1563]

MARY'S GOVERNMENT

ment under

503

While Elizabeth was thus actively, though uselessly, interfering in the politics of France, Mary, under the guidance of Lord Mary's governJames Murray, was apparently intent upon keeping up Murray's her good relations with England. She even appeared to influence. favour the national religion, and was induced to accompany Murray in an expedition against Huntly and the Northern Catholics, who were defeated on the Hill of Corrichie, not far from Aberdeen. She sought the advice of Elizabeth with regard to her marriage, implying that she was her natural heiress, and that her matrimonial arrangements were therefore of interest to the English Queen. None the less, she had agents in constant intercourse with the Spanish and with the Guises, and was even thinking of marrying Don Carlos, the son of Philip. Her application to Elizabeth was met by advice it was impossible to follow. To Elizabeth and her counsellors it seemed highly important that Mary should, if possible, be married to an Englishman and a Protestant. To the astonishment of the world, the nobleman recommended to Mary's acceptance was Robert Dudley, with whom the English Queen was believed to be herself deeply in love. To obviate difficulties with regard to rank, she raised him to the Earldom of Leicester. But Mary was not likely to make anything but a royal marriage if she married for political reasons; and as the conference in which her claims had been discussed had just broken up without result, dissimulation was no longer necessary, and determining to make good, not her reversionary, but her present claims, she soon displayed herself in her true colours. If she could not she demands to be accepted as successor by fair means, she would so ledged successor, connect herself with the Catholic party in England as and is refused. to threaten Elizabeth's own throne. The acknowledged representative of this party was the first Prince of the blood in England, Lord Henry Darnley, son of the Earl of Lennox. Margaret Tudor, the elder of Henry VIII.'s sisters, after the death of her first husband, the King of Scotland, had married the Earl of Angus; her daughter by this marriage was the Countess of Lennox, of whom Darnley was the son. Lennox was induced to go to Scotland, and Elizabeth was persuaded to allow him to do so for the purpose of regaining the Lennox property and the reversal of the attainder which rested on him. His son was naturally anxious to join him-the whole being, no doubt, a prearranged scheme, though whether Mary was herself cognizant of it is uncertain. It was plain to all, however, that the young man had caught her fancy; their first meeting in fact settled the question of the Queen's marriage. Darnley rapidly received the

be acknow

Marries
Darnley.

titles of Lord of Ardmanach, Earl of Ross, and Duke of Albany, and the marriage was completed on the 29th of July. Shortly before this, the reception of Randolph, the English ambassador, was such as to show that the connection between the two courts was broken. In fact, Queen Mary had settled upon her line of action. European Catholic league.

Joins the

She had determined to connect herself with the

In the spring of 1565, Catherine de Medici, and the Duke of Alva on the part of the King of Spain, had met at Bayonne; and although it is not probable that, as was supposed, the massacre of St. Bartholomew was there arranged, or that any distinct written league was made, it is certain that Alva explained the vigorous and bloody policy which he intended to pursue, and that the meeting marks the period when efforts to temporize with Protestantism ceased. Mary was believed to be a party to the league ; and whether there were such a league or not, she determined to throw in her lot with the Catholics. She naturally first turned towards France, but the temporizing policy of Catherine de Medici did not allow her to listen to the application. The close connection between Mary and France was thus broken, and she was henceforward inclined to rely chiefly on Spain. In fact, the danger which threatened England from France had subsided. The vehemence of religious dissensions, and the necessity felt by the Government of keeping either party from gaining the pre-eminence, paralyzed its power of vigorous action. It is with Spain, hitherto her lukewarm supporter, that Elizabeth had now to cope.

Catholic
League.

But Mary, although without the foreign assistance on which she relied, felt that she was leaning upon all the Catholic powers in Europe. She could therefore afford to act with vigour. The discontented Lords were driven into England, and the progress of the Reformation in Scotland seemed for the present to be suppressed.

Mary's reliance upon the difficulties of Elizabeth's position was Elizabeth's diffi- Well grounded. It seemed as if Cecil's policy had only cult position. been attended with success hitherto to meet at length with the more complete downfall. Spain had been braved, and no ill results had followed; a war with France had been entered upon, yet France seemed paralyzed; Protestantism had been re-established, and England had begun to regain her position in Europe. All this success had been due to the jealousy of the Catholic powers; but there was now every reason to believe that their quarrels had been compromised, and that they were ready to act in harmony for the reestablishment of their religion. The danger was aggravated by the

1565]

MARY AND DARNLEY

505

existence of a large and powerful body of Catholics, especially in the North, who were all suspected of being in Mary's interest. As long as the Treaty of Edinburgh was unratified (as it still was), Mary was in fact making a claim on the English throne. Under such circumstances, Elizabeth could not wholly break with the Catholic powers by giving assistance to the fugitive Lords. Though it was plain, therefore, on which side her wishes were, yet, in order to contradict the suggestions which the ambassadors of France and Spain were making, that she was assisting the rebels, she granted she repudiates Murray a public interview, only to rate him soundly for Murray. venturing to ask her for assistance in such a cause, and to insist upon an open denial of any encouragement received at her hands. Murray saw the position of affairs, and prudently corroborated Elizabeth's falsehood.

Quarrels be

and Darnley.

The marriage of Mary with Darnley, though for the time it produced the effects intended, and enabled the Queen to carry out with success the first measures of a Catholic reaction, tween Mary had in it the seeds of failure. Darnley was childish and petulant, a notoriously loose liver, and at the same time jealous of his wife. His loose tongue could not keep these private squabbles sacred. There was known to be a breach between the King and Queen, and partisans began to gather to one side or the other—" King," Darnley was called by courtesy only, for the way in which Mary was showing her growing dislike for him was by refusing to grant him the crown matrimonial. It was believed that it was the influence of Rizzio which was chiefly instrumental in preventing Darnley from obtaining this object of his wishes. David Rizzio was an Italian adventurer, who had become private secretary to the Queen, and had rendered himself necessary to her by holding as he did all the threads of her correspondence with the Catholic powers abroad. Being engaged too in secret correspondences, he was often in close and intimate private conversation with her. Darnley's jealousy was excited against him; while the hatred of the Protestant party, who regarded him as the chief instrument of the Papal power in Scotland, and detested him for the upstart airs which he seems to have assumed, forgot for a moment their enmity with Darnley, and united in a plot in which Rizzio was to be the victim. Documents of association were drawn up between themselves and Darnley in March 1566, by which they pledged themselves to procure for him the crown matrimonial, and to secure the death of Rizzio; while he was to guarantee the recall of Murray, the restoration of the banished Lords, and the maintenance of

Murder of
Rizzio.

the Protestant religion. Meanwhile Mary, unwitting of the danger which threatened her, was preparing a fresh assault upon Murray. The Parliament was summoned chiefly for the purpose of passing a Bill of Attainder against him, and she had by her own personal influence succeeded in procuring the nomination as Lords of the Articles as the Committee was called which prepared measures for Parliament of men who would make no scruple in bringing in such a Bill of Attainder. It was necessary that such a step should be forestalled. The Lords of the Articles were nominated on the 7th, and in the evening of the 9th, the Earl of Morton, with a party of Douglases, quietly surrounded the Palace of Holyrood, while Ruthven, with George Douglas, Ker of Faldonside, and Darnley, went up to the Queen's apartments. She was sitting at supper with Rizzio and the Countess of Argyle, a French physician and other attendants were present. Darnley's duty was to hold the Queen. He drew near her, pretending to caress her-she drew back from his embrace; the stern form of Ruthven, deadly pale from a recent illness, met her eye standing in the doorway, the tapestry of which he had raised. She sprang up, exclaiming "Judas!" and demanded of Ruthven what he wanted. With bitter words he told her he had come for Rizzio, who had been with her too long already. He pushed the Queen into Darnley's arms, bade the attendants meddle with him at their peril, and calling his comrades to his assistance, dragged Rizzio out of the room and despatched him in the corridor. George Douglas struck the first blow with a dagger he had snatched from Darnley, crying, "This from the King." Bothwell and Huntly, and other friends of the Queen, who were in the palace, came down, astonished at the uproar, and at first seemed inclined to fight; but Ruthven disclosed the second act of the plot, telling them that the banished Earls would be there before morning: and finding themselves outnumbered, they thought it wiser to fly. Mary had been left quite alone in her rooms; none of her ladies were allowed to visit her. In that terrible loneliness she formed her plan of vengeance, and at once proceeded to act upon it. Darnley, weak and lustful, was the merest child in her hands. Before the day was over, she had half won him back by her caresses, had got her ladies restored to her, and sent messages to Bothwell and Huntly. In another day she had got from Darnley all the secrets of the conspiracy, and had persuaded him to fly with her from Holyrood, and take refuge in the castle of Dunbar.

Bothwell and her friends gathered round her, and in a few days

1566]

MARY AND BOTHWELL

Bothwell.

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she was able to return to Edinburgh at the head of a considerable army. She was thus strong enough to summon Morton, Ruthven, Lindsay, and others to answer for the murder, but they had already fled to England, and were outlawed. Mary's reconciliation with Darnley was the merest pretence; she loathed him with a great hatred, and they soon came again to quarrelling. Murray, Argyle, and Maitland, not having been present at the murder, were received into favour, and worked for a time with Bothwell and Huntly. This appearance was also fallacious. The Queen had determined upon the destruction of Darnley, and upon the ruin of Murray and his friends, but it was necessary for the time to keep up appearances. The man on whom she really leant was Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, a coarse and brutal Border noble, with an outward polish of manners learnt in France. With this man it was plain that she was falling violently in love. To this passion she had never yet fallen a prey. There was so much of nobleness in her character, that when once seized by it she was capable of any acts of self-denial and devotion. Such passionate love is a bad guide for a queen in such difficult circumstances as hers, and it was upon it that she made shipwreck of her life. There were two obstacles in the way of Bothwell's success in securing Mary for his wife-they were both of them married.

Meanwhile, Mary had a son (June 19, 1566), whose advent had been hailed as a possible means of healing the difficulties of the country. Elizabeth showed her good-will towards him by consenting to act as his godmother, and it was likely that his undisputed succession to the English throne might set that difficult question at rest. The events of his christening were however ominous ; Darnley, although in the house, refused to be present, and Bothwell did all the necessary duties. Already such of the nobles engaged in the conspiracy for the death of Rizzio as had been pardoned began to press for the recall of their banished comrades. Their hatred for Darnley, who had betrayed them, and was still instrumental in keeping their friends in banishment, was only equalled by that of the Queen and Bothwell, in whose way he stood. Community of interests drew these strange The Bond of parties together, and Bothwell at a meeting held at Craigmillar. Craigmillar, contrived to get the signatures of Argyle, Huntly, Maitland, and Sir James Balfour to a bond for securing the death of Darnley-"That for sae mickle as it was thought expedient and