Revenge and Aftermath
All in all, David Rizzio was stabbed 56 times, then his corpse was unceremoniously flung down the palace’s main stairs, and stripped of its jewels and fine clothes. In the meantime, Mary was held at gunpoint by her husband’s henchmen, one of whom pointed a pistol at her pregnant belly, while another threatened to stab her. By murdering the queen’s secretary in her presence, Darnley had not only sought to intimidate and bend his wife to his will, but also to shock the pregnant Mary into miscarrying.
Mary did not miscarry, and gave birth to the future king James in June of 1566. However, between seeing her psycho husband commit bloody murder in her presence, while his sidekicks threatened to visit deadly violence upon her and upon the baby in her womb, the queen was, understandably quite intimidated. After the deed was done and it was all over, Mary was forced to pardon Rizzio’s murderers. However, Darnley would not get away with it for long.
The queen’s husband soon fell out with his Protestant co-conspirators, and just two days after murdering David Rizzio, Darnley switched back to his wife’s Catholic faction. On the night of March 11-12, 1566, he helped Mary escape from her palace, now teeming with Protestants. However, Darnley’s change of heart was too late to save the marriage, which was irrevocably ruined by the murder of Rizzio.
Mary neither forgot what had happened nor forgave her husband. After giving birth in June of 1566, Mary bided her time, until November of that year, when she met with her loyal nobles to figure out what to do about the “problem of Darnley”. They decided that the queen’s husband had to go. As described by contemporaries: “It was thought expedient and most profitable for the common wealth … that such a young fool and proud tyrant should not reign or bear rule over them; … that he should be put off by one way or another; and whosoever should take the deed in hand or do it, they should defend“.
Mary’s leading ally in the ensuing plot to get rid of Darnley was James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who organized a plot to assassinate Darnley. On February 19th, 1567, explosives were detonated beneath Darnley’s bedroom. He survived the blast, but upon staggering out of the wreckage, he was seized and strangled to death. Three months later, Mary married Bothwell. The marriage turned out to be extremely unpopular, and united both Catholics and Protestants in denouncing the queen for marrying the man who had murdered her husband.
Mary and Bothwell raised an army against their opponents, but before any battle could be fought, the royal couple’s forces evaporated, as their men deserted them. Bothwell was allowed to leave, provided he left Mary behind. He jumped at the chance, and abandoned his wife to the tender mercies of her enemies. She was taken captive to Edinburgh, where she was denounced as an adulteress and murderess, and imprisoned. On July 24th, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son, James. She fled to England, where she got involved in further political intrigues, which ended with her beheading two decades later.
Also Read: The Investigations of the Murder of Lord Henry Darnley Will Shock You.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
British Heritage Travel – Did Mary Queen of Scots Kill Her Husband Lord Darnley?
General History – An Infamous Trio: Darnley, Bothwell, and Rizzio
History Today – The Murder of Darnley
Tudor Society – Murder of David Rizzio
Vintage News – Betrayal Upon Betrayal: The Sordid Plot to Overthrow Mary Queen of Scots