David Rizzio and Mary Queen of Scots

Murder at Holyrood

David Tweedie

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2011
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780752470818
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

On the evening of 9 March 1566, a raiding party forced their way into the palace of Holyrood House and stabbed Italian secretary, David Rizzio to death while he was at supper with Mary, Queen of Scots. The attack was savage and brutal - Rizzio was stabbed over fifty times - and Mary's husband, Darnley, was among the conspirators.

David Rizzio came to Scotland in 1561. There, he rose to power and influence in the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was her secretary, chief minister and the architect of her plan to avoid Scotland turning into a Calvanist republic. It was also rumoured that he was her lover and father of her child, James VI and I.

David Tweedie explains how Rizzio so enraged the Scots lords that they plotted his murder. He points to the complicity of Elizabeth and her ministers and shows that Rizzio's murder was a serious political event, since with his death, died the possibility of religious counter-reformation in Scotland. While the other men in Mary's life have received their dur from the historians, Rizzio remains a shadowy figure. This book restores the balance and explores one of the most shocking events of Mary's colourful reign.

Notes

Prologue

1.	George Buchanan, History of Scotland, vol. II (Edinburgh, 1752), p. 309.
2.	CSP Scotland, vol. II, 1563–1569, ed. Joseph Bain (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 222.

Chapter One

1.	The poet Buchanan composed an elaborate poem, an epithalamium about the marriage, to advertise the delights of Scotland to the French. It has 283 sonorous Latin verses.
2.	Sir James Melville, The Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill, ed. Gordon Donaldson, Folio Society (London, 1969), p. 36.
3.	Michel Duchein, at the Collogue IRIS, Institut du monde anglophone, Paris 75006, 21 June 2001.
4.	Lord Herries, Historical Memoirs of the Reign of Mary Queen of Scots, and a Portion of the Reign of King James VI (Edinburgh, 1836), p. 54.
5.	Prince A. Labanoff (ed.), Lettres, instructions et mémoires de Marie Stuart, Reine d’Écosse (London, 1844), vol. VII, p. 89: ‘Primo bastardo di Scotia’, as Mary described him in her dispatch to Cosimo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, dated 8 October 1566.
6.	CSP Simancas, p. 222, Quadra to the Duchess of Parma, 3 January 1562.
7.	David Calderwood, History of the Kirk in Scotland, vol. I, Woodrow Society (Edinburgh, 1843), p. 204.
8.	The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing, Woodrow Society (Edinburgh, 1848–64), vol. II, p. 285; ‘The Devil, now finding his reins loosed, ran forward in his course; and the Queen took upon her greater boldness than she and Baal’s bleating priests durst have attempted before. For upon All Hallows day they blended up their Mass with all mischievous solemnity’ (ibid.).
9.	CSP Milan, 22 May 1527. King Henry was away hunting near Windsor, but wanted ‘the usual diligence shown with regard to the divorce’ (p. 484).
10.	Father J.H. Pollen, Papal Negotiations with Mary Queen of Scots, Scottish History Society (Edinburgh, 1901), 30 November 1561. Monsignor Commendone writing from Brussels to Cardinal Borromeo, with the latest news from the Spanish Ambassador in England. ‘Monsieur de Foix, sent by the Queen Mother of France, and Monsignor Morretta from the Duke of Savoy, have reached London, and after visiting the Queen of England, desired to go on to Scotland, but separately’ (p. 68).
11.	CSP Simancas, p. 219.
12.	Ibid., p. 282.
13.	Ibid., p. 279.
14.	CSP Scotland, vol. I, 1547–1563, ed. Joseph Bain (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 579.
15.	Randolph wrote copious secret dispatches from Edinburgh; not just to Sir William Cecil, the principal Secretary of State, but also to Lord Leicester and the other members of the English Privy Council, most of which survive and are printed in the Calendars of State Papers. They give a vivid picture of life at Mary’s northern court.
16.	Sir James Balfour Paul (ed.), Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol XI (Edinburgh, 1916), p. 94.
17.	CSP Scotland, vol. I, p. 532.
18.	The Works of John Knox, ed. Laing, vol. II, p. 294.
19.	Joseph Robertson (ed.), Inventaires de la Royne Descosse Douairiere de France, Bannantyne Club (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 130.

Chapter Two

1.	The works of Martin Luther when first printed had a German circulation of no less than 400,000 copies. Personal information given by Dr Gottfried Seebass of the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Conference of the Society for Reformation Studies, Cambridge, April 2001.
2.	The Geneva Bible came to influence the consciences of both English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters alike. More than 140 editions were published in the eighty-four years between 1560 and 1644.
3.	Iain Ross, The Gude and Godlie Ballatis (Edinburgh, 1939), p. 62.
4.	The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing, Woodrow Society (Edinburgh, 1848–64), vol. VI, p. xxi.
5.	Ibid., vol I, p. 149.
6.	Ibid., vol. II, p. 279.
7.	T. Thomson and C. Innes (eds), Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1814–75), vol. II, p. 525; ‘Long have we thirsted, dear Brethren to have notified unto the world for some of that doctrine which we professed, and for the which we have sustained infamy and danger. But such has been the rage of Satan against us, and against Christ Jesus his eternal verity lastly born amongst us which to this day and time has been granted unto us to clear our con...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Note on the Text
• Prologue
• One: Mary’s Glittering Court
• Two: Religious Frenzy
• Three: English Policy
• Four: The Courtly Singer
• Five: The New Secretary
• Six: The Arrival of Lord Darnley
• Seven: The Fall of Moray
• Eight: Bothwell to the Rescue
• Nine: Rizzio Resplendent
• Ten: The Fatal Conspiracy
• Eleven: Mary’s Account
• Twelve: The English Exult
• Thirteen: The Queen’s Lover?
• Fourteen: The Legend of Rizzio
• Postscript
• Notes
• Note on Principal Sources
• Bibliography