The trouble in Scotland

Born in 1542, Mary became Queen of Scotland when she was just six days old. During her childhood Scotland was ruled by regents. In 1558 she married Francis, the heir to the French crown, and in July 1559 he became king, uniting the thrones of France and Scotland. Eight months earlier, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth had become Queen of England. 

But Francis died suddenly in 1560, and Mary, who had lived in France for most of her life, found herself no longer welcome there. She decided to return to Scotland to rule in person. What followed was an uneasy balancing act. As a Catholic queen, Mary struggled to govern a country that was officially Protestant and allied to its former enemy, England.

The balance tipped from 1565 after Mary married her cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who was a Catholic. Their son, James, was born the following year, but the marriage soon deteriorated. A series of disasters – the murder of David Rizzio, Mary’s secretary, by Darnley and others; the murder of Darnley himself; and Mary’s marriage to her adviser James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, three months later – led many Scottish nobles to rise against her.

Mary and Bothwell confronted their opponents on 15 June 1567. Mary surrendered and was imprisoned, on condition that Bothwell be allowed to go into exile. In July she was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son. The following May she escaped from her prison, Lochleven Castle – only for her forces to be defeated soon afterwards at Langside, near Glasgow.

Mary at Carlisle

Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Knollys, one of her trusted courtiers, to Carlisle to keep an eye on Mary. He was charmed by her in person:

She was a notable woman because she had no care for ceremonies beyond the acknowledgement of her royal estate; then she spoke freely to everyone, whatever their rank and showeth a disposition to speak much and to be bold and to be pleasant and to be very familiar.

However, he lived in constant fear that Mary would escape. He let her walk on the grass in front of the castle – thereafter known as ‘the lady’s walk’. Twice he allowed her to watch members of her entourage playing football against each other. But when she went out on horseback to hunt hare, ‘she galloping so fast upon every occasion’, he put his foot down and said that this could not happen again.

Having arrived with only a handful of attendants, Mary was allowed to send for many of her old staff, as well as her own clothing – she refused to wear anything else. Cartloads of clothes and personal effects soon arrived from Lochleven. Her numerous attendants included Mary Seton, a lady-in-waiting who had helped her escape from captivity in Scotland. The queen had cut off much of her hair after the Battle of Langside to escape recognition. But Mary Seton styled it so skilfully that ‘every other day-lighte … she hath a new devyce of head dressing’.

Mary borrowed money from city merchants to help her keep up a suitably royal appearance. However, the cost of maintaining her little court fell mainly on Queen Elizabeth. The English queen paid an average of £56 a week for commodities such as meat, fish, spices, biscuits, butter, peat for heating and wine.

A disastrous mistake

Whatever Mary may have hoped, her decision to seek refuge in England was a disastrous mistake. It put Elizabeth in a difficult position. Privately she sympathised with Mary, as a fellow monarch who had been imprisoned and deposed. However, both she and her advisers – most forcefully her chief adviser, William Cecil – saw Mary as highly dangerous.

As a Catholic with a claim to the English throne, Mary’s presence on English soil provided both a potential rallying point for Catholic rebels at home and a possible cause for invasion by Catholic powers abroad. If she was restored to the Scottish throne, England would be surrounded by Catholic countries. It suited the English to keep the Earl of Moray, Mary’s half-brother and a Protestant, as regent in Scotland.

Looming over Mary was the suspicion that she had been involved in the murder of her second husband, Darnley. Cecil and Moray soon exploited this.

Although Mary hoped for a swift return to her throne, in late May Knollys told her that there was no prospect of this unless she was cleared of murdering Darnley. Mary protested her innocence and refused to stand trial, insisting that only God could judge a sovereign. Despite her impassioned letters to the queen requesting a face to face meeting, Elizabeth would not budge.