An Accidental Tragedy (76 page)

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Authors: Roderick Graham

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The north wing of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Mary’s apartments were on the middle floor, and her supper-room was behind the left-hand window.

Edinburgh Castle. James VI was born in the room behind the tiny window high on the extreme left.

Elizabeth I of England, Mary’s cousin. Here she wears pearls and has a pomander at her girdle, but she was politically implacable and intellectually brilliant. Nicknamed the ‘Virgin Queen’ she was, in fact, devotedly married to England.
Reproduced by permission of the National Portrait Gallery

James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, and Mary’s third husband. ‘A glorious rash and hazardous young man’, Bothwell was an aristocratic bandit. After Mary’s surrender at Carberry Hill he fled to Denmark, where he died insane after eleven years in grim solitary imprisonment.
Portrait of James Hepburn
,
4th Earl of Bothwell
,
c.1535–1578 by an unknown artist
©
National Galleries of Scotland

Craigmillar Castle, a few miles south of Edinburgh, where the Confederate Lords plotted the murder of Darnley, almost certainly with Mary’s knowledge.

Hermitage Castle, Bothwell’s implacable fortress in the Scottish borders. Legend has it that anyone not locally born will go mad if they attempt to spend the night within its walls.

The banner carried by the Confederate Lords at the battle of Carberry. It shows the murdered Darnley lying in a garden while a child holds a caption saying, ‘Judge and avenge my cause O Lord.’
Reproduced by permission of the National Archives, HM Stationery Office
.

Lochleven Castle. The loch has risen since Mary’s time here. Apart from the circumstances of her imprisonment, it is an idyllic spot.

Mary’s last letter, written to her brother-in-law, Henri III of France. She set out the circumstances surrounding her fate and asked for care to be taken of her servants. Mary wrote the letter at 2 a.m., and she knew that she would be beheaded in eight hours. Her writing is firm and legible. ©
The Trustees of the National Library of Scotland

The replica of Mary’s Westminster tomb in the Museum of Scotland. The effigy has none of the royal pomp of other tombs but is devout and prayerful. Mary had asked to be buried in France beside her relatives, but instead of that, her son, James VI and I, had her buried in London beside Elizabeth Tudor.
Reproduced by permission of the National Museums of Scotland

Table of Contents

Author biography

Copyright page

Dedication page

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

Family trees

PART I : Scotland, 1542–48

1 As goodly child as I have seen

2 One of the most perfect creatures

PART II : France, 1548–61

3 We may be very well pleased with her

4 The most amiable Princess in Christendom

5 She cannot long continue

6 She universally inspires great pity

PART III : Scotland, 1561–68

7 We had landed in an obscure country

8 Dynastic entity

9 The dancing grows hot

10 Yonder long lad

11 She wished she had never been married

12 Some evil turn

13 It does not appertain to subjects to reform their prince

PART IV : England, 1568–87

14 Whistling in the dark

15 A lawful prisoner?

16 My fortune has been so evil

17 Stranger, papist and enemy

18 To trap her in a snare

19 You are but a dead woman

20 A place near the kings

Appendix: The Scots Tongue

Note on sources

Bibliography

Index

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