Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Darnley was born in England of mixed Scottish and English ancestry. He was related to
the royal families of both countries and his relatives were deeply involved in the political
rivalry and diplomatic manoeuvres between the two nations and their sovereigns. When he
married Mary in 1556, Darnley was 19; she was three years older and the widow of the King
of France. Although Mary was initially very fond of her husband, their marriage was not
happy. Less than eight months after the wedding Darnley was implicated in the violent killing
of Mary's secretary, David Riccio, who was stabbed to death in front of the pregnant queen.
Thereafter, they lived largely separate lives.
Early in the morning of 10 February 1567, the bodies of Darnley and his servant were
found in the garden of the Old Provosts' House at Kirk O'Field, then on the outskirts of Ed-
inburgh, the Scottish capital. This is shown in the upper right-hand part of the plan. Although
a dagger was found lying on the ground nearby, the bodies bore no wounds or marks to in-
dicate how the men had died; they may have been suffocated. The house itself had been des-
troyed by an explosion (shown left of the centre) during the night. The groups of figures in
the lower part of the plan represent Darnley's corpse being carried away and buried. Nobody
was ever convicted of killing the two men, although James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell -
who became Mary's third husband soon afterwards - was widely blamed at the time. It is now
thought that a group of Scottish noblemen, including Bothwell, planned Darnley's murder.
Darnley and Mary's baby son, James, is depicted on the upper left-hand side of the plan.
Although he was not old enough to talk, artistic licence has been employed to portray him
as offering a prayer for divine retribution against his father's killers. A few months after this
plan was drawn, Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of James. After spending many years
under house arrest in England, she was convicted of plotting against Elizabeth and executed
in 1587. When Elizabeth died in 1603, King James VI of Scotland succeeded her as James I
of England. Through him, Mary and Darnley are direct ancestors of the present British Royal
Family.
