Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley, Alison Weir, c. 2003.

This may be the best of Alison Weir's books -- particularly to understand England / Scotland relationship; feud between cousins, Elizabeth 1 and Mary, Queen of Scots. 

Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley, Alison Weir, c. 2003. BMAR.

Wow, wow, wow. I am a huge fan of Alison Weir who is probably the #1 historian of British royalty from the 1400s to the 1800s. She has a little cottage industry going.

I picked up 2003 Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley mostly as a lark. 

But as soon as I started reading, this turned out to be so very important. 

Henry VIII's assumption of the throne was a huge, huge, huge deal, but wow, at the time of Henry VIII's death -- a huge change in the relationship among Scotland, England, and France, and a huge change in the Protestant / Catholic relationship in Scotland and England.

This is a keeper.

This is Scottish history, or at least it begins with Scottish history.

Scotland: history of Kings dying before their heirs were yet six years old, and thus others actually ran the country for the heir until he/she became of age (12 years of age).

So, with Mary. 

The first chapter is "The Three Crowns," so at the end of the chapter, we have to be able to "name" the three crowns.

This story takes place in the mid-1500s.

It begins with an explosion. A huge explosion. An explosion that kills the queen's consort in Edinburgh.

The layout.

To the south of the city of Edinburgh, a ruined Kirk of St. Mary in the Fields, Kirk o'Field -- wiki. Attached to this ruin, was a quadrangle of collegiate buildings. In one of them, his temporary lodgings, was sleeping Queen Mary's convalescent consort, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

Mary had just left the lodgings bound for Holyrood Palace. 

So, the genealogy and beginnings.

James V of Scotland and second wife, Marie de Guise --> Mary born December 8, 1542, at Linlithgow Palace. 

At six days of age, Mary becomes Queen of Scots.

1543, one year of age:

• Mary's cousin and next heir, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, to be the Governor of the Realm until Mary attains her majority, at age 12. 

Hamilton / Arran: a Protestant.

King of England, Henry VIII, wanted Mary to marry his five-year-old heir and son, Prince Edward, to unite England and Scotland.

That was arranged.

The Scottish Catholics were incensed, and a Catholic-dominated Scottish parliament stopped that.

Meanwhile, same year, 1543, reads like a made-up story, Matthew Stuart, 4th Earl of Lennox, shows up in Edinburgh, returns from his power base of Glasgow (look at the map). He had been born, 1516, at Dumbarton -- wiki. He hhad succeeded his earldom at age of 10, so he's about 27 years old. He succeeded after his father by Arran's bastard half-brother.

So, we already have the bad blood between Arran and Lennox, Stuarts of Dumbarton.

Both Arran and Lennox were descended from an earlier Scottish royal, Mary, daughter of James II. 

[It seems like we moved from James II to the early Mary to James V pretty quickly.]

So, again, the feud between the Lennox Stuarts and the Hamiltons. Hamiltons were close friends of the English king.

Lennox Stuart, himself a turncoat, fled Scotland in 1531 to join with the French. Twelve years -- 1543 --  later he returns to Scotland and wants to marry Marie de Guise (see above -- married James V and their daughter was to become, Mary, Queen of Scots, herself. So, remember, in 1531, he's about 15 years old, and in 1543, 27 years old.

Marie de Guise says no, and Lennox Stuart unites with England. Henry VIII bestows upon him, the hand of his niece Lady Margaret Douglas.

Lennox Stuart - Lady Margaret Douglas: married 1544.

Now, look at this: Margaret. This Margaret was a Tudor, an older sister of Henry VIII, but she marries a Scot, Lennox Stuart, but Margaret is still a Tudor (important below).

Margaret was a Tudor. Margaret Tudor.

Margaret was the daughter of Henry VIII's older sister, Margaret Tudor. 

So, why was she "Margaret Douglas" and not Margaret Tudor -- another marriage? Margaret Tudor (the elder, obviously married a Douglas). 

Margaret Tudor (the elder) was the widow of James IV AND the grandmother, Queen of Scots!

Margaret Tudor (the elder) remarries, Archibald Douglas, Earl of Agnus, it's their baby Mary, that becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.

Mary, Queen of Scots, was therefore near in blood to the English throne. Remember, her mother is Margaret, a Tudor who happened to marry Lennox, a Scot and a turncoat.

Margaret was a devout Catholic; Lennox a recent convert to Protestantism, tempered his views to placate his Catholic wife. 

Continue, page 10, at the top.

 

 

 

 

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