An Accidental Tragedy (63 page)

Along the north wall were two coffins ‘much compressed’ by the weight of four or five lesser coffins heaped upon them. The second lowest was the coffin of Arabella Stuart, with bones and skull visible through the cracked lead coffin. The lower one was saturated with pitch and was deeply compressed by the weight above but the lead had not given way. This was the huge coffin of Mary, and it was decided not to open it or move it. The other occupants of this royal dumping ground were Henry, Prince of Wales, the son of James VI and I who had died in 1612; two infants of Charles I; Mary, Princess of Orange; Prince Rupert; Anne Hyde, the first wife of James II; Elizabeth of Bohemia; ten children of James II and the tragic eighteen children of Queen Anne, none of whom had achieved adulthood. ‘It was impossible to view this wreck and ruin of the Stuart dynasty without a wish if possible to restore something like order and decency amongst the relics of so much departed greatness.’ The investigators tidied up the coffins of the children and the various funerary urns but Mary’s coffin was left untouched. James’s coffin was found in the opposite aisle, nearer to Elizabeth than to his mother.

Mary’s tomb in London is magnificent but she lies among people she never knew and who were often her enemies. In Scotland, Mary is remembered by a replica of this tomb in the Museum of Scotland. In France there is nothing.

Mary Stewart, who lived ‘at a time when poetry and romance were the prevalent literature of the age’ had one of the most eventful lives it is possible to imagine, but it is difficult to find one as passive. Almost every one of the myriad events she experienced was the result of an accident, and the one event she went some way to initiate was the one which finally brought her to the scaffold. Mary Stewart is, therefore, remembered as part of a romantic tragedy – her role in that tragedy being the one of a thrice-widowed queen of great beauty. She was physically graceful, a keen dancer and horsewoman, enthusiastic for outdoor exercise, but intellectually no more than average for her position. When cornered in debate she always referred to her parentage and royal descent. No political or theological lessons had been learned from her Guise uncles, the careful tutelage of Diane de Poitiers in female guile was forgotten and the court diplomacy of Catherine de Medici was ignored. Mary enjoyed gallantry and flirtation but seemed to have had no interest in sex; socially she preferred the company of her close female friends and servants, to whom she was invariably kind, and only encouraged social interaction with male courtiers in the formal ceremonies of dances and pageants.

Her death was made unavoidable by the actions of her supporters – many of whom themselves went either to the block or a less merciful end – and she did nothing to deter these zealots. She allowed the effects of accidents to become overwhelming, until finally she, herself, was overwhelmed in a final accidental tragedy.

Appendix: The Scots Tongue

During the sixteenth century two languages were spoken in Scotland.

To the north and west of Glasgow the principal language was Gaelic, a Celtic language, totally different from English and generally only understood in the Highlands and Western Isles. In Galloway, to the south-west, there were still pockets of Gaelic speakers, although the Gaelic spoken there was closer to the version of the language spoken in Ireland. The rest of the country spoke various versions of Scots, and the argument as to whether these Scots tongues are a language or a dialect rages violently even today, when the debate has become coloured by political nationalism.

In 1074 Malcom Canmore’s queen, Margaret – herself Hungarian – complained that the clerics of the Scottish Church spoke nothing but Gaelic, but over the next 200 years the Anglian speech of Northumbria had spread north as far as the Moray Firth, and it is the root of Scots. The Wars of Independence and the physical barrier of the Cheviot Hills meant that from the late fourteenth century on Scots and English developed in different ways. The English court did not abandon French as its language until 1400; in Scotland, the court and the people spoke Scots.

By the sixteenth century Scotland was speaking Middle Scots, which had a rich background of literature and drama all of its own. Here the court, the law and the ordinary people all spoke in the same way and, even as far into modern times as the eighteenth century, the legal profession prided itself on the richness of its Scots vocabulary. The Reformation in Scotland saw a shift
towards English – John Knox was heavily criticised for his English accent – and there was no Reformed Bible in Scots.

In
The Complaynt of Scotland
, believed to have been written by Robert Wedderburn in 1549, the author makes a claim for using plain Scots language in place of Latin. When reading these extracts it must be remembered that the spelling was entirely literal and therefore everything should be pronounced precisely as it is spelt. A description of a farmyard awakening gives scope for much onomatopoeia: ‘Than the suyne began to quhryne quhen thai herd the asse rair quhilk gart the hennis kekkyl quhen the cockis creu.’ The author explains his thinking in using Scots: ‘For I thocht it not neccessair til hef fardit and lardit this tracteit with exquisite termis, quhilkis are nocht daily useit, bot rather I hef usit domestic Scottis langage, maist intelligibil for the vulgare pepil.’ However, it was not ‘intelligibil’ for visitors. English ambassadors in Mary’s Scotland would have found the speech impenetrable and French would have been used by both sides – much to Mary’s relief. Mary’s nurses and body servants would use Scots and she would have learnt it from them for use with her courtiers – who, as educated gentlemen would all also speak French.

The official language of government can be found in the minutes of the Privy Council. A case of a disturbance in Leith was raised before the council on 13 April 1572:

Forasmeikle as my Lord Regentis Grace and Lordis of Secreit Counsale, considering that not only are the troubles the langar, bot the greittar confusion remains within this toun of Leyth, quhair His Grace, the Counsale and College of Justice remains, becaus of the impunitie gevin to offenouris, fautoris and furnissars of the rebellis and disobedient subjectis . . . the former ordinances and proclamationis being neglectit and not put to full execution.

A literary master of Scots was George Buchanan, who wrote
The Chameleon
in 1570. It was an attack on Mary, Darnley and Bothwell, and opens with a description of a strange animal:

Thair is a certane kynd of beist callit chamleon endgerderit in sic contreis as the sone has mair strength in than in this isle of Brettane, the quhilk albeit it be small of corporance noghtheless it is of ane strange nature, the quhilk makis it to be na less celebrat and spoken of than sum Beastis of greittar quantity.

South of the border the Middle English of Chaucer was giving way to the modern English which would flower in the works of Shakespeare at the end of the century. The written English of the sixteenth century is easily understood today, although the richness of local accents would have made spoken English difficult to grasp – as is the case with some strong regional accents today. The gradual erosion of Scots in favour of English was vigorously encouraged in schools and broadcasting until very recently, and a rich and vivid vocabulary was nearly suppressed. Mercifully the tide was stemmed, and regional speech variations are now encouraged.

Notes on Sources

1
As goodly a child as I have seen

Quotations during the early marriage negotiations are from Sir Ralph Sadler,
State Papers and Letters
(Edinburgh, 1809), or
Hamilton Papers
(ed. Joseph Bain, Edinburgh, 1890–92). Other quotations from ambassadors (throughout the book) are in the various
Calendars of State Papers
, or in
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII
(Vaduz, 1965). For the condition of Scotland, Robert Lindesay of Pitscottie,
Historie and Cronicles of Scotland
(Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh, 1899), is useful, as is
A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents
(Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1833). Knox is quoted from John Knox,
The History of the Reformation in Scotland
(ed. W. Croft Dickinson, Edinburgh, 1949).

2
One of the most perfect creatures

A vital overview of the Rough Wooing is given by Marcus Merriman in the
The Rough Wooings
(East Linton, 2000), while a French view is given by Jean de Beaugué in
Histoire de la Guerre d’Ecosse: pendant les campagnes 1548 et 1549
(Maitland Club, Edinburgh, 1830). Pitscottie and the
Diurnal
give the Scottish background as does John Leslie in
The History of Scotland
(Scottish Text Society, 1888–95). Mary’s journey to France is well documented by Jane Stoddart in
The Girlhood of Mary, Queen of Scots
(London, 1908) and Mary’s childhood in general is dealt with by Joseph Stevenson, S.J., in
Mary Stuart, the First Eighteen Years of her Life,
(Edinburgh, 1886).

3
We may be very well pleased with her

For a general history in this period I used Frederic J. Baumgartner’s
France in the Sixteenth Century
(London, 1995). The same author’s
Henry II
(London, 1998) is a worthwhile biography, as are
Diane de Poitiers,
by Ivan Cloulas (Paris, 1997), Henry Sedgewick’s
The House of Guise
(London, 1938), and Lenonie Frieda’s
Catherine de Medici
(London, 2003). The
Memoires
(London, 1739) of Pierre de Brantôme and his
Oeuvres Complètes
(Paris, 1832), vols 2 and 5, are useful for quotations but are often unreliable, while Baron Alphonse de Ruble is authoritative in his
La Première Jeunesse de Marie Stuart
(Paris, 1891). For Mary’s arrival in France, see the recommended Baudouin-Matusek, ‘Mary Stewart’s Arrival in France’ (
Scottish Historical Review
, vol. 69, 1990). Mary’s letters are nearly all collected by Alexander Labanoff in
Receuil de Lettres, instructions et mémoires de Marie Stuart
(Paris, 1844–45), and can be identified chronologically. The list of female attributes can be found in
Selections from unpublished manuscripts . . . illustrating the Reign of Queen Mary
(Maitland Club, 1837).

4
The most amiable Princess in Christendom

Mary’s Latin ‘themes’ can be found in
Queen Mary’s Book
, by Mrs P. Stewart-Mackenzie Arbuthnot (London, 1907) and her ‘donations’ of the treaty of Fontainebleau are given in full by Labanoff. Details of her wedding are in
Discours du Grande et Magnifique Triomphe faict au Marriage de François et Marie Stuart
(Roxburghe Club, 1818) and in Douglas Hamer’s ‘The Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin’,
Library
, vol. 12, 1932.

5
She cannot long continue

Throckmorton’s despatches are given in full in the
Calendar of State Papers, Elizabeth
under the relevant dates. Noel Williams’s
Henry II, His Court and Times
(London, 1910) provides a thorough background for the reign.

6
She universally inspires great pity

Again Throckmorton’s despatches are thorough while the
Histoire de l’Estat de France . . . sous la regne de François II,
by Regnier de la Planche (Paris, 1576) is full of gossip. The coronation of François is covered in
An historical and chronological treatise of the anointing and coronation of the kings of France
by M. Menin (London, 1723). Elizabeth’s letters are quoted from the
Calendar of State Papers, Elizabeth
and the Scottish negotiations are in the
Calendar of State Papers, Scotland.

7
We had landed in an obscure country