Research Results For 'Lord Darnley'

DAVID RIZZIO

David Rizzio was an Italian musician. He was born in 1533 at Pancalieri and died in 1566. He went to Scotland as an attendant of an Italian envoy and while there attracted the attention of Mary Queen of Scots, who gave him an appointment in her court, first as a singer in the chapel, then as a valet de chambre, and finally as secretary. The promotion of a Roman Catholic foreigner aroused suspicion of a Popish plot, and Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, suspected Mary and David Rizzio of being lovers and took little persuasion from other jealous nobles that he should be murdered. On March the 9th 1566 at Holyrood, David Rizzio was dragged from Mary's presence and murdered, suffering 56 separate injuries in a frenzied attack.
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EARL OF BOTHWELL

James Hepburn, the earl of Bothwell, was a Scottish nobleman. He was born about 1526 and died in 1576. It is believed that he was deeply concerned in the murder of Lord Darnley, Queen Mary's husband, and that he was even supported by the queen. He was charged with the crime and tried, but, appearing along with 4000 followers, was readily acquitted. He was now in high favour with the queen, and with or without her consent he seized her at Edinburgh, and carrying her a prisoner to Dunbar Castle prevailed upon her to marry him after he had divorced his own wife. But by this time the mind of the nation was roused on the subject of Bothwell's character and actions. A confederacy was formed against him, and in a short time Mary was a prisoner in Edinburgh, and Bothwell had been forced to flee to Denmark, where he died in 1576.
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HENRY BALNAVES

Henry Balnaves of Halhill was a Scottish reformer. He was born in about 1500 at Kirkcaldy and died in 1579. Educated at St Andrews he became a lord of session and a member of the Scottish parliament in 1538. He was one of the commissioners appointed in 1543 to treat of the proposed marriage between Edward VI and Mary. In 1547 he was one of the prisoners taken in the castle of St Andrews and exiled to France. Recalled in 1554, he busily engaged in the establishment of the reformed faith; assisted in revising the Book of Discipline, and accompanied Murray to England in connection with Lord Darnley's murder.
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JAMES BALFOUR

Sir James Balfour was a Scottish lawyer and politician. He was born about 1522 and died in 1583. He took part in the conspiracy against Cardinal Beaton, and was condemned with Knox to the galleys; but after his release found it to his interest to change his opinions, and latterly he was appointed, through the favour of Queen Mary, Lord of Session and member of the privy-council. In 1567 he was appointed governor of Edinburgh Castle, but had no scruple in surrendering it to Murray, who made him president of the Court of Session. He was charged with a share in the murder of Lord Darnley, and helped to bring Regent Morton to his death. The Practicks of Scots Law, attributed to him, was long a text-book.
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LORD DARNLEY

Lord Darnley (Henry Stewart) was the second husband of Mary Queen of Scots and the father of James I. He was born in 1545 and died in 1567. He was the son of the Earl of Lennox and Lady Margaret Douglas, a niece of Henry VIII, and by her first marriage queen of James IV.

His marriage to Mary was an unfortunate match, and for a long time gave rise first to coolness, then to open quarrel, and finally to deadly hate, which the murder of Rizzio, to which Lord Darnley was a party, only increased. Mary affected, however, to be reconciled to him, but could not long conceal her contempt for the handsome imbecile. After the birth of a sou, subsequently James VI, Lord Daruley was seized at Glasgow with smallpox, from which he had barely recovered when Mary visited him, and had him conveyed to an isolated house called Kirk of Field, close to the Edinburgh city walls. This dwelling, which belonged to a retainer of Bothwell's, the rapidly rising favourite, was blown into the air with gunpowder on the 10th of February, 1567. The dead bodies of the king and his page were found in a field at a distance of 80 yards from the house, quite free from any mark which such an explosion would cause. Strong circumstantial evidence points to Bothwell as the murderer, and to Mary as an accomplice in the crime.
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