Wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry, Lord Darnley facts for kids
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Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, were married at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on 29 July 1565, when she was 22 years old, and he was 18 or 19.
Contents
Background
Mary, Queen of Scots had been married to Francis II of France at Notre-Dame de Paris on 24 April 1558, and, after his death, she returned to Scotland to rule in person in September 1561. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who had been brought up in England, was the son of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox and Margaret Douglas, and a grandson of Margaret Tudor. Darnley came to Scotland and met Mary at Wemyss Castle in February 1565.
Elizabeth I suggested Mary should marry the English courtier Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. As it became clear that Mary intended to marry Darnley, Elizabeth regretted allowing him and his father to travel to Scotland, and on 18 June 1565 she requested their return, and Lady Margaret Douglas was sent to the Tower of London.
New titles for Darnley
Before the wedding, Darnley was made a knight, Lord of Ardmanoch and Earl of Ross at Stirling Castle on 15 May 1565. An entourage of 15 men were knighted, including Robert Stewart of Strathdon, Robert Drummond of Carnock, James Stewart of Doune, and William Murray of Tullibardine. On 22 July, Darnley was made Duke of Albany in Holyrood Abbey. He was proclaimed king of Scotland on 28 July.
Preparations at Holyrood Palace
Mary's wardrobe account mentions some preparations at Holyrood for the wedding. Servais de Condé dressed the chapel with an altar frontal, a corporal in a red velvet case, a red velvet chasuble and stole, and a velvet throw and two red "crammosy" velvet cushions stuffed with feathers for the couple to kneel on. The wedding took place in the chapel of the palace, now demolished and known only by a plan made in 1663, and not in the church of Holyrood Abbey.
Extra seating was provided in the queen's chamber, with two folding stools and three low stools, covered with red "crammosy" velvet. The stools were old and had belonged to Mary's parents. The queen's chamber was almost certainly the surviving bedchamber in the tower built by her father, James V of Scotland. Two sleeveless cloth of gold coats or tabards were used by Darnley's attendants. Some clothes were made for Lord Darnley in July and a bed was made up for his English equerry Anthony Standen.
A wedding of red and black
The ceremony was conducted by John Sinclair, Dean of Restalrig. Details of the wedding are known from a report written by the English diplomat Thomas Randolph for the Earl of Leicester. Mary went to the palace chapel early in the morning dressed in black mourning clothes (for her late husband, Francis II), escorted by the Earl of Lennox and the Earl of Atholl. She waited until the same lords brought Darnley to the chapel. The marriage banns were read for the third time. Three rings were put on her finger, the middle ring was set with a rich diamond. They kneeled for the ceremony. Afterwards, or later in the day, Darnley went first to the bedchamber. Mary came after him. She changed out of her mourning clothes, and according to Randolph, each of the men took a pin from her mourning gown. Then her ladies dressed her in other clothes. They went to dinner, and trumpets sounded. The married couple threw coins and tokens as largesse to the crowd. They were seated together at the same table in the great hall (which signified equal status). After the dinner there was dancing, then supper, and then more dancing, "and so theie go to bedde".
Randolph listed the lords who served the couple at the wedding banquets. Mary's "sewer" or napkin-bearer was the Earl of Atholl, her carver the Earl of Morton, the Earl of Crawford cupbearer. Darnley's sewer was the Earl of Eglinton, the Earl of Cassilis carver, and the Earl of Glencairn cupbearer.
The gunners in Edinburgh Castle were given £10 Scots to fire salutes on the day. The ceremony was Catholic, but Randolph reported that Darnley did not attend the Mass, and continued afterwards to attend services at St Giles. John Knox wrote that Darnley went to his "pastime" (hunting with a hawk) after the wedding while the queen went to the Mass. He said the dancing and banqueting went on for three or four days.
Masques and theatre
The entertainment included masques written by George Buchanan, known as the Pompa Deorum in Nuptiis Mariae and the Pompae Equestres, which survive as short Latin verses. Introduced by the Muses, a court of classical gods and goddesses heard the complaint of chaste Diana that one of her band of Five Marys had been taken away from her by marriage. Mary will be wed anew.
The Pompae Equestres involved the arrival of teams of exotic visitors, tournament knights, pledging their service to Mary, including actors representing Ethiopian or Libyan knights, who declared that Mary's fame exceeded other monarchs to the same degree as the difference of their colour (Fama tui reges tanto super altior omnes, Quam tuus a nostro dissidet ore color). The teams of Ethiopian knights offered to serve her with their hands and the Northern knights offered their minds. The knights carrying the emblems of wise Pallas Minerva would overcome the knights of rash Cupid. This idea of service to the queen was again performed by blackface actors during the Royal Entry of Anne of Denmark in May 1590, as described by the poet John Burrell.
In another masque, the queen's "Four Marys", Mary Seton, Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston, saluted the Goddess of Health, Salus, in favour of Mary's continued well-being, with Buchanan's Ad Salutem in Nuptiis Reginae. The Latin verse with its themes of return and recuperation can be translated:
Knox and Randolph were not eyewitnesses. Randolph could not attend, because his presence as English ambassador would signal approval. Mary is said to have tried to invite him to the banquet, suggesting he might dance with Mary Beaton.
Some of the poetry collected in the Bannatyne Manuscript can be connected with the wedding or the period of courtship. A lawyer, Thomas Craig published a Latin epithalamium.
Aftermath
Because Mary and Darnley were cousins, they needed a dispensation from the Pope to marry as Catholics. This was not obtained until September. Mary may have wished to have the wedding in July, as soon as possible, believing that the dispensation was in process or a formality, and knowing of increasing opposition to her marriage plans in England and in Scotland.
Elizabeth sent a diplomat, John Tamworth or Thomworth, to negotiate with Mary. He was to tell her that she seemed to be guided by "sinister advice". Mary asked him to request that Elizabeth release her mother-in-law Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, from the Tower of London. The unfortunate diplomat was threatened by swordsmen in Edinburgh and then detained at Hume Castle. In London, a French diplomat Nicholas d'Angennes, seigneur de Rambouillet requested the release of Margaret Tudor, joined by a Scottish envoy, Robert Melville.
Mary's half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, was unhappy at the match, and, before Tamworth arrived in Edinburgh, his allies joined him in an unsuccessful rebellion known as the "Chaseabout Raid". Mary discussed her response to the crisis with a French diplomat Michel de Castelnau, and led her troops to the west of Scotland.
Rumour of a wedding at Stirling Castle
An Italian newsletter, written in 1566 for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, describes a secret wedding of Mary and Darnley. The Catholic ceremony was supposed to have taken place at Stirling Castle, in the bedchamber of David Rizzio. The newsletter places the marriage in April 1565, when Mary was at Stirling. James Melville of Halhill mentions the Holyrood wedding and wrote that Rizzio was Darnley's "great friend" and had helped forward his marriage plans, "wherein Seigneur Davie was na small instrument".
A red wedding ring
Mary's son, James VI and I, was born on 19 June 1566. During her pregnancy, Mary made a will and left a diamond ring with red enamel, her spousing ring, to Darnley in the event of her death. Darnley was killed in an explosion on 10 February 1567. Mary married her third husband, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, on 15 May 1567 at Holyrood. In 1571, during the Marian Civil War, her "marriage ring" was used as a token by the political intriguer Archibald Douglas.
