A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots
MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS,
Celebrated for her beauty, her wit, her learning, and her misfortunes, was born December 3rd., 1542, and was the daughter and sole heiress of James the Fifth of Scotland, by Mane of Lorraine, his second queen, a French princess of the family of Guise. Mary was eight days old when her father died; after many disturbances, it was agreed that the Earl of Arran, the next heir to the crown, should be made governor of the kingdom, and guardian to the infant queen, who remained, with her mother, in the royal palace of Linlithgow. Henry the Eighth wished to obtain the hand of this princess for his son Edward, and it was at first promised to him; but being afterwards refused by the Earl of Arran, the famous battle of Musselburgh was fought in consequence. Upon the defeat of the Scots in this battle, Mary was carried by her mother to the island of Inch-mahome, where she laid the foundation of her knowledge in the Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian tongues, which Mary afterwards carried to such perfection that few were found to equal her in any of them.
When the young queen was six years old, she was taken by her mother to France, where she was sent to a convent, in which the daughters of the nobility of the kingdom were educated. She wrote and spoke Latin with great ease and elegance, and had a taste for poetry; many of her compositions were highly esteemed by Ronsard. She played well on several instruments, danced gracefully, and managed a horse with ease and dexterity: she also spent much time in needlework.
On the 20th of April, 1558, Mary was married to the dauphin, afterwards Francis the Second of France, who died December 6th., 1560, about six months after his accession to the throne. Mary was very much attached to him, and mourned his loss with sincere sorrow. She soon after left France, with great reluctance, to return to her own kingdom. She is said to have remained on the deck of the vessel that bore her from her beloved France, gazing on the shores of that country till they had completely disappeared from her view; then retiring below, she wrote some verses on the occasion, full of beauty and pathos.
She was welcomed with joy by her subjects, and soon after her return, Charles, Archduke of Austria, was proposed to her as a husband, by the Cardinal of Lorraine. But Elizabeth of England interposed, and desired she would not marry with any foreign prince. She recommended to her either the Earl of Leicester or the Lord Darnley; giving her to understand that her succession to the crown of England would be very precarious if she did not comply. Overawed by Elizabeth, and pleased by the beauty of Darnley, she consented to marry him; and creating him Earl of Ross and Duke of Rothsay, July 28th., 1565, he was the same day proclaimed king, at Edinburgh, and married to the queen the day after; thus uniting the two nearest heirs to the throne of England. She had one son by Darnley, born at Edinburgh, June 19th., 1566; afterwards James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England.
Of the events connected with the murder of David Rizzio, son of a musician at Turin, who had accompanied the Piedmontese ambassador to Scotland, and gained admission into the queen's family by his musical talents, and who so insinuated himself into Mary's favour, that she made him her French secretary, we need not give a detail, nor of Mary's subsequent conduct with regard to Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, and the violent death of Darnley, who, will be remembered, was blown up in a solitary house in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, called Kirk of Field, Mary, as some contend, being an accessary In this deed of blood. Into all these disputed points of the unfortunate queen's history, we need not enter. Her marriage with Bothwell, which took place about three months after the death of Darnley, gave a great appearance of probability to the injurious suspicions which attached to her in consequence of that sad event.
From this time a series of misfortunes attended the queen. The different views and interests of the nobility, clergy, and gentry, in regard to religion and politics, had so disturbed the peace of the kingdom, that all things appeared in the greatest confusion. Bothwell, defeated in a battle, was forced to fly to Denmark; and the queen was taken prisoner to Lochleven, and committed to the care of Murray's mother, who, having been the mistress of James the Fifth, insulted the unfortunate queen, by pretending that she was the lawful wife of King James, and that Murray was his legitimate child. When Queen Elizabeth heard of this treatment of Mary, she seemed very indignant at it, and sent Sir Nicholas Throgmorton into Scotland, to expostulate with the conspirators, and to consult about restoring her to liberty. But Elizabeth was by no means in earnest; and, if not the contriver of these troubles, as some have supposed her to have been, she secretly rejoiced at them. When Elizabeth was crowned, Mary, then in France, had been persuaded by the Roman Catholics to assume the arms and title of the kingdom of England; thereby declaring Elizabeth illegitimate, and her title null and void. This indignity Elizabeth never forgave.
Having been detained prisoner at Lochleven eleven months, and most inhumanly forced to comply with demands highly detrimental to her honour and interest, she escaped, May 2nd., 1568, and went to Hamilton Castle. Here, in an assembly of many of the nobility, was drawn up a sentence, declaring that the grants extorted from her majesty in prison, among which was a resignation of the crown, were void from the beginning; upon which, in two or three days, more than six thousand people assembled to her assistance.
Murray, who had been declared regent of the kingdom, made all possible preparations; and when the two parties joined battle, the queen's army, consisting of raw soldiers, was entirely defeated; and she was obliged to save herself by flight, travelling sixty miles in one day, to the house of Maxwell, Lord Herries. Thence she despatched a messenger to Queen Elizabeth, with a diamond which she had formerly received from her, signifying that she would come into England, and asking her assistance. Elizabeth returned a kind answer, with large promises; but before the messenger returned, Mary, rejecting the advice of her friends, hastened into England, and landed May 17th., at Workington, in Cumberland; she wrote a long letter in French with her own hand to Elizabeth, detailing her misfortunes, and asking her aid. Elizabeth affected to comfort her, gave her dubious promises, and commanded, under pretence of greater security, that she should be carried to Carlisle.
Mary immediately perceived her error. Denied access to Elizabeth, she was kept wandering for nineteen years from one prison to another, and was at length tried, condemned, and beheaded, for being engaged in Babington's conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth. She professed to die for the Roman Catholic religion, and has been considered a saint by that church. She was executed at Fotheringay Castle, February 8th., 1587, and met her death with dignity and composure. Her remains were interred by her son, in Westminster Abbey, after his accession to the English throne.
Authors have differed about the moral character of this queen; there has been but one opinion as to her charms as a woman, or the variety of her accomplishments. She wrote poems in the Latin, Italian, French, and Scotch languages; "Royal Advice" to her son, during her imprisonment; and a great number of letters, many of which are now in the library at Paris. Some of them have been printed.
Such were her fascinations of person and mind that few could be placed under their influence without becoming convinced of her innocence of all the charges against her, and devoted to her service. She also possessed great powers of irony and sarcasm, which she sometimes used with too little discretion. Though at all times strongly attached to her own faith, she is free from the charges of bigotry and persecution. A melancholy interest attaches every heart to the memory of Mary of Scotland. It is painfully felt that fate or providence had designed her for suffering. Her charms of beauty and genius, that made her such a fascinating woman, unfitted her for the throne of a rude nation, in the most stormy period of its history. She had the misfortune to live among enemies paid to slander her; and few dared defend, while her proud and powerful rival queen was watching for an opportunity to crush her, whose misfortunes have furnished a subject for the tragic muse of Schiller and Alfieri.