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The Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry Stuart, Duke of Albany (Lord Darnley).

On Sunday, 29th July 1565, Mary, Queen of Scots, married her cousin, Henry Stuart, in the Chapel Royal in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, at the somewhat unusual hour of 6am. This would be a second marriage for Mary, who had married the then Dauphin François in a magnificent ceremony in Paris in 1558. François died in December 1560, after a short reign as King of France and Mary, days before her eighteenth birthday then became a widow. She returned to Scotland, which she had left as a five-year-old in 1548, and which she scarcely knew, in August 1561.

Darnley was born in Temple Newsam, Yorkshire, to Matthew Stuart, 4th Earl of Lennox and Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus and Margaret Tudor, Dowager Queen of Scotland. Mary and Darnley were both grand-children of Margaret Tudor, though from her first and second marriages respectively, making them half first cousins. As a grandson of Margaret Tudor and via his descent from James II (of Scotland) Darnley therefore had claims to both the Scottish and English thrones. There is some uncertainty regarding Darnley’s date of birth; this has traditionally been said to have been 7th December 1545, though it is possible that his actual year of birth was 1546.

Darnley was tall, slim, handsome and athletic and at about 6’2”, was taller than Mary’s 5’11”. He was a good rider and excelled at those accomplishments expected of a young courtier in that era. He sang and played the lute well and wrote reasonable poetry. He was well educated according to the standards of the day and was tutored at home by John Elder. According to the Scottish diplomat Sir James Melville he had been “well instructed from youth in all honest and comely exercises” [i].

In many ways, at least on the surface, the semi-royal Darnley would have appeared a suitable husband for the young Queen of Scots. Other candidates for Mary’s hand had included Don Carlos, Philip II’s troubled son, the Archduke Charles, son of Emperor Ferdinand I (and nephew of the Emperor Charles V) and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; for various reasons none of these possibilities had come to fruition, Mary herself turned down the Archduke Charles, Philip the marriage with his son, while Leicester refused to consider the possibility of a union with the Queen of Scots. Darnley was also, at least superficially, a Catholic which made him acceptable to Mary, though of course, that was a cause of concern to the many Protestant nobles, and to reformers such as John Knox.

Darnley and Mary had met in France in 1559 when he had travelled there, accompanied by his tutor, John Elder, to congratulate Mary and François II on their accession to the French throne; he is believed to have travelled to France again early in 1561, following the death of François II, to offer condolences from his family. They did not meet again until February 1565 when Darnley arrived at the Scottish court from England. According to Melville “Her Majesty took well with him and said that he was the lustiest and best proportioned lang (tall) man that she had seen”. Mary and Darnley seem to have got on well but there did not seem to be any signs of a specific emotional attachment until he became ill in April with what was said to have been measles (Darnley is believed to have suffered from syphilis, in which case what appeared to have been measles may in fact have been an early symptom). Mary spent a great deal of time with him in his sickroom and they seem to have become close during that time. By May he had recovered from his illness.

On 15th May 1565 Darnley was created Earl of Ross, a sign of the Queen’s favour. On 22nd July the banns of marriage were called and “after dinner, with all the solemnities requisite he was created Duke of Albany” as Sir Thomas Randolph put it in his letter to Cecil of 23rd July [ii]. The night before the marriage, that is Saturday 28th July, “to the sound of trumpets, (Darnley) was proclaimed king” [iii].

Randolph’s letter to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester of 31st July, gives a description of the wedding ceremony:-

“The manner of the marriage was in this sort. Upon Sunday in the morning between v (5 am) and vi (6 am) she was conveyed by divers of her nobles at the Chappell. She had upon her back the great mourning gown of black, with the great white mourning hood, not unlike unto that she wore the doleful days of the burial of her husband (François II). She was led into the Chappell by the Earls Lennox and Atholl, and there was she left until her husband came, which also was conveyed by the same lords. The ministers, priests .....there received them. The banns are asked the third time and an instrument taken by a Notarie that no man said against them, or alleged any cause why the marriage should not proceed. The words were spoken. The rings, which were three, the middle a rich diamond were put upon her finger. They kneel together and many prayers said over them. She tarried at the Mass; and he taketh a kiss and leaveth her there and went to her chamber; whither within a space she followed, and there being required to off the solemnity of her care, and leave aside those sorrowful garments, and give herself to a pleasanter life, after some pretty refusal, which I believe more for manner sake than grief of heart, she suffered them that stood by ..... to take out a pin (from her mourning garments) .... .and so being committed unto her Ladies, changed her garments; but went not to bed; to signify unto the world that it was no lust that moved them to marry, but only the necessity of her Country, not, if God will, to leave it destitute of an heir. Suspicious men, or such as are given of all things to make the worst, would that it should be believed that they knew each other before that they came there. I would not your lordship should so believe, the likelihoods are so great to the contrary, that if it were possible to see such an act done, I would not believe it. off white garments suitable for wedding

After the marriage followed the cheer and dancing. To their dinner, they were conveyed by the whole nobility. The trumpets sounded, a largesse cried, and money thrown about the house in great abundance ...... They serve her these Earls, Atholl, Morton and Crawford. They serve him in like offices, Earls Elgin, Cassels and Glancarn. After dinner they dance awhile and retire themselves until the hour of supper, and as they dined so do they sup; some dancing there was and so they go to bed”.

The festivities lasted three days. On the Monday after the marriage, 30th July, Darnley was proclaimed king again “ ..... the Lords, all that were in this town were present at the proclaimings of him again”. This was received in silence “no man said as much as Amen, saving his father, who cried out aloud God Save his Grace” [iv]. The reaction to this second announcement may however have been caused by the further proclamation that from then on all official documents would be signed by both jointly in the names MARIE and HENRY, that is “set out in the names of both their Majesties as King and Queen of Scotland conjunctly”. A silver ryal was minted at Edinburgh in 1565 to commemorate the marriage showing Darnley’s name before that of Mary and his portrait on the left-hand side, where the reigning monarch would usually be depicted. This coin was withdrawn later that year.

As is well known this marriage was to prove catastrophic for both Mary and Darnley, though for somewhat different reasons. Elizabeth I was furious at the marriage [v] Mary’s half-brother James Stewart, Earl of Moray, was in almost open rebellion, and within a very short time, Darnley was to show his less agreeable qualities. Historical opinion and comment on Darnley has been scathing and critical for centuries. He has been described as vain, arrogant, violent, promiscuous, with heavy drinking also among his other undesirable traits. Moreover, he did not seem to have understood the demands of rulership and that Mary could not give him her undivided attention which he appears to have expected. Darnley seems to have been extremely immature, though he was in fact very young, only eighteen at the time of his marriage, assuming a date of birth of 1546.

Mary and Darnley’s marriage was successful in at least one respect as it led to the birth of a son, James, who was born on 19th June 1566. Before his son’s first birthday, Darnley had been murdered (at Kirk o’ Field in February 1567) and in July of that year, Mary had been deposed, and James was King of Scots aged thirteen months. He became King of England in 1603 after the death of Elizabeth; James is the ancestor of all subsequent monarchs of Scotland and England.

However, on the day of Mary and Darnley’s marriage, their tragedies were in the future, so one hopes that, given their fates, they were able to put aside all the political problems and difficulties and that they enjoyed their wedding festivities.

HG1

References:
[i]: Melville, p 134
[ii]: Ellis, Randolph letter to Cecil, pp 198 - 200.
[iii Ellis, Randolph to Leicester, pp 200 – 204
[iv]: Ibid, p 202
[v]: The intrigue at the English court regarding Mary’s marriage, and the threat that the Lennox family were to Elizabeth I, as Margaret, Countess of Lennox and her son Darnley were descendants of Henry VII, are outside the scope of this brief post.

Background:
1. Original letters, illustrative of English history; edited by Sir Henry Ellis, Harding, Triphook, & Lepard, London, 1825. Contains letters from Randolph.
2. Memoirs of his own life by Sir James Melville(1535 -1617) of Halshill: Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1827.
3. Queen of Scots: by Antonia Fraser, Weidenfeld &Nicolson, London, reprinted 2015.
4. Goodare, J. (2007, May 24). Mary [Mary Stewart] (1542–1587), queen of Scots. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 30 Jun. 2019, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/…/9780…/odnb-9780198614128-e-18248 .
5. Greig, E. (2008, January 03). Stewart, Henry, duke of Albany [known as Lord Darnley] (1545/6–1567), second consort of Mary, queen of Scots. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 30 Jun. 2019, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/…/9780…/odnb-9780198614128-e-26473 .