This Day in Jacobite History: Mary Queen of Scots Deposed - 24 July 1567
From HistoryChannel.com comes the story of how Catholic Mary Stuart was deposed by Scotland's Protestant "nobility" 439 years ago today:
July 24
1567 Mary Queen of Scots deposed
During her imprisonment at Lochleven Castle in Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son, later crowned King James VI of Scotland.
In 1542, while just six days old, Mary ascended to the Scottish throne upon the death of her father, King James V. Her mother sent her to be raised in the French court, and in 1558 she married the French dauphin, who became King Francis II of France in 1559 but died the following year. After Francis' death, Mary returned to Scotland to assume her designated role as the country's monarch.
In 1565, she married her English cousin Lord Darnley in order to reinforce her claim of succession to the English throne after Elizabeth's death. In 1567, Darnley was mysteriously killed in an explosion at Kirk o' Field, and Mary's lover, the Earl of Bothwell, was the key suspect. Although Bothwell was acquitted of the charge, his marriage to Mary in the same year enraged the nobility, and Bothwell and Mary were imprisoned. Mary was held on the tiny island of Loch Leven, where she was forced to abdicate in favor of her son by Darnley, James.
In 1568, she escaped from captivity and raised a substantial army but was defeated and fled to England. Queen Elizabeth initially welcomed Mary but was soon forced to put her friend under house arrest after Mary became the focus of various English Catholic and Spanish plots to overthrow Elizabeth. Nineteen years later, in 1586, a major plot to murder Elizabeth was reported, and Mary was brought to trial. She was convicted for complicity and sentenced to death.
On February 8, 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason. Her son, King James VI of Scotland, calmly accepted his mother's execution, and upon Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603 he became king of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
My Comments:Although this event pre-dates the Jacobite period by roughly 100 years, it is nevertheless an important date regarding the Stuart monarchy, and is a precursor for what was to come later.
posted by Pro Ecclesia 12:23 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
A few points:
According to Mahon, there's no way that Darnley couldn't have known about the gunpowder in his basement. Gunpowder in those times was of very poor quality, and the basement would have to be filled with barrels of it to blow up the house. Darnley was obviously plotting to murder the Queen and make himself Regent. (Their marriage was unhappy from the start.)
Also, Darnley wasn't killed in the explosion. He escaped the house when he smelt smoke because he knew it was going to blow up. He was found strangled in the garden. Going by his last words, he was murdered by his kinsman the Earl of Morton . James VI would later execute Morton for his role in Darnley's murder.
Actually, Bothwell was not originally the key suspect. That was Mary's illegitimate half-brother, the Protestant Earl of Moray. (He was also a b****** in the other sense as well. All the Protestant lords, except Bothwell, had received financial help from "Queen" Bess to destabilize Mary's regime. They also received asylum from England after the Chaseabout Raid.) Bothwell was seen as a suspect only after the notorious "Mermaid & Hare" posters came up in Edinburgh (these were found to be the work of one of Moray's supporters).
Bothwell was tried and acquitted by a jury that consisted of men who didn't like him one bit (Bothwell, unlike the other Protestant lords, did not persecute the Catholics living in his Borders fiefdom). So he was either truly innocent or they were already planning to set him up, big-time. Which they did, courtesy the "Ainslie Tavern bond" and later on, the forged "Casket Letters".
The deposition of Mary Queen of Scots was truly the lowest point in Scottish History. It began the Protestantization of the Crown because baby James would be brainwashed effectively by the Protestant lords to disown his own mother and enter into alliance with the evil Elizabeth. Also, while Catholics in England were persecuted, Scottish Protestants were tolerated but they would not be content without the persecution of Scottish Catholics. This rabid hatred of Catholicism would drive them t ocommit treason against their own country.
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