edinburgh to convey her "miscontentment".Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 2 (London, 1827), p. 296. Elizabeth I suggested Mary should marry the English courtier Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.Jane E. A. Dawson, Scotland Re-formed (Edinburgh, 2007), p. 253: Jane E. A. Dawson, 'Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley, and Anglo-Scottish politics in 1565', International History Review, 8 (February 1986), pp. 1–24 : For a discussion of this issue; Johanna Rickman, 'Elizabeth the Matchmaker: The Proposed Marriage between Mary Queen of Scots and Robert Dudley', Georgia State University, MA thesis, 1999Katharine P. Frescoln, 'A Letter from Thomas Randolph to the Earl of Leicester', Huntington Library Quarterly, 37:1 (November 1973), pp. 83–88. As it became clear that Mary intended to marry Darnley, Elizabeth regretted allowing him and his father to travel to Scotland, and on 18 June 1565 she requested their return.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 178 no. 201.
On 14 June 1565, Mary and her advisors at Perth composed a protest at Elizabeth's complaint at her marriage plans and her treatment of Lady Margaret Douglas to be delivered by her diplomat and master of requests John Hay, Commendator of Balmerino.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, Addenda, 14 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1898), pp. 221–224: Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, vol. 1 (London: Dolman, 1844), pp. 266-274.Morna R. Fleming, "An Unequal Correspondence", Sarah M. Dunningan, C. Marie Harker, Evelyn S. Newlyn, Women and the Feminine in Medieval and Early Modern Scottish Writing (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 111–112. Elizabeth sent Lady Margaret Douglas from house arrest at Whitehall to the Tower of London.Morgan Ring, So High a Blood (Bloomsbury, 2017), p. 197. During her time in the Tower, a servant carved an inscription or graffiti in her lodging that Margaret Douglas was "commytted prysner to thys lodgyng for the marrege of her sonne".James Heywood Markland, "Inscription on a chimneypiece", Archaeologia, 23, pp. 405–410.
George Buchanan, and a later writer, David Calderwood, described discussions amongst the nobility in Scotland at Stirling about Mary choosing a second husband. Some argued that an ordinary woman may choose a husband, but Mary ought not to choose a King for the whole people of Scotland.David Parkinson, "Mary Queen of Scots and the Querelle des Femmes", A Palace in the Wild: Essays on Vernacular Culture and Humanism in Late-Medieval and Renaissance Scotland (Peeters, 2000), p. 159: James Aikman, History of Scotland by George Buchanan, 2 (Glasgow, 1827), pp. 469–470. Calderwood and Buchanan wrote that witches in England and Scotland had made a prophecy that a marriage before the end of July would reap a great benefit.David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1844), p. 292
Rumours of a kidnap
There were rumours of a plot in June 1565 to prevent the marriage.Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots (London: Phoenix Press, 2002), p. 288: James Aikman, History of Scotland by George Buchanan, 2 (Glasgow, 1827), pp. 468–469.David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1897), pp. 354–356. Mary had summoned the nobility to Perth, but many gave excuses and James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, did not come.Alexandre Teulet, Papiers d'État Relatifs à l'Histoire del'Écosse, 2 (Paris: Plon, Bannatyne Club, 1852), p. 51.
Mary and Darnley were said to have been at risk of kidnap by the Earls of Argyll and Moray as they travelled from Perth to Edinburgh.John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scots and her Accusers, 1 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1869), pp. 107–108. Darnley would be taken to Argyll's Castle Campbell. The kidnap would occur during a visit to Callendar House near Falkirk, at the Path of Dron at the Ochils,David Laing, Works of John Knox, 2, pp. 484, 490. at Beath (the plot was known as the "Raid of Beath"),Retha Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 111: Thomas Thomson, Memoirs of his own Life by James Melville of Halhill (Edinburgh, 1827), p. 135. or according to Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie the Earl of Rothes would capture them at the "Parrat-Well beside Dowhill" near Kinross.David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), 109, 354.Aeneas James George Mackay, Historie and cronicles of Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh: STS, 1899), p. 182
The English ambassador Thomas Randolph reported to William Cecil that some had mooted the idea of returning Darnley and his father, the Earl of Lennox, to England at Berwick-upon-Tweed. In his next letter, he wrote that Mary had been informed of the kidnap plot while she was at Perth. She passed through Kinross at speed accompanied only by three of her gentlewomen. Moray was at Lochleven Castle with his mother and brother, recovering from an illness.Maurice Lee junior, James Stewart, Earl of Moray: A political study of the Reformation in Scotland (New York, 1953), p. 40. Argyll travelled from Castle Campbell, expecting to meet Mary and have dinner with her, but arriving after she had gone by. The suggestion was that the conspiracy was a rumour spread by the queen's party to discredit Moray and Argyll.Robert Keith, History of the affairs of church and state in Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1844), pp. 307–311
Randolph heard that a quarrel between Moray's servants and the Captain of her guard, James Stewart, could have been escalated at Perth to a conflict in which Moray would be killed.John Parker Lawson, History of the affairs of Church and State in Scotland by Robert Keith, 2 (Edinburgh, 1845), pp. 300–301. On 15 July 1565, Mary summoned Moray to discuss the rumours or counter-claims, that he and Argyll claimed her supporters at Perth had conspired "in the back gallery of her highness' lodging" to assassinate Moray. Mary and the Privy Council viewed this as a slander. Moray did not appear, and this is regarded as the beginning of his rebellion, the Chaseabout Raid.Retha Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 111: Maurice Lee junior, James Stewart, Earl of Moray: A political study of the Reformation in Scotland (New York, 1953), pp. 143–144: John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 340–342.John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scots and her accusers, 1 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1869), pp. 108–109.Thomas Thomson, History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, 2 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1842), p. 286.
In November 1565, in a letter to the French diplomat Paul de Foix, Mary accused Moray of planning to kidnap her between Perth and Edinburgh before her wedding, and conspiring to murder Darnley and Lennox.William Barclay Turnbull, Letters of Mary Stuart (London: Dolman, 1845), 153. The rumour resurfaced in 1571 as a criticism of John Knox.Jane Dawson, John Knox (Yale, 2015), p. 302. A later account of the conspiracy by Adam Blackwood, has the plotters plan to capture the royal couple en route at a church near Loch Leven and taken to Lochleven Castle. Blackwood says the kidnap was delayed by the absence of the Earl of Argyll, and Patrick Lindsay, laird of Dowhill warned the queen about the conspiracy.Adam Blackwood, History of Mary Queen of Scots (Maitland Club, 1834), p. 5. The incident, although its detail is obscure, is commemorated at Parnwell or Parenwell Bridge, built by William Adam of Blair Adam, three miles from Kinross.Samuel Cowan, Mary, Queen of Scots and Who Wrote the Casket Letters, 1 (London, 1901), pp. 172–173Parnwell Bridge: Canmore HES
New titles for Darnley