An Accidental Tragedy Read Online Free PDF

not do their duties to him he would notify the world of their disloyalty and would seek help of England and all parts of the world to be revenged on them.’ If his adversaries opposed him he would ‘surely stick’ to Henry, and all the strongholds south of the Forth ‘should be ready at [Henry’s] commandment’. He now wanted to have a contract ofmarriage between Elizabeth and his son, and hinted that his purchasing loyalty for Henry had meant that he had had to melt some of his own plate into coin, but the immediate payment of £1,000 would put matters right. Sadler, wisely, had withheld this money since he felt that Arran’s use of it would be ‘unfruitful’, but in July he released the funds. The effect of this was that by August, Arran was asking for another £5,000.
    To Sadler’s disquiet, Arran still wanted to have close supervision over Mary, in case she was whisked away to France. This was beginning to look more likely as Marie had made a formal alliance with Beaton and Lennox and their troops were gathering at Linlithgow. There was a rumour that French ships were lying off the coast, although no one had actually seen them directly. Sadler wanted Mary to be taken to Stirling, out of the way of possible armed conflict, and, since this was precisely what Marie wanted, she was delighted to oblige.
    On 27 July, Mary, accompanied by Lennox with 2,500 cavalry and 1,000 infantry, travelled to Stirling in state along the path taken by the messenger who had delivered the news of her birth to James V. She was only some eight months old, still being suckled by her wet nurse, but no one who saw the procession could have been in any doubt that it was the progress of a queen. Mary was firmly in the care of Marie de Guise, and Arran had no further negotiating power.
    The castle was, if anything, more impregnable than Edinburgh. It had also received the attentions of James V and had magnificent carved roundels in the French style and a great hall that, it was rumoured, could seat 400. Thanks to Marie’s clandestine removals from Linlithgow it was furnished to the standards expected of a royal palace. The castle was the first royal building in Scotland to have a Chapel Royal. There were gardens within the walls and here Mary could be brought to womanhood in perfect safety. Even Sadler, used as he was to his king’s extravagances at Hampton Court, was impressed and reported of the mother and child, ‘she is very glad to be at Stirling. Her daughter did grow apace and soon she would be awoman if she took of her mother who is indeed the largest stature of women.’ Although in later life her weight would become a major problem for her, Marie was still an attractively tall woman.
    Henry, trying desperately to keep control of a deteriorating situation at 500 miles distant, now asked that only Mary be lodged in the castle and that her mother be lodged in the town with only limited visiting rights. He was quite right in diagnosing what everybody on the ground could see: Marie was totally in charge of the situation. His request was simply ignored.
    Sadler, however, cautious as usual, asked to see the child Mary again and she was obediently displayed, in good health after recovering from a bout of chickenpox. Arran, realising that he had now lost any chance of deceiving anybody, decided, as he usually did, to join the winning side and met Beaton, who arranged for him to make a public confession of his apostasy and to receive absolution. Arran also gave his son, James Hamilton, into the cardinal’s care in the castle of St Andrews. Now, all the power of Scotland was united around Mary, and her mother could proceed immediately to the next vital stage.
    Mary’s coronation took place on 9 September 1543. She was exactly ten months old and can have remembered nothing of it in later life. The ceremony was held in the Chapel Royal in Stirling with, according to Sadler, ‘such solemnity as they do use in this country, which is not very