Heretic Queen by Susan Ronald

Edinburgh that there had been an almighty disturbance at the Palace at Holyrood and the queen needed help. The city’s alarm bell sounded, and the people rushed into the grounds of the palace.
    Seeing the swelling crowd, Darnley coolly stepped up to the balcony window of the room where the slaughter had taken place moments before to reassure the people that the queen’s “attackers” had been dealt with, that all was again well, and that they should return to their homes. Mary grasped how dire her situation was and so, stifling her revulsion at what had just transpired, played up to Darnley. He was a drunk and a weakling in her eyes, having taken her enemies as his friends in the murder of poor Rizzio—only to gain the crown matrimonial.
    Mary set about persuading Darnley that his “friends” had effectively succeeded in a coup d’état that would leave him just as vulnerable as she. Before daybreak, Darnley had seen the error of his ways. What Mary hadn’t known at this juncture was that Moray had been involved in the plot as well.
    At midnight on the second evening after Rizzio’s murder, Mary and Darnley quietly made their way down the same privy staircase by which the plotters had entered the supper room. They were met outside by Lord Erskine and two or three loyal soldiers with horses, in the shadow of Rizzio’s newly dug grave. Under the cover of a cloudy night, they made good their escape to Dunbar Castle in a furious five-hour ride. Despite the shock of the attack, Rizzio’s murder, and the helter-skelter ride, Mary showed no signs of miscarrying.
    On March 15, Mary wrote an impassioned letter to Elizabeth about her ordeal. She described the butchery of David Rizzio before her very eyes and appealed to Elizabeth to beware of such unforeseen betrayals herself. Meanwhile, Bothwell and Huntly joined the queen and Darnley at Dunbar along with Atholl and other loyal noblemen. Two days later, she had four thousand men at her command. By the time Mary retook Edinburgh at the head of an army of eight thousand men on March 18, 1566, Darnley rode beside her, reduced to the standing of a surly cipher. The murderers fled for exile in England. Sir William Maitland, who had known everything in advance but said nothing, made for Dunkeld. The fire-and-brimstone leader of the Scottish Kirk, John Knox, exiled himself to Ayrshire, for fear of being cut down in the swathe of retribution which he was sure must follow.
    Yet in a stunning tour de force, Mary decided to pardon all rebels who had lined up against her in the Chaseabout Raid. Moray, too, was forgiven despite Mary’s previous intransigence. Only Darnley would have a fitting end reserved to him for his treachery. As Maitland reported in October 1566, “he [Darnley] misuses himself so far towards her that it is an heartbreak for her to think that he should be her husband.” 9

 
    PART II
    The Catholic Ascendancy, 1566–1580

 
    NINE
    Betrayal amid Dreamy Spires
    I feel by myself, being also here wrapped in miseries and tossed … in a sea swelling with storms of envy, malice, disdain, suspicion.
    â€”Sir William Cecil to Sir Henry Sidney, 1566
    It seemed that everyone besides Darnley knew his days were numbered. Undoubtedly, the situation in Scotland also played a discordant tune to Philip II’s and Pius V’s ready ears. Still, just how the Scottish affair would end—and when—was a mystery, one that England would need to watch closely for its own security. Though Mary claimed to her subjects that Moray’s rebellion had not been religiously inspired, she had been quick to demand aid from the pope on religious grounds. The murder of Rizzio, whether a papal agent or not, fueled Pius’s ire against Elizabeth for the simple reason that the perpetrators (save Lennox and Darnley) were Protestants.
    That June, through their own secret channels, Elizabeth and her councillors were made