On 9th March 1566, David Rizzio, the private secretary
of Mary Queen of Scots' was assassinated in front of Mary, who was
heavily pregnant. Several members of the Douglas family were implicated.
Rizzio was born around 1533 near Turin, Italy, and is first recorded as
David Riccio di Pancalieri in Piemonte. He is known as David Rizzio,
David Riccio or David Rizzo.
An Italian musician, he became a
private secretary and confidante of Mary Queen of Scots before being
murdered at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh by a group of
Protestant lords including the Queen's husband, Lord Darnley.
John Guy, historian and author of “My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary
Queen of Scots”, describes David Rizzio as a “young Piedmontese valet
and musician, who had arrived in the suite of the ambassador of the Duke
of Savoy and stayed on as a bass in Mary’s choir”1. Mary obviously took
a liking to Rizzio because in late 1564 she chose him to replace her
confidential secretary and decipherer, Augustine Raulet, who was a Guise
retainer and the only person who Mary had trusted with a key to the box
which contained her personal papers. Raulet, for some reason, had lost
her trust.
At this time, Mary Queen of Scots was in love (or
perhaps ‘in lust’) with Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a man John Guy
describes as “a narcissist and a natural conspirator”, a man who liked
his drink and who was promiscuous. Darnley even slept with David Rizzio!
Mary married Darnley on Sunday 29th July 1565 at her private chapel at
Holyrood. The next day, heralds proclaimed Darnley’s new title of King
of Scotland.
Married bliss did not last long. John Guy writes of
how Darnley “was cynically exploiting religion for his own political
purposes”4 and that although Mary was prepared to govern Scotland with
her husband as equals, Darnley “expected her to cede all her power as a
reigning Queen to him” and believed that she was “his subordinate”5.
Darnley also held the view that “his authority was most clearly asserted
in bed”6. He sounds a bit of a monster! By Christmas 1565 the couple
were estranged, even though Mary was pregnant with Darnley’s baby. A
series of rows led to Mary ‘demoting’ Darnley and changing the legend on
coinage to read “Marie and Henry, by the Grace of God, Queen and King of
Scotland” instead of “Henry and Marie… King and Queen…”, and also
denying him of the right to bear the royal arms.
Immediately
after their marriage Darnley had started plotting to change Scotland’s
religion, with David Rizzio acting as one of his confidantes, and “his
actions put in jeopardy the religious compromise that Mary had worked so
shrewdly over the past four years to establish”. That, combined with his
behaviour in the bedroom, wrecked the marriage. Ambassador Thomas
Randolph reported to Robert Dudley: “I know for certain that this Queen
repenteth her marriage: that she hateth him and all his kin.”
In
early 1566, Darnley began plotting against Mary. Randolph reported that
there were “practices in hand to come to the crown against her will”.
Darnley was plotting with his father, Matthew Stuart 4th Earl of Lennox,
and William Maitland, who had turned against Mary when she had
marginalized him by appointing David Rizzio as her secretary. Lennox
also managed to get James Stuart, Earl of Moray, involved in the plot.
The plan was complex:- “He was to contact Moray and the exiled Lords
in England, and if they would agree to grant Darnley the ‘crown
matrimonial’ in the next Parliament, and so make him lawfully King of
Scots, then Darnley would switch sides, recall the exiles home, pardon
them, and forbid the confiscation of their estates. Finally, he would
perform the ultimate U-turn and re-establish the religious status quo as
it had existed at the time of Mary’s return from France… Darnley would
become King with full parliamentary sanction, Moray and his allies would
be re-instated as if they had never rebelled, and the Protestant
Reformation settlement would be restored.”
The success of the
plot rested on there being a scapegoat, “someone to blame for misleading
Darnley and orchestrating the recent swing towards Catholicism” and who
better than David Rizzio, personal secretary to the Queen and the man
who Darnley had been led to believe, by Maitland, was sleeping with his
wife. Darnley felt betrayed by his former lover, who was also said to be
a papal agent, so it wasn’t a tough choice. As John Guy says, “almost
overnight, and by a masterful propaganda exercise, the unfortunate
Rizzio was transformed into the Queen’s illicit lover”. Maitland
informed Elizabeth I’s chief adviser, William Cecil, of the proposed
plot and Randolph informed Dudley, neither did anything to prevent it.
At 8pm on the night of Saturday 9th March 1566, Lord Darnley and a
large group of conspirators (around 80 men) made their way through the
Palace of Holyroodhouse to the Queen’s supper chamber where she was
enjoying a meal with Rizzio and some other friends. Darnley entered
first, to reassure his heavily pregnant wife, and then Lord Ruthven, in
full armour, entered the room informing Mary that Rizzio had offended
her honour. Mary asked him to leave, saying that any offence committed
by Rizzio would be dealt with by the Lords of Parliament, but she was
ignored and Ruthven ordered Darnley to hold her. Mary got up angrily and
the terrified Rizzio hid behind her as Mary’s friends tried to grab
Ruthven, who drew his dagger. Ruthven and another man then proceeded to
stab Rizzio who was then hauled out of the room. Mary could not do
anything to help him, she had a pistol pointed at her.
Rizzio was
then stabbed multiple times, with the final blow being delivered by Lord
Darnley’s dagger, although he was not the one brandishing it. Mary
reported that her secretary was stabbed 56 times before the gang of
assassins fled. When she confronted Darnley, wanting to know why he had
been a part of such “a wicked deed”, he replied that she had cuckolded
him with Rizzio and that Rizzio was to blame for the problems in their
marriage. After this argument between the King and Queen, Rizzio’s
lifeless body was thrown down the stairs and Mary was kept guarded, a
sentry put at her door. However, the wily Queen wasted no time planning
her escape. She managed to see Darnley by himself, offering to make love
to him, and then “beguiled him with soothing words”.
Mary was
able to persuade her husband to escape with her, which they did,
escaping to the home of the sister of the Earl of Bothwell. On the 18th
March, Mary entered Edinburgh with her troops which numbered 3-5000 and,
after a few days, moved into the castle to prepare for the birth of her
baby. Her enemies fled to England. She had won.
Darnley did get
his come-uppance when he was murdered on the 10th February 1567. The
Earl of Bothwell was implicated in his murder and he later took Mary
hostage, allegedly raping her so that she would marry him. Mary Queen of
Scots married the Earl of Bothwell on the 15th May 1567.
Amongst
those implicated in the murder of David Riccio/Rizzio, secretary to
Mary, Queen of Scots were: James Erle of Mortoun,
William Douglas of Quittinghame,
Mr. Archibald Douglas his Brother, George Douglas, callit
the postulat Sone naturale to Archibald Erle of Argus,
Mr. Thomas
Douglas of Clappertoun, James
Douglas of Knytisrig, Johne Douglas in the
Schiell, Hector Douglas in Spittlebauch, James Douglas thair. In his
account of the affair, Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven, himself one of
the conspirators, mentions
William Douglas of Loch Leven.
Archibald Douglas of Whittinghame was obliged to retire to
France for some time. But Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, secured his return
to Scotland, where Douglas then successfully negotiated the pardons of
the other conspirators, gazetted on 25th December 1566.
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