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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And recently Katie

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Speaker 1: and I have been talking about the Tutors and the Stuarts,

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Speaker 1: which is one of our favorite times in history, and

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Speaker 1: we couldn't move on from that though, before we talked

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Speaker 1: about this one last great story, and that is the

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Speaker 1: death of Lord Darnley, which was under very mysterious circumstances.

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Speaker 1: He's the indolent, arrogant, drunken, sythletic, jealous, plotting husband of Mary,

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Speaker 1: Queen of Scott's and he's murdered. In fact, the house

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Speaker 1: that he's staying in blows up in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the night and his nearly nude body is found nearby

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Speaker 1: in an orchard. And this murder leads to the forced

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Speaker 1: abdication of Mary, her decades long imprisonment in England by

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Speaker 1: her cousin Elizabeth, and ultimately her execution. So our question

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Speaker 1: today is who did it and why? And our main

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Speaker 1: suspects are Mary, a group of Scottish nobles, and Darnley himself.

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Speaker 1: So why are there so many opinions about this murder.

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Speaker 1: That's what we have to talk about before we can

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Speaker 1: get into it. Um, what's the historical perception of Mary

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Speaker 1: that so excused the evidence surrounding this murder? And that's

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Speaker 1: the thing, because historical perceptions of Mary are very subjective,

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Speaker 1: and they've also changed over time. Scottish Calvinists saw her

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Speaker 1: as an adulterous and murderous, while Catholics and Loyalists saw

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Speaker 1: her as a long queen and later a martyr. She

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Speaker 1: obviously becomes the hope of the counter Reformation against Elizabeth.

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Speaker 1: After her death, her son, who is now the King

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Speaker 1: of Scotland and the King of England UM, tries to

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Speaker 1: refurbish her image a little bit, as well as that

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Speaker 1: of his father, Lord Darnley UM. By the eighteenth century,

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Speaker 1: she's almost seen as a victim of her own passions,

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Speaker 1: that she was brought up in this of all is

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Speaker 1: French court and just didn't know how to behave herself.

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Speaker 1: That Anthonia Fraser published a definitive biography of her in

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, which is on my Amazon wish list

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Speaker 1: if you'd like to buy it for me, that put

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Speaker 1: her in a much more favorable light, saying that she

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Speaker 1: was a victim of the ruthless men around her. So

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Speaker 1: that's what we have to deal with, going into this

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Speaker 1: murder and seeing how it's been handled by contemporaries and

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Speaker 1: by historians over the years. But central to the guilt,

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Speaker 1: at least um during Mary's time where the casket letters,

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Speaker 1: and it was eight letters in a series of irregular

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Speaker 1: sonnets that if real, would make Mary guilty as sin.

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Speaker 1: But they've long been argued to be a mix of

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Speaker 1: forgeries combined with real letters of Mary's that have been manipulated,

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Speaker 1: and they were also lost of Mary long don't happen anymore.

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Speaker 1: They disappeared sometime during James's rule, once again when he's

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Speaker 1: trying to clean up the image of his parents a

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Speaker 1: little bit. Something happens to these letters. So most of

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Speaker 1: our evidence comes from hostile later sources, so again not

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Speaker 1: so trustworthy. But we should give you a little background.

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Speaker 1: We gave you some in our podcast on Mary and

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Speaker 1: her cousin, Queen Elizabeth the First, but basically she's the

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Speaker 1: widowed Queen consort of France and Queen of Scotland and

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Speaker 1: her own right. When she returns to Scotland, she falls

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Speaker 1: in love with her handsome young cousin Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley,

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Speaker 1: who's a fellow claimant to the British throne. His father,

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Speaker 1: Matthew Stewart, the fourth Earl of Lennox, actually had a

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Speaker 1: pretension to the Scottish throne, while his mother, Margaret Douglas,

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Speaker 1: has a claim to the English throne because she's the

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Speaker 1: granddaughter of Henry the seventh. So he's got some interesting

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Speaker 1: claims in his own right right. And as far as

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth and the English Privy Council are concerned, the union

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Speaker 1: between the two of them would be dangerous to the

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Speaker 1: common amity of the country. Yeah, Elizabeth doesn't want um

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Speaker 1: tutor claimants uniting their causes. But nevertheless, on July they

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Speaker 1: are married by Catholic rights, which starts off offending people

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Speaker 1: from the very beginning, especially the Scottish Protestant ministry. And Darnley,

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Speaker 1: who you know, I guess when you first meet him,

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Speaker 1: must seem very handsome and sloth and personable. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: turns out to be just indolent and drunk and arrogant

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Speaker 1: and very jealous of Mary's somewhat unseemly relationship with her secretary.

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Speaker 1: It's unlikely that Mary and David Ruzzio, her Italian secretary,

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Speaker 1: were having an affair, but it didn't look good and

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Speaker 1: Darnley really didn't like it, and so he comes up

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Speaker 1: with this plan, which again we mentioned in the Other

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Speaker 1: Mary Queen of Scott's podcast, to murder Rizzio in front

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Speaker 1: of pregnant Mary, hoping that she will become sick, maybe

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Speaker 1: even die, that she'll miss carry and that while she's

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Speaker 1: out of commission he can take the crown matrimony. And

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Speaker 1: even these hardened Scottish nobles who are always plotting or

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Speaker 1: trying to kill somebody, are kind of shocked that he

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Speaker 1: wants to do this in front of her, but degree,

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Speaker 1: and they even promise him the crown matrimonial, which is

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Speaker 1: what he wants the whole time, and it's unrealistic. That's

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Speaker 1: never gonna happen. Um. Mary finds out pretty quickly from

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Speaker 1: him that he was involved in the plot. He names

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Speaker 1: all his co conspirators. She can't ever really trust him

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Speaker 1: again after this. But um, despite you know, this awful

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Speaker 1: event in their already bad relationship, they kind of have

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Speaker 1: to make nice for the baby that's on the way, right,

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Speaker 1: and Mary draws up a will upon entering her confinement

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Speaker 1: during her pregnancy, and she leaves everything but very specific

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Speaker 1: bequests to her unborn child. Most of those requests are

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Speaker 1: to her husband, Lord Darnley. Lots of jewelry, including her

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Speaker 1: red enameled diamond wedding ring, so she's probably trying to

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Speaker 1: make sure that he'll be secure in the future should

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Speaker 1: anything happen to her, which isn't the kind of thing

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Speaker 1: you're doing. If you're trying to kill some you're gonna

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Speaker 1: kill somebody down the road. Um. And she does openly

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Speaker 1: leave some nice stuff though, to the future suspected murder

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Speaker 1: of Darnley, James Hepburn, the fourth Earl of Bothwell, including

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Speaker 1: a mermaids that in Diamonds and I love this detail,

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Speaker 1: But back then a mermaid often meant a siren, and

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Speaker 1: it was kind of synonymous with a prostitute, and Mary

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Speaker 1: is not likely to have referred to herself as a

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Speaker 1: prostitute in her own final will, so maybe this is

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Speaker 1: a warning to Bothwell about his involvement with women other

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Speaker 1: than his wife. But Mary does give birth to the

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Speaker 1: child James, and most important at this time, she has

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Speaker 1: to get Darnley to publicly recognize this child as his

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Speaker 1: And this is so embarrassing, right and not say read

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Speaker 1: Cio is like he has to say in front of witnesses,

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Speaker 1: and so does she that this is his child. She

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Speaker 1: really has to spell it out. Darnley kisses the child

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Speaker 1: and she has to go even further than getting that

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Speaker 1: recognition from him, and says, and I am desirous that

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Speaker 1: all here bear witness, for he is so much your

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Speaker 1: son that I fear it will be the worse for

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Speaker 1: him hereafter, which is a sad premonition from Mary on

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Speaker 1: the birth of her her son and heir that she's

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Speaker 1: already feeling this bad. And Darnley's behavior doesn't improve after

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Speaker 1: James's birth. He goes out very late at night carousing

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Speaker 1: and they have to open the gates for him, which

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Speaker 1: of course puts everyone at the castle at risk, including

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Speaker 1: Mary and James. James, Yeah, and he goes off by

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Speaker 1: himself to bathe in the secluded places. He's such a

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Speaker 1: strange guy and this is exposing him to all these

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Speaker 1: lords who are not a fan of him. Um, he's English,

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Speaker 1: he's pretentious, and he's um exposed. All his co conspirators

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Speaker 1: in the Rucio plot so he's just putting himself out

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Speaker 1: there where he could get killed, and Mary begs him

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Speaker 1: not to put himself so indiscriminately into the power of

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Speaker 1: his enemies. And that's a quote. Um. She she's worried

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Speaker 1: about him too, not just for him, right. She thinks

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Speaker 1: maybe his conspiracies haven't quite ended, and that he's possibly

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Speaker 1: plotting against her, that he wants to kidnap the child.

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Speaker 1: So she keeps James in a cradle beside her own bed,

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Speaker 1: which is very unusual. Usually you would establish um a

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Speaker 1: household for James. Um. Darnley at one point even threatens

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Speaker 1: to leave the country, which would be absolutely humiliating for Mary.

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Speaker 1: It would imply that either he had done something wrong

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Speaker 1: or she had done something wrong. And she's just horrified

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Speaker 1: by this prospect, and she gets really, really sick and

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Speaker 1: wants to make sure that the throne will pass to James,

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Speaker 1: not Darnley makes that very clear, and Um even slips

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Speaker 1: into a coma and goes stiff. At one point, everybody

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Speaker 1: thinks she's dead, and the truth is, at the time,

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Speaker 1: she almost wishes she were dead because things are so

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Speaker 1: hopeless in her marriage. So she has to figure out

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Speaker 1: the problem of Lord Darnley. How can she end this

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Speaker 1: marriage because a nulment based on consanguinity than being related

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Speaker 1: would seriously have questioned the legitimacy of James, which is

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Speaker 1: something she absolutely doesn't want to do, and divorce would

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Speaker 1: have had each of them acknowledging the validity of a

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Speaker 1: Protestant divorce, and as she is very Catholic and this

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Speaker 1: is important to her, she doesn't want to do that either.

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Speaker 1: And a Catholic Church sanctioned separation based on Darnley's carousing

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Speaker 1: his infidelities would have had them both still united in

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Speaker 1: the eyes of God and unable to remarry. So here

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Speaker 1: is Mary faced with the prospect of um having this

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Speaker 1: husband for the rest of her life. He's actually a

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Speaker 1: few years younger than her, so it's very likely that

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Speaker 1: he would survive her, and he is terrible, and there's

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Speaker 1: no good way to get rid of him. Um. There

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Speaker 1: is the suggestion that she could arrest Darnley and charge

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Speaker 1: him with treason, because even though he's her lord as

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Speaker 1: her husband, she's his queen. And the only problem with

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Speaker 1: this is there's a catch in Scottish law that makes

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Speaker 1: it impossible for the King of Scotland which even though

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Speaker 1: Darnley is is not the crown matrimonial, he's just kind

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Speaker 1: of a figurehead king. Um, he can't be charged with treason.

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Speaker 1: So also, even if he could be, how embarrassing is

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Speaker 1: it to um charge the father of your child with

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Speaker 1: treason just as all these foreign diploments are coming into

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Speaker 1: the country to witness the baptism and have this great celebration.

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Speaker 1: So she doesn't have any good options here now, So

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Speaker 1: she and her advisers come together at the Craig Miller

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Speaker 1: conference to discuss again the problem of Darnley, and Mary

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Speaker 1: expresses that she's worried about the effect divorce would have

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Speaker 1: on James's legitimate name, and her chief advisor, William Maitland,

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Speaker 1: who is a longtime supporter of Mary but also not

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Speaker 1: afraid to call her out, um, tells her, Madam, fancy

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Speaker 1: you not. We are here of the principle of your

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Speaker 1: Grace's nobility and counsel that shall find the means that

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Speaker 1: your majesty should be quit of him without prejudice of

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Speaker 1: your son. So that sounds like a bunch of gobbledegook,

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Speaker 1: and it is. It's roundabout language, and it's like, wait, okay,

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Speaker 1: are we talking about divorce here or are you talking

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Speaker 1: about something else? Is this tricky language to to suggest

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Speaker 1: a murder? And Mary must have understood Maitland's meaning right.

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Speaker 1: She catches his drift, and she says, I will that

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Speaker 1: you do nothing by which any spot may be laid

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Speaker 1: to my honor or conscience. And therefore I pray you

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Speaker 1: rather let the matter be in the estate as it

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Speaker 1: is abiding un till God and his Goodness put remedy

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Speaker 1: there too, than you, believing to do me service, may

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Speaker 1: possibly turn to my heart and displeasure. So this is

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Speaker 1: basically saying, don't do anything, just let's see what God does.

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Speaker 1: Let's wait until Darnley died, and it would hurt and

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Speaker 1: displease me if you did anything like, oh, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: murder my husband, don't do it. And when Katie and

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Speaker 1: I were talking about this earlier, I think you rightly suggested, well,

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Speaker 1: was she just playing along here? You know, like, oh,

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Speaker 1: don't do anything, you know, wink wink. But I think

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Speaker 1: that one thing we can't afford to lose sight of

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Speaker 1: here is that Mary isn't a private citizen who can

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Speaker 1: make these choices based on love or revenge or just

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Speaker 1: I've got to get rid of this guy. She's an

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Speaker 1: anointed queen whose lifelong ambition is to have the English

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Speaker 1: succession settled on her, and she's not likely to lose

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Speaker 1: sight of that lifelong goal just in this moment of panic. Right,

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Speaker 1: But regardless of what she wanted, the Lord's draw up

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Speaker 1: a bond for Darnley's murder. So the stage is set here.

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Speaker 1: Darnley is in trouble and he already knows he is

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Speaker 1: because the exiled lords, the co conspirators who he betrayed

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Speaker 1: to Mary during the Rutso murder, returned to Scotland. Darnley

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Speaker 1: is not a very smart guy, but he's smart enough

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Speaker 1: to get out of Edinburgh. He returns to the Lennox

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Speaker 1: home base in Glasgow. His family's his family's strong, you know,

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Speaker 1: strong home base. And on the way there he falls

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Speaker 1: ill with smallpox. Supposedly in quotes, it's really syphilis, which

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Speaker 1: he probably caught in France as a young teen. And

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Speaker 1: when his body was exhumed, examination in his skull was

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Speaker 1: examined and showed pitting caused by syphilis. And Mary must

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Speaker 1: have understood what this was, and I'm sure that really

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Speaker 1: didn't help her revulsion. So not only has your husband

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Speaker 1: murdered somebody in front of you, he's got syphilis. That's

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Speaker 1: just grand um. And so we know already from the

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Speaker 1: Craig Miller conference. Mary knows about the plotting of the

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Speaker 1: lords against Darnley, but she also gets when that Darnley

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Speaker 1: is continuing to plot against her past the Zio murder um,

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Speaker 1: and she can't bear the suspense anymore of having him

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Speaker 1: is slated down in Glasgow, where he's got more support

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Speaker 1: than anywhere else in Scotland. So she goes down to

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Speaker 1: visit him. He's sick, try to bring him back to Edinburgh,

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Speaker 1: and this is often a charge leveled against her that

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Speaker 1: she's luring him back to his death in Edinburgh. And okay,

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Speaker 1: on the one hand, yeah, in Edinburgh he's closer to

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Speaker 1: all these angry lords who want to kill him. But

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Speaker 1: on the other hand he wants to kill her, right,

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Speaker 1: So keep your enemies closer, and she does. She gets

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Speaker 1: Darnley back where she wants him and sees him installed

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Speaker 1: in kirk Afield at the old Provost lodging. She's just

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Speaker 1: a short walk away from him, about ten minutes, and

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Speaker 1: it's Darnley who wants to be at kirk Afield, a

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Speaker 1: collegiate church. She wanted him at a more fortified location,

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Speaker 1: but he said no. And they're always these um kind

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Speaker 1: of amazing superstitious type things surrounding Darnley in our podcast,

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Speaker 1: but a raven accompanies them back from Glasgow and was

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Speaker 1: seen perched on the roof of the old Provost lodging

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Speaker 1: where Darnley staying. He did not say nevermore as far

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Speaker 1: as we know, but it seems like relations between the

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Speaker 1: two are improving while he's there. She visits him daily,

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Speaker 1: they sit up late talking, She even stays over a

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Speaker 1: couple of nights. And while it's not likely that she's

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Speaker 1: rediscovered her love for him or anything, she's at least

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Speaker 1: trying to make a peace with him or make sure

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Speaker 1: he's not a threat to her anymore, to to demilitarize

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Speaker 1: him almost and um bring him back over to her side,

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Speaker 1: or at least just kind of calm him down so

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Speaker 1: he's not causing all this trouble. And also he's he's

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Speaker 1: an important part of her claim to the English succession.

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Speaker 1: A lot of um English parliament actually think that he

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Speaker 1: has a better claim than she does, so making nice

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Speaker 1: with him, especially when they have this one year old

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Speaker 1: son is a good idea, right, both personally and politically,

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Speaker 1: And as far as he goes, things are starting to

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Speaker 1: seem okay with the Lord's to they even come and

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Speaker 1: visit him even bothwell, ye, another charge leveled against her

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Speaker 1: is this all fake just to make her look good

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Speaker 1: when he's murdered. So as far as the night of

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Speaker 1: the murder itself goes, Mary is visiting Darnley, but she's

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Speaker 1: supposed to go to the wedding festivities of one of

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Speaker 1: her maids of honor, so she leaves um and she

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Speaker 1: is clear that she's not returning to the house later

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Speaker 1: at night. Darnley, I think, is a little upset about that,

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Speaker 1: but she'll be staying at holy Rood House because she

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Speaker 1: has to get up early in the morning, So after

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Speaker 1: the wedding festivities she's not going to be back. Later

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Speaker 1: that night, the house explodes and Darnley is found dead

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Speaker 1: of strangulation or maybe post explosive asphyxiation. So who are

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Speaker 1: our suspects in this murder, Katie, Well, we're starting off

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Speaker 1: with Darnley himself, So maybe Darnley wanted to murder some

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Speaker 1: of the lords and the Queen all in one go

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Speaker 1: and steal baby James and rule as some regent. But

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Speaker 1: the flaw in this plan is he would have had

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Speaker 1: to have expected the Queen and the lords to return

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Speaker 1: after the wedding mask and Mary made it quite clear

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Speaker 1: that she was going back to Holyrood House, not the

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Speaker 1: old provost lodging. Um. There's another side to the Darnley plot.

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Speaker 1: Maybe the lords discovered it and they turned the tables

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Speaker 1: on him somehow. But our prime, or at least our

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Speaker 1: most famous suspect, is Mary, and in a way there's

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Speaker 1: a really damning case against her right because of course

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Speaker 1: she had a very unhappy marriage with Darnley. He's a

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Speaker 1: pretty awful guy, and she took him from this strong

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Speaker 1: family base in Glasgow to Edinburgh, where of course he

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Speaker 1: was in more danger, and she had also favored bothwell,

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Speaker 1: even after he suggested murdering her husband. There's no evidence

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Speaker 1: to suggest they had an affair at the time, but

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Speaker 1: a lot of people thought that they did, so that's

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Speaker 1: something to keep in mind. Um. It's also likely that

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Speaker 1: these improved relations between Darnley and Mary would have eventually

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Speaker 1: led to resumed conjugal relations, which Mary obviously wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: been very enthusiastic about considering her husband was sick with syphilis.

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Speaker 1: And then the worst, the worst part of the evidence

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Speaker 1: is she leaves the house two hours before it explodes.

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Speaker 1: That's not going to help your case very much. But

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Speaker 1: there are a lot of flaws with with all of

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Speaker 1: this evidence, right, there's no evidence, first of all, that

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Speaker 1: Mary ever considered freeing herself from Darnley by any other

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Speaker 1: than legal means. So yeah, she was looking into annulment

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Speaker 1: and to divorce and even too, you know, can we

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Speaker 1: charge him with treason? Right, But she was not supporting murder.

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Speaker 1: And when she took him to Edinburgh, as we mentioned before,

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Speaker 1: it was because she knew that he was plotting against

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Speaker 1: her and she wanted him where she could keep an

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Speaker 1: eye on. So yeah, she's she's bringing him closer to

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Speaker 1: his enemies, but he's also her enemy in a way.

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Speaker 1: She was also hoping for a settlement on the English

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Speaker 1: succession issue and things were looking pretty rosy with that

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Speaker 1: at this time. I know Alizabeth wasn't happy with the

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Speaker 1: match between Darnley and Mary initially, but because there was

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Speaker 1: some British support of Darnley, it wasn't looking like a

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Speaker 1: bad claim anymore, So why would she kill Queen Elizabeth's cousin? Yeah? Um,

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Speaker 1: he only strengthens her claim. You don't want to make

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Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth angry and bring all the suspicion on herself.

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Speaker 1: And then the point of her continuing to favor Bothwell

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Speaker 1: after he suggested murder Well, so did her her chief

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Speaker 1: advisor Maitland, and so did her bastard half brother Murray. Um.

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Speaker 1: She makes it clear to these guys that she doesn't

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Speaker 1: approve of murdering Darnley. But what is she going to

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Speaker 1: ditch all her nobles because they're suggesting it. Nobody in

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Speaker 1: Scotland likes Darnley and Alison Weir's book on the Darnley murder.

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Speaker 1: Her picks for a murderer are Sir William Maitland and

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Speaker 1: James Stewart or Moray, who of course was Mary, Queen

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Speaker 1: of Scott's brother, and that would rid Scotland of darn

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Speaker 1: Lee who was this Catholic activist, and then hopefully implicate

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Speaker 1: their enemy. James Hepburn, who we've been referring to as

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Speaker 1: Bothwell and Bothwell's actually involved in the plot himself. He's

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Speaker 1: what he's hoping to get out of it is a

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Speaker 1: marriage to Mary after Darnley's death. So I don't know

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Speaker 1: how he thinks the cards are going to fall with

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Speaker 1: the other lords, h but he's got something he wants

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Speaker 1: to get out of it, and the other guys are

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Speaker 1: hoping it'll all fall on him. So, rather than being

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Speaker 1: a crime of the heart, as so many in history

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Speaker 1: have painted this, Mary trying to get back at her horrible,

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Speaker 1: horrible husband we don't like him, it was really more

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Speaker 1: of a politically motivated crime. But regardless of who committed

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Speaker 1: the crime, what Mary did next did not look good

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Speaker 1: at all. So Bothwell is acquitted in a sham trial.

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Speaker 1: Then he kidnaps and raipes Mary after she refuses to

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Speaker 1: marry him, and then, you know, if we think of

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Speaker 1: Katherine Hepburn's, Mary Quinn of Scott's and a grand romance

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Speaker 1: between Mary and Bothwell, was there one? I mean, we

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Speaker 1: we don't know. But after he raped her, she really

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Speaker 1: didn't have much of a choice but to marry him,

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Speaker 1: because a pregnancy would have been far too precarious for

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Speaker 1: her crown to bear her already shaky, shaky claim to

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Speaker 1: the throne. Right, Mary Queen of Scott's cursed with a

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Speaker 1: wide variety of terrible men in her life. But Bothwell

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Speaker 1: divorces his first wife and they marry May fifteen sixty

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Speaker 1: seven and a Protestant ceremony. And by this point Mary

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Speaker 1: is really on the brink physically and mentally after Darnley's murder.

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Speaker 1: She doesn't seem like the adulteress who murdered her husband

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Speaker 1: to marry her lover Bothwell. She's even seen crying the

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Speaker 1: day after her wedding to Bothwell, so it doesn't seem

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Speaker 1: like something she's getting into willingly, no, especially if he

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Speaker 1: is this awful rapist. Clearly she doesn't want to be

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Speaker 1: in this relationship, and her husband's just been murdered, so

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Speaker 1: you have to have a little pitty for Mary Queen

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Speaker 1: of Scott's. But a coalition of Protestant and Catholic nobles

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Speaker 1: revolt after this, and um, you can you can imagine

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Speaker 1: something that actually unites the Scottish nobles must be really something. Um.

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Speaker 1: But the Queen's forces meet the rebels at Carberry Hill

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Speaker 1: near Edinburgh and refused to fight, so she surrenders on

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Speaker 1: the condition that Bothwell be allowed to escape. He gets

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Speaker 1: out into northern Scotland and then to Denmark, where he's

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Speaker 1: taken into custody by King Frederick the Second and after

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Speaker 1: the collapse of Mary's cause in Scotland, Bothwell is placed

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Speaker 1: in solitary confinement in a castle. Their marriage is annulled

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Speaker 1: in fifteen seventy and he dies in sane five years later.

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Speaker 1: Well Mary, of course, eventually flees to England and is

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Speaker 1: held captive there for eighteen years um partly based on

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Speaker 1: the Darnley Murder, and dies at the Block for plotting

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Speaker 1: against her cousin, Queen Elizabeth on February eight seven. So

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Speaker 1: there is oh happy ending for this story, although it

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Speaker 1: seems the case isn't entirely closed, so if you have

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Speaker 1: some ideas about what happened, please email us at History

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Speaker 1: Podcast at how stuff works dot com or check out

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Speaker 1: the blogs on the homepage at www dot how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of

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Speaker 1: other topics, visit how stuff works dot com and be

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Speaker 1: sure to check out the stuff you missed in History

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Speaker 1: Class blog on the how stuff works dot com home page.