Speaker 1: Just a quick note before we begin today's episode. This
Speaker 1: story contains murder, sexual assault, and pregnancy loss, so if
Speaker 1: any of those are particularly sensitive to you, this might
Speaker 1: be a good episode to skip.
Speaker 2: And on a.
Speaker 1: More personal note unrelated to the episode, before we dive in,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say I have a brand new
Speaker 1: book coming out. This one comes out in May twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. It's called The Arcane Arts and it's a sexy,
Speaker 1: dark academia book about a professor and a student studying
Speaker 1: illicit magic at Magic Grad School. I'm not really good
Speaker 1: at describing it. Hopefully I'll get a little better. It's
Speaker 1: by a pseudonym by sd coverly because I co wrote
Speaker 1: it with a friend of mine, Dan Frye. I wrote
Speaker 1: the female points of view, he wrote the male points
Speaker 1: of view, and then we sort of blended it together.
Speaker 1: It was an incredibly fun collaboration. I love this book.
Speaker 1: It's available for pre order now. If you like dark, twisted,
Speaker 1: sexy stories in this podcast, I think you'll really like
Speaker 1: that book.
Speaker 2: Now let's get to the story.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 3: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion advised. In early
Speaker 3: February fifteen sixty seven, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, the King
Speaker 3: of Scotland, arrived at a spacious two story house in Kirkfield,
Speaker 3: an abbey and church college near Edinburgh. It had been
Speaker 3: a tough year for Lord Darnley so far. He had
Speaker 3: been living in Glasgow, away from his wife, Mary, Queen
Speaker 3: of Scots, but after Darnley fell dangerously ill, Mary arranged
Speaker 3: to bring him to be with her in Edinburgh to convalesse,
Speaker 3: perhaps as a gesture of reconciliation after their relationship had
Speaker 3: gone downhill in recent months. Kirkfield seemed like the perfect spot.
Speaker 3: The air was said to be the healthiest in the
Speaker 3: whole town, but still things didn't seem very optimistic. According
Speaker 3: to one of Darnelly's advisors, a raven followed their caravan
Speaker 3: from Glasgow to Edinburgh and perched on the roof of
Speaker 3: the house, an ominous sign. It seemed the raven knew
Speaker 3: something mere mortals didn't. February ninth was supposed to be
Speaker 3: the last day of Lord Darnley's convalescence. This was the
Speaker 3: last Sunday before Lent, and after a day of revelry
Speaker 3: attending a wedding and a dinner with a bishop. Mary
Speaker 3: and her royal entourage spent the evening with Lord Darnley
Speaker 3: in his chamber, playing dice, listening to someone play the lute,
Speaker 3: and chatting. Mary considered sleeping over with Lord Darnley at Kirkyfield,
Speaker 3: but the Earl of Bothwell, the Sheriff of Edinburgh, and
Speaker 3: a member of her entourage reminded Mary that she had
Speaker 3: promised to stop by an aristocrat's wedding mask before the
Speaker 3: end of the night. Besides, she had to be up
Speaker 3: early the next morning to depart from Holyrood on a
Speaker 3: diplomatic excursion. Wouldn't it be easier just to sleep in
Speaker 3: her castle instead. Mary agreed and departed from Kirkyfield, promising
Speaker 3: to see her husband.
Speaker 2: In the morning. At two a m.
Speaker 1: By the time the Queen was asleep in her own
Speaker 1: bed at Holyrood, an explosion startled the whole town awake,
Speaker 1: including the Queen. One townsperson described it as a clap
Speaker 1: of thunder, while the Queen noted that it sounded like
Speaker 1: twenty or thirty cannons. Fairly soon after the Queen was
Speaker 1: informed what had happened, somebody had carried two trunks of
Speaker 1: gunpowder to Lord Darnley's house at Kirkfield earlier that day
Speaker 1: and came back that night to light it, causing a
Speaker 1: huge blast and demolishing the house. Her husband, Lord Darnley,
Speaker 1: had been killed, but strangely, it wasn't the explosion that
Speaker 1: killed him. His body was found in the back garden
Speaker 1: with signs of strangulation. He had made it out of
Speaker 1: the exploded house and been killed. Anyway, this was a murder,
Speaker 1: and the suspicious details would unravel the Scottish aristocracy and
Speaker 1: change the course of Mary, Queen of Scott's life forever.
Speaker 1: I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. As news
Speaker 1: of Lord Darnelly's murder spread internationally, there was increasing pressure
Speaker 1: on Mary to find and convict the culprit. There was
Speaker 1: no shortage of suspects. Lord Darnley was, to put it mildly,
Speaker 1: a controversial figure in Scotland and beyond. Because both Mary
Speaker 1: and Lord Darnley were descendants of Henry the seventh in England,
Speaker 1: their marriage could give them a more legitimate claim on
Speaker 1: the English throne than Queen Elizabeth herself, making Darnley a
Speaker 1: target of anyone in the Elizabethan court, but even closer
Speaker 1: to home, Mary herself and her entourage had even deeper
Speaker 1: enmity for Lord Darnley. Despite the fact that Mary had
Speaker 1: originally chosen Darnley and married for what seemed to be love.
Speaker 1: The bloom was off the rose fairly quickly. Darnley had
Speaker 1: a reputation as a power hungry, paranoid drunk. He had
Speaker 1: violently stabbed Mary's secretary in front of her while she
Speaker 1: was pregnant out of an unfounded fear that he and
Speaker 1: Mary were having an affair, traumatizing her and alienating him
Speaker 1: from the rest of Mary's court. Like I said, Darnelly
Speaker 1: was a guy with plenty of enemies. Within days, a
Speaker 1: primary suspect for Darnelly's murder emerged, Lord Bothwell. Bothwell was
Speaker 1: a key member of Mary's court, and he wielded political
Speaker 1: and military power. He was the Sheriff of Edinburgh, Lord
Speaker 1: High Admiral of Scotland and Lieutenant of the border between
Speaker 1: England and Scotland. He had access to enough gunpowder to
Speaker 1: set off the explosion, and some of his lackeys had
Speaker 1: been spotted near Kirkfield around the time of the murder.
Speaker 1: He also had a motive. Because Lord Darnley had murdered
Speaker 1: Mary's secretary, who was one of Bothwell's allies. He could
Speaker 1: have been seeking revenge. Bothwell had done this kind of
Speaker 1: thing before. In fifteen sixty two, a political enemy, the
Speaker 1: Earl of Erin, spread a rumor about Bothwell that he
Speaker 1: planned to abduct Mary, Queen of Scots and marry her
Speaker 1: to advance his own political career. These rumors were baseless.
Speaker 1: They actually came to the Earl of Erin in a dream,
Speaker 1: but Bothwell escalated the situation, threatening to retaliate. Mary was
Speaker 1: so afraid of what Bothwell might do to the Earl
Speaker 1: of Erin that she sent Bothwell into exile. But even
Speaker 1: in exile, Bothwell had his lackey's attempt to abduct the
Speaker 1: Earl of Erin's mistress as payback. Just days after Darnley's
Speaker 1: murder in March fifteen sixty seven, anonymous placards appeared in
Speaker 1: Edinburgh openly accusing Bothwell. The English ambassador Sir William Drury
Speaker 1: reported to London that quote, the Earl Bothwell is most
Speaker 1: suspected even Mary might have been wary around Bothwell. By
Speaker 1: this point, one of Mary's courtiers alleged that one of
Speaker 1: Bothwell's allies approached Mary a few months before the murder
Speaker 1: asking for written permission to dispatch her husband. Allegedly, Mary
Speaker 1: declined and said she wanted to hear nothing.
Speaker 2: More of the matter.
Speaker 1: Still, Mary seemed conflicted about bringing Bothwell to court. Mary
Speaker 1: and Bothwell met in fifteen sixty and had been growing
Speaker 1: steadily closer ever since. Even though Bothwell had converted to
Speaker 1: Protestantism while Mary was a staunch Catholic, Bothwell had been
Speaker 1: steadfast and loyal. Ambassadors reported that Bothwell commanded her confidence
Speaker 1: quote more than any other man. Given the chaos in
Speaker 1: Mary's court, she felt that she couldn't trust anyone, even
Speaker 1: her own husband, who was moved to kill her beloved
Speaker 1: secretary based on rumor alone. After Darnley's murder, she needed
Speaker 1: support more than ever. Mired in grief, Mary was bedridden
Speaker 1: and depressed. Sir William Drury, the Ambassador, reported to the
Speaker 1: Secretary of State of England that she was quote for
Speaker 1: the most part, either melancholy or sickly. Perhaps this breakdown
Speaker 1: was in part fueled by guilt. As historian Antonia Fraser
Speaker 1: put it, quote, she had wished Darnley dead and now
Speaker 1: he was. Mary's counsel encouraged her to return to matters
Speaker 1: of state to distract herself, but that backfired. She tried
Speaker 1: to meet the English ambassador in her sick bed, but
Speaker 1: she was so ill that she may have had one
Speaker 1: of her ladies impersonating her. When the Queen moved from
Speaker 1: Hollywood House to Setton a week after Darnley's murder, she
Speaker 1: left Bothwell to take care of her baby's son. Mary's
Speaker 1: hesitation to convict Bothwell made her a suspect as well.
Speaker 1: It was widely known that the Mary Darnelly marriage was fraught,
Speaker 1: making her closeness with Bothwell seem increasingly suspect. Placards began
Speaker 1: appearing in Edinburgh, now accusing both Mary and Bothwell of
Speaker 1: Darnelly's death. On one of the placards, Bothwell was depicted
Speaker 1: as a hare while Mary was depicted as a mermaid,
Speaker 1: a symbol for a prostitute. Worse, after Bothwell visited Mary
Speaker 1: in Seton at the end of March, rumors started spreading
Speaker 1: that Bothwell intended to marry the Queen. Some suspected that
Speaker 1: they may have been having an affair and conspired together
Speaker 1: to have Mary's husband killed. After all, she was the
Speaker 1: one who insisted that Darnley meet her in Edinburgh, and
Speaker 1: she set him up to convalesce in Kirkyfield. Maybe it
Speaker 1: was all part of the murder plan. There's no real
Speaker 1: evidence that implicates Mary in her husband's murder. If anything,
Speaker 1: it seems she had tried to prevent conspiracies against her
Speaker 1: husband throughout their marriage. It was not Mary, but her
Speaker 1: courtiers aligned with Bothwell who insisted that Darnley stay at Kirkfield.
Speaker 1: Mary had actually raised some concerns that Kirkyfield might be unsafe,
Speaker 1: and historically Mary didn't really give Bothwell any special treatment.
Speaker 1: She had been willing to arrest Bothwell and send him
Speaker 1: to exile without a trial when he had threatened the
Speaker 1: Earl of Erin a few years earlier. At the beginning
Speaker 1: of April, with public pressure mounting, Bothwell was formally accused
Speaker 1: of Darnelly's murder, with a trial planned for April twelve.
Speaker 1: In a case like this, it was customary for the
Speaker 1: victim's family to initiate the proceedings, manage the prosecution, and
Speaker 1: gather evidence, so Mary left the trial to Darnley's father,
Speaker 1: the Earl of Lenox. A few days before the trial,
Speaker 1: Lennox attempted to gather three thousand armed retainers, a typical
Speaker 1: show of force for nobles taking the stand, but his
Speaker 1: army was outnumbered by Bothwell's, which might have impacted the trial.
Speaker 1: Bothwell's stronger army could, for instance, implicitly or explicitly threaten
Speaker 1: witnesses away from testifying against him. Lennox also had a
Speaker 1: number of other disadvantages.
Speaker 2: He had only recently.
Speaker 1: Moved back to Scotland after twenty years, so he didn't
Speaker 1: have many allies in the region, and his late son
Speaker 1: was so unpopular that it was hard to galvanize support.
Speaker 1: Lenox begged Mary to postpone the trial, but she refused.
Speaker 1: Queen's did not participate in matters of criminal justice, so
Speaker 1: she was ill equipped to go hunting for legal loopholes
Speaker 1: that could justify the delay. Besides, just a couple of
Speaker 1: months ago, Lenox had been pressuring her.
Speaker 2: To expedite the trial. The trial went ahead as planned.
Speaker 1: In face of the opposition, and perhaps fearing for his
Speaker 1: own life, Lennox didn't show up, fleeing the country entirely.
Speaker 1: Lenox's absence meant there was no one willing to testify
Speaker 1: against Bothwell or introduce any evidence that could convict him.
Speaker 1: It was essentially a sham trial in a courtroom filled
Speaker 1: with Bothwell's allies. After seven hours of deliberating, Bothwell was acquitted,
Speaker 1: an obvious choice given that there was no permissible evidence
Speaker 1: against him. Bothwell installed troops throughout Edinburgh that threatened anyone
Speaker 1: who undermined the verdict with hand to hand combat. With
Speaker 1: that Bothwell technically was off the hook. He could have
Speaker 1: returned to his plumb post as Mary's closest adviser without
Speaker 1: much fanfare, but he decided to use this chaotic moment
Speaker 1: to pursue even greater political power. On April nineteenth, fifteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven, just a week after the trial, he convened
Speaker 1: a meeting with various bishops, earls and lords of parliament
Speaker 1: Edinburgh's upper crust, to Ainsley Tavern to discuss his next moves. There,
Speaker 1: Bothwell revealed his plan. He wanted to mary Mary and
Speaker 1: become the king, and he asked everyone present to sign
Speaker 1: a document formally supporting the marriage. It's almost hard to
Speaker 1: overstate just how crazy this was. It cast the Darnley
Speaker 1: murder in an entirely new light. Perhaps Bothwell assassinated Darnley
Speaker 1: not only for revenge, but to take his place. This
Speaker 1: union with Mary would totally undermine Mary's reputation. If she
Speaker 1: married Bothwell, Mary would be replacing her late husband with
Speaker 1: the man who, despite his acquittal, remained the only plausible
Speaker 1: architect of his murder. Still, as many as twenty four
Speaker 1: of the men competing accounts give different numbers in Angeley
Speaker 1: Tavern that night signed the document in favor of the marriage.
Speaker 1: These men were willing to play along with Bothwell's plan,
Speaker 1: but we don't know how they might have really felt. Later,
Speaker 1: many of them revealed that they only agreed to the
Speaker 1: document because they thought a Bothwell Mary union would confer
Speaker 1: them political advantages. The signers were a group of Protestant nobles,
Speaker 1: so ensuring Mary had a Protestant husband would undermine the
Speaker 1: Catholic stronghold over Scotland that Mary represented. Some might have
Speaker 1: represented Bothwell out of loyalty, others out of fear, since
Speaker 1: he had a reputation for being a powerful, loose cannon
Speaker 1: who sought vengeance on those who confronted him and probably
Speaker 1: wasn't afraid of violence.
Speaker 2: Others still thought they.
Speaker 1: Could sign onto the document and change Bothwell's mind later.
Speaker 1: After all, for the record, Bothwell was already married. He
Speaker 1: would have to get a divorce, not an easy feat
Speaker 1: in sixteenth century Scotland, before he could pursue Mary. Mary
Speaker 1: seemed oblivious to Bothwell's plans. During the Ainsley Tavern meeting,
Speaker 1: Mary was in Settin for a short rest, so when
Speaker 1: Bothwell set off from Edinburgh the next day, met up
Speaker 1: with Mary and formally proposed marriage, she was caught off guard.
Speaker 1: It had only been a couple of months since her
Speaker 1: husband was murdered, and to repeat, Bothwell already had a wife,
Speaker 1: but here he was not only demanding her hand in marriage,
Speaker 1: but carrying a document that suggested that pretty much all
Speaker 1: of the noblemen in Edinburgh also supported that union. Still
Speaker 1: Mary turned him down. A letter she wrote to a
Speaker 1: bishop the day after confirms that impression. It professed her
Speaker 1: loyalty to Pope Pious the fifth and announced her plan
Speaker 1: to die a devout Catholic, which would conflict with having
Speaker 1: a Protestant wedding with the closest adviser. But Bothwell would
Speaker 1: not be deterred so easily. After all, he had already
Speaker 1: proven himself willing to go to extreme lengths to get
Speaker 1: what he wanted. Nothing would stop him on his quest
Speaker 1: for power, not even the Queen. On April twenty fourth,
Speaker 1: Mary was finally on the road back to Edinburgh, returning
Speaker 1: from her long trip. Perhaps she was nervous to find
Speaker 1: out what was waiting for her there. The city had
Speaker 1: been in chaos since Darnley's murder. Moreover, she had just
Speaker 1: turned down Bothwell's marriage proposal, and he was one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful men in Scotland. It's a risky position
Speaker 1: going against one of your closest allies. Mary wouldn't even
Speaker 1: make it half way to Edinburgh before Bothwell suddenly appeared
Speaker 1: on the road with eight hundred men. He warned Mary
Speaker 1: that it was too dangerous to return to the city
Speaker 1: and that she should instead accompany him to his castle
Speaker 1: in Dunbar to hide away. We don't know what was
Speaker 1: going through Mary's mind at the time. She was still
Speaker 1: feeling physically ill. The day before. She had been delayed
Speaker 1: on her journey because she was too weak to continue.
Speaker 1: She was probably tired, overwhelmed, confused and conflicted. Maybe she
Speaker 1: didn't believe Bothwell and wanted to continue on to Edinburgh.
Speaker 1: But she was outnumbered by Bothwell's army and was worried
Speaker 1: he might retaliate or force her if she refused. Or
Speaker 1: maybe she believed Bothwell or at least assumed that Bothwell
Speaker 1: was less dangerous than whatever conspiracy might be afoot in Edinburgh.
Speaker 1: Mary was already paranoid that she might be assassinated, just
Speaker 1: like her ex husband. In any case, she said that
Speaker 1: she would not like to be the cause of any
Speaker 1: more bloodshed and agreed to go with Bothwell to Dunbar.
Speaker 1: Historians debate whether or not this constitutes a kidnapping. To some,
Speaker 1: like Frasier, Mary clearly consented. She describes Mary as docile
Speaker 1: and that the proceedings were so calm and placid that
Speaker 1: it is difficult to describe what happened as an abduction,
Speaker 1: especially since she didn't even attempt to refuse Bothwell or
Speaker 1: seek rescue from the country people as she passed. She
Speaker 1: also argues that Mary must have known ahead of time
Speaker 1: that Bothwell was on his way. Letters from earlier in
Speaker 1: the week between the Earl of Lennox and another noble
Speaker 1: discussed the plan, suggesting that it was fairly common knowledge
Speaker 1: in Mary's court. Other historians like The French historian Catherine
Speaker 1: or Mayville take a more extreme view that Bothwell was
Speaker 1: actually doing Mary a favor by intervening that the two
Speaker 1: were actually secretly in love, and Bothwell pretended to kidnap
Speaker 1: Mary so that they could marry without ruining her reputation
Speaker 1: or at least mitigating the damage. These theories have some flaws.
Speaker 1: First is that there's no concrete proof that Mary had
Speaker 1: been having an affair with Bothwell. While some interpret her
Speaker 1: closeness with Bothwell as romantic, Bothwell's overtures only became explicit
Speaker 1: after the death of Mary's husband, and Mary had shut
Speaker 1: them down. There's also no proof that Mary had heard
Speaker 1: of Bothwell's plan to take her before it occurred, other
Speaker 1: than Fraser sense that it seems likely her courtiers may
Speaker 1: just as well have heard of the plan and decided
Speaker 1: not to tell Mary, not wanting to interfere get in
Speaker 1: the way. These theories are also more focused on the
Speaker 1: explicit consent itself then the larger conditions that influenced it.
Speaker 1: Mary was, I remind you, surrounded by eight hundred armed
Speaker 1: men and the guy who probably killed her husband. Even
Speaker 1: if she did refuse and Bothwell let her go, back
Speaker 1: to Edinburgh. Her political allies there signed a document professing
Speaker 1: their loyalty to Bothwell, so Mary may have faced consequences
Speaker 1: from them.
Speaker 2: Instead.
Speaker 1: Bothwell had gathered enough literal and metaphorical ammunition against Mary
Speaker 1: that her choice to go with him to Dunbar may
Speaker 1: not have really felt like a choice at all. After
Speaker 1: she was taken, Mary sent a member of her entourage
Speaker 1: head to Edinburgh to alert the Provost that she had
Speaker 1: been kidnapped. The Provost rang the literal alarm bell, and
Speaker 1: the citizens called on the government to engineer a rescue,
Speaker 1: but by then it was too late. Mary arrived at
Speaker 1: Dunbar at midnight with an army surrounding her. That night,
Speaker 1: Bothwell raped her. There are a number of accounts that
Speaker 1: confirmed this. One noble, who was at Dunbar while it happened,
Speaker 1: wrote that regardless of whether or not she had wanted
Speaker 1: to marry Bothwell, she had been quote ravished against her will.
Speaker 1: Mary herself said in a cryptic note that Bothwell's actions
Speaker 1: were quote rough, and that given the circumstances, she had
Speaker 1: no choice but quote to make.
Speaker 2: The best of it.
Speaker 1: The story got back to Edinburgh days later. By then,
Speaker 1: the mood had shifted. While some contemporaries maintained that she
Speaker 1: had been kidnapped, most thought that she had gone willingly
Speaker 1: and harbored secret romantic feelings for Bothwell. That said, no
Speaker 1: one cast any doubt that Bothwell had assault at her.
Speaker 1: Mary was known for being straight laced and pious, and
Speaker 1: Bothwell for being lecherous and scheming. Still, no one thought
Speaker 1: that a rape would exempt Mary from her impending marriage
Speaker 1: to Bothwell. If anything, it forced her hand, because the
Speaker 1: only way to lessen the sin of sleeping with a
Speaker 1: man out of wedlock would be to marry him. According
Speaker 1: to them, Bothwell did a heinous act to break down
Speaker 1: Mary's sexual boundaries, but she would have to suffer for it.
Speaker 1: As historian Ruth Warnick put it, quote, Mary reacted like
Speaker 1: many other early modern victims who believed their ravishment polluted them,
Speaker 1: unwilling to dishonor her family by revealing the rape and
Speaker 1: eliciting charges that she was immensely immodest or that she
Speaker 1: deserved to be attacked because she had not lived virtuously enough.
Speaker 1: Mary stayed at Dunbar for three weeks, where she seemed
Speaker 1: to give up and accept her fate. By the time
Speaker 1: she received an offer of rescue at the end of April,
Speaker 1: she rejected it, resigned. Now that Bothwell had secured his
Speaker 1: new marriage, he set out to dissolve his old one.
Speaker 1: That turned out to be way easier than anyone could
Speaker 1: have anticipated. His wife was all too happy to get
Speaker 1: rid of him. Bothwell set up two divorce trials in
Speaker 1: both Protestant and Catholic ecclesiastical courts, and within days the
Speaker 1: courts agreed to end his marriage on the grounds that
Speaker 1: he cheated on his wife, not with Mary, incidentally, but
Speaker 1: with his wife's sewing maid. His servants also found court
Speaker 1: officials and threatened to cut off their noses and ears
Speaker 1: if the verdict wasn't reached quickly enough. The threats worked.
Speaker 1: By May seventh, Bothwell was officially single. That week, Bothwell
Speaker 1: also finally brought Mary back to Edinburgh. One onlooker reported
Speaker 1: that he was holding the queen by the bridle of
Speaker 1: her horse as if she were a captive. On May twelfth,
Speaker 1: Mary declared formally that although she had been abducted, she
Speaker 1: would agree to marry Bothwell. Three days later, Bothwell and
Speaker 1: Mary were wed in a small Protestant ceremony at the
Speaker 1: Great Hall of Holyrood. After the wedding, the Earl of
Speaker 1: Bothwell technically had a new title, the Duke of Orkney,
Speaker 1: but I'll keep referring to him as Bothwell for clarity's sake.
Speaker 1: The atmosphere was hardly festive. The wedding banquet was a
Speaker 1: rush job. Some protesters placed on the palace gates the
Speaker 1: words Wanton's Mary. In the month of May, Mary seemed miserable.
Speaker 1: She had already been depressed before Bothwell's abduction, and now
Speaker 1: she was doing even a worse. One of her advice
Speaker 1: wrote a letter describing a conversation she had had with
Speaker 1: the Queen on her wedding day. Mary apologized for seeming
Speaker 1: too formal with her new husband. It was because she
Speaker 1: felt no joy about the wedding and longed for suicide.
Speaker 1: Mary had no idea that behind the scenes, the political
Speaker 1: elite of Edinburgh were trying to overturn the marriage. Even
Speaker 1: though many of them had signed the letter at Ainsley Tavern.
Speaker 1: They had begun to turn against Bothwell a few months before.
Speaker 1: They had assumed that Bothwell would repay them for their
Speaker 1: support by including them in his plans. Besides, Bothwell probably
Speaker 1: seemed like more reasonable choice of a husband for Mary
Speaker 1: than the paranoid, murderous Lord Darnley. But by May fifteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven, Bothwell seemed much more dangerous than Darnley. He
Speaker 1: had murdered someone, kidnapped and raped the Queen, and pipulated
Speaker 1: the government toward his own ends. Bothwell had shut out
Speaker 1: his former allies, going against their wishes and concentrating his
Speaker 1: own power. Even the more specious claims against Bothwell that
Speaker 1: these nobles had initially dismissed seemed increasingly reasonable. Earlier in
Speaker 1: this episode, we mentioned that in fifteen sixty two, five
Speaker 1: years before any of this happened, Lord Erin spread a
Speaker 1: rumor that Bothwell would kidnap the Queen and marry her
Speaker 1: to advance his own political career. Lord Erin was ruled crazy.
Speaker 1: Lest we forget, the information had come to him in
Speaker 1: a dream. But Lord Erin turned out to be right.
Speaker 1: His dream became a reality. Maybe Lord Erin had even
Speaker 1: given Bothwell the idea. At the beginning of May, while
Speaker 1: Mary was still in captivity at Dunbar, the nobles of
Speaker 1: Edinburgh met up to figure out what to do next.
Speaker 1: These confederates planned to gather an army in secret if
Speaker 1: Mary couldn't escape the marriage herself, they would do it
Speaker 1: for her with whatever force necessary. By June, the anti
Speaker 1: Bothwell nobility, known as the Confederates, had gotten organized. The
Speaker 1: Confederate lords had occupied the city of Edinburgh and taken
Speaker 1: over Parliament, installing troops throughout the city. On June eleventh,
Speaker 1: they issued a proclamation that they would rescue the queen,
Speaker 1: arrest Bothwell and avenge Darnley's murder once and for all.
Speaker 1: Bothwell had already caught wind of the plan. Fearing a
Speaker 1: military coup, Bothwell took Mary to Borthwick Castle, about twelve
Speaker 1: miles south of Edinburgh to avoid a surprise attack. He
Speaker 1: had an army of his own and was ready to
Speaker 1: fight back, but when Bothwell and Mary heard that twelve
Speaker 1: hundred Confederate troops were on their way to Borthwick Castle,
Speaker 1: they fled once again. Bothwell dressed Mary in men's clothing
Speaker 1: to avoid suspicion, and they headed back to Dunbar. On
Speaker 1: June fifteenth, the two armies finally met up for a
Speaker 1: showdown at Carbury Hill, about seven miles from Edinburgh. One
Speaker 1: of the Confederates promised Mary that if she abandoned Bothwell
Speaker 1: he would restore her to power. Mary refused. It may
Speaker 1: seem weird for her to have declared loyalty to Bothwell,
Speaker 1: given that he abused her, raped her, and forced her
Speaker 1: to marry him. But Mary had a secret. She was pregnant.
Speaker 1: She feared that the child was Bothwell's and didn't want
Speaker 1: to sully her reputation further by giving birth to an
Speaker 1: illegitimate child. No matter how they had gotten there, She
Speaker 1: and Bothwell were married. The two armies were at a standoff,
Speaker 1: neither of them particularly wanting to fight. Instead, they argued
Speaker 1: about what to do next. After a few hours, Bothwell's
Speaker 1: soldiers began wandering off. Bored, Bothwell finally called for single
Speaker 1: combat to settle the dispute, but then backed down immediately,
Speaker 1: claiming that he was too high status to fight the
Speaker 1: guy who had volunteered a higher status. Confederate Lord Lindey
Speaker 1: agreed to fight Bothwell, but Bothwell backed down yet again.
Speaker 1: Mary finally took decisive action. She surrendered to the Confederates
Speaker 1: on a promise of good treatment and if they let
Speaker 1: Bothwell go free again. Her choice is somewhat puzzling. Why
Speaker 1: would she want to protect Bothwell after everything he did
Speaker 1: to her. Some historians interpret this as an expression of
Speaker 1: love or affection for Bothwell, while others think she did
Speaker 1: so out of political strategy to separate herself from Bothwell
Speaker 1: and his influence to argue for her own innocence. Historians
Speaker 1: also dispute the order of events. Ritha Vornik suggests that
Speaker 1: Bothwell decided to flee before Mary agreed to surrender. In
Speaker 1: any case, the Confederates accepted her conditions and Bothwell fled,
Speaker 1: first to the south of Scotland, then to Denmark. Mary
Speaker 1: would never see him again. Mary was led back to
Speaker 1: Edinburgh by her horse's bridle, yet again, this time a
Speaker 1: captive of the state. As she entered the city, soldiers
Speaker 1: yelled burn the whore. Banners flew across town, depicting Darnley's
Speaker 1: corpse lying under a tree and their son kneeling praying
Speaker 1: to the Lord for revenge in her tattered clothes. Mary
Speaker 1: was imprisoned, first in Edinburgh and then at a castle
Speaker 1: in Lochleven. Weeks passed before anyone figured out what to
Speaker 1: do with Mary. She spent her days wandering around the
Speaker 1: castle there, with barely anything to do. In captivity, her
Speaker 1: allies met with her and begged her to divorce bothwell
Speaker 1: and repudiate him to gain her release. Mary still refused,
Speaker 1: finally admitting that she was seven weeks pregnant. She emphasized
Speaker 1: that she was only seven weeks pregnant, despite not being
Speaker 1: absolutely sure of the date, to claim that conception occurred
Speaker 1: after the wedding, thereby implicitly denying the primerido. A week later,
Speaker 1: Mary had a miscarriage, leaving her bed ridden for the
Speaker 1: rest of the month of July. On July twenty fourth,
Speaker 1: Mary signed as statement claiming that her illness made it
Speaker 1: impossible for her to reign. She abdicated the throne to
Speaker 1: her one year old son with Lord Darnley, and appointed
Speaker 1: her half brother, the Earl of Moray, as the king Regent.
Speaker 1: When Mary's health began to improve in August, Moray arrived
Speaker 1: in Lochleven to scold her about her mistakes in a
Speaker 1: two day lecture before formally assuming the regency. Mary spent
Speaker 1: nearly a year in captivity, writing secret messages in code
Speaker 1: and planning an escape. Finally, on May second, she boarded
Speaker 1: a stolen boat in its skies and rode horses to
Speaker 1: Hamilton House. A few miles from Glasgow. Two days later,
Speaker 1: she told Moray that she disavowed giving up the crown.
Speaker 1: Six thousand men joined her to protect her and reinstall
Speaker 1: her as the Queen. Angry with Moray for Tree aiding
Speaker 1: her so poorly in prison and holding her accountable for
Speaker 1: her husband's death rather than bothwell. As Mary and her
Speaker 1: army headed toward Dunbarton Castle, Moorey sent a force of
Speaker 1: troops to go after her. Even though Morey had a
Speaker 1: smaller army of only four thousand soldiers, he managed to
Speaker 1: defeat Mary. She was not expecting Moray to actually engage
Speaker 1: them in battle, so her troops were too chaotic and
Speaker 1: disorganized to prevail. Mary also hadn't expected Morey to focus
Speaker 1: on apprehending her When she tried to escape in the
Speaker 1: middle of the battle, Moray redirected his soldiers from fighting
Speaker 1: to seize her instead. After narrowly escaping. After the humiliating defeat,
Speaker 1: Mary decided to serve out the rest of her imprisonment
Speaker 1: in England. She felt like she had no choice. While France,
Speaker 1: a Catholic country, would have been friendlier to Mary, she
Speaker 1: couldn't make it all the way there on the dinghy fishing.
Speaker 2: Boat provided to her.
Speaker 1: She figured that in England, her cousin, Queen Elizabeth the First,
Speaker 1: would keep her safe and maybe even help her win
Speaker 1: back the Scottish throne. Elizabeth had to thread a delicate
Speaker 1: political needle. She didn't want to openly support Mary since
Speaker 1: Mary was accused of murder, but she didn't want to
Speaker 1: execute her or send her back to Scotland and create
Speaker 1: a Catholic murder, so she called for a formal inquiry
Speaker 1: into the accusations against Mary, hoping to produce a verdict
Speaker 1: that could guide her towards a decision. Mary agreed to
Speaker 1: go along with the inquiry if she maintained her royal
Speaker 1: rank during the trial, and if the inquiry was not
Speaker 1: about her alleged murder of Darnley or the marriage with bothwell,
Speaker 1: but instead focused on whether or not she would be
Speaker 1: able to rule over Scotland. On October fourth, fifteen sixty eight,
Speaker 1: the first day of the hearing, the inquiry did not
Speaker 1: follow either of those conditions. One reason is that Moray
Speaker 1: took over the prosecution, and he aimed to prove without
Speaker 1: a doubt that Mary was behind Lord Darnley's murder, so
Speaker 1: that she could never rule again. Moray, a Protestant who
Speaker 1: happily accepted Elizabeth's authority, had many allies in the English court.
Speaker 1: Mary felt like the English officials in charge of the
Speaker 1: trial were already on Morey's side. After a few days
Speaker 1: of taking oaths and reading commissions, Mary's team still had
Speaker 1: some hope that the trial would reach an agreement that
Speaker 1: could satisfy both sides. But Moray went straight for the jugular.
Speaker 1: He accused Mary of having an affair with Bothwell before
Speaker 1: her husband's death, hoping to exploit the fact that, as
Speaker 1: a Varnik put it quote, many contemporaries viewed fornication not
Speaker 1: only as more criminal than murder, but also as inevitably
Speaker 1: leading to murder. Moray introduced his primary evidence for that
Speaker 1: claim a series of documents in a foot long silver casket,
Speaker 1: including six love letters written by Mary to Bothwell, two
Speaker 1: contracts of marriage, one signed before Bothwell's murder trial, a
Speaker 1: request from Mary to the nobleman to sign the Ainsley
Speaker 1: Tavern band, and a French love ballad. These quote casket letters,
Speaker 1: named after the casket they were stored in, seemed to
Speaker 1: damn Mary's case, proving that she was not a victim
Speaker 1: of Bothwell at all, but rather that she had been
Speaker 1: in love with Bothwell for years and conspired with him
Speaker 1: to murder Lord Darnley. Most historians think these letters were forged.
Speaker 1: Some were entirely invented, while others were probably rewrites of
Speaker 1: actual letters that Mary had written to other people. The
Speaker 1: Casket letters were said to have been discovered at Edinburgh
Speaker 1: Castle in June of fifteen sixty seven, after Mary had
Speaker 1: been captured. But why would Bothwell keep his letters from
Speaker 1: Mary there when he didn't live there. He barely spent
Speaker 1: any time in Edinburgh aside from his wedding to Mary.
Speaker 1: Mary also tended to use ciphers and codes to write
Speaker 1: about sensitive material, and the letters contained several inaccuracies. In
Speaker 1: fifteen sixty nine, Mary told Elizabeth quote that even if
Speaker 1: she had imagined the foolish remarks in the Casket letters,
Speaker 1: she never would have put them in writing. It seems
Speaker 1: that Elizabeth did not take these letters particularly seriously, because
Speaker 1: the inquiry continued.
Speaker 2: On for months.
Speaker 1: Mary's side offered various concessions to the Crown, like vowing
Speaker 1: to educate her son in England in exchange for her reinstatement,
Speaker 1: while Moray sought to destroy Mary's reputation entirely. Mary's side
Speaker 1: thought Elizabeth had been unfair. She had agreed to meet
Speaker 1: with Moray outside of the inquiry and allowed him to
Speaker 1: appear at the hearings, while Mary could not participate in
Speaker 1: her own investigation or testify for herself. Mary didn't even
Speaker 1: know what she was being accused of in any case.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth ended the inquiry in January fifteen sixty nine, refusing
Speaker 1: to issue a decision, arguing that there was not enough
Speaker 1: proof to convict Mary nor to exonerate her. Our other
Speaker 1: episode about Mary Queen of scott goes into more depth
Speaker 1: about what happened during the rest of Mary Mary's imprisonment
Speaker 1: and how Elizabeth eventually made the decision to execute her
Speaker 1: in fifteen eighty seven. But this inquiry in fifteen sixty nine,
Speaker 1: even though it ended inconclusively, cemented a narrative of the
Speaker 1: relationship between Bothwell and Mary in the historical record. Even
Speaker 1: though the courts didn't take the casket letters seriously, they
Speaker 1: were published in fifteen seventy one in a book accusing
Speaker 1: Mary of pursuing Bothwell and orchestrating Darnley's murder. Another account
Speaker 1: denied this reading and proclaimed Mary's innocence, dismissing the letters
Speaker 1: as forgeries. These two competing versions of the story of
Speaker 1: Bothwell and Mary's relationship persist even after four centuries. By now,
Speaker 1: most historians, with a few exceptions, believe that while Mary
Speaker 1: may have had a hostile relationship with Darnley, she did
Speaker 1: not actively participate in his death. She chose to marry
Speaker 1: and defend Bothwell not out of love, but out of desperation.
Speaker 1: She had suffered the death of her husband, a debilitating illness,
Speaker 1: a kidnapping, and a rape. In a society that punished
Speaker 1: adultery even over murder and blamed women for their own assaults,
Speaker 1: Mary was stuck between a rock and a hard place,
Speaker 1: a place where even a queen had no power. That's
Speaker 1: the tragic story of Mary, Queen of Scots and Bothwell.
Speaker 1: But stick around to hear about Mary's favorite prison pastime,
Speaker 1: needle point. In her years in prison, Mary had a
Speaker 1: lot of time on her hands under house arrest. At
Speaker 1: George Talbot's English estate from fifteen sixty eight to fifteen
Speaker 1: eighty five, Mary befriended his second wife, Bess of Hardwicke,
Speaker 1: who was a great embroiderer. Mary already had an interest
Speaker 1: in sewing and embroidery. When Mary was imprisoned in Scotland
Speaker 1: in fifteen sixty seven, her allies petitioned the Earl of
Speaker 1: Moray to appoint her an embroiderer to draw designs for
Speaker 1: her sewing. Morey refused. It was common for wealthy women
Speaker 1: to spend time together embroidering. Each person would work on
Speaker 1: a panel that then could be sewn together like a quilt.
Speaker 1: The panels Mary and Bess worked on together mostly depicted animals, dogs, bees, elephants, tigers,
Speaker 1: even dragons. My favorite features a cat playing with a
Speaker 1: mouse called a cat. Some art historians have tried to
Speaker 1: decode these panels for hidden meaning. The Victoria and alas
Speaker 1: Albert Museum interprets one panel quote depicting a grape vine
Speaker 1: and a hand holding a pruning knife as a reference
Speaker 1: to quote Mary's claim on the throne, suggesting the need
Speaker 1: to cut away the fruitless branch of the tudor tree
Speaker 1: represented by the childless and quote illegitimate Elizabeth. The point
Speaker 1: is driven home by the Latin motto viriskit vulner vitus
Speaker 1: virtue flourishes by.
Speaker 2: Wounding end quote.
Speaker 1: It's not entirely clear whether this was Mary's intention, but
Speaker 1: the panel was introduced in a treason trial as evidence
Speaker 1: that Mary had in fact been conspiring against Elizabeth. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz,
Speaker 1: with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender,
Speaker 1: Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is edited and
Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il Kaali
Speaker 1: and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.