An Accidental Tragedy Read Online Free PDF Page B

costly’. Arran carried the crown – as his descendant, the Duke of Hamilton does to this day – Lennox carried the sceptre and Argyll the sword of state. Mary was carried by her mother, and Beaton, in the scarlet vestments of a cardinal, conducted the ceremony. The crown had last been worn by James V at the coronation of Marie; now it was being held by the cardinal above the tiny queen’s head. She was duly anointed with the holy oil mixed with balm – chrism – and immediately became God’s anointed. She was now possessed of certain holy powers – such as curing scrofula, or the King’s Evil, with a touch – and her wearing of the crown, with the secular power represented by it, had been given to her by divine right. She was, in effect, two people in one: Mary Stewart, aten-month-old baby, and Queen Mary, verging on being half human and half divine in one body. In later life, when speaking as queen, to show the presence of both elements she would refer to herself as ‘we’. Adherence to these quasi-medieval beliefs would contribute to the end of the reign of the house of Stewart 200 years later.
    The new queen behaved extremely badly throughout the ceremony, screaming constantly so that no one could hear the nobility pledging their often hypocritical allegiance. The heralds, whose duty it was to announce Mary’s lengthy new titles in full, simply gave up the task, and while Janet Sinclair put her new queen in her night cradle the court attended a ball in the great hall. The pro-English lords were absent, and there now seemed no possibility of them being able to carry out their promises to Henry. Marie de Guise had demonstrated that she was not simply the queen mother, to be respected and quietly bypassed, but a woman of skill and determination, representing a Franco-Scottish power base that could not be ignored. Henry was left with his Treaty of Greenwich, now worthless, and never again would he trust the Scots.
    Although it was autumn, the court could still for the moment enjoy itself with hawking, hunting and dancing. Musicians and painters flocked to Stirling, and Marie, for once free of her dynastic cares, started to enjoy the pleasures of young widowhood. She was twenty-eight years old and sexually attractive, so her simplest way to ensure the loyalty of her squabbling nobility was to play the marriage game. Arran could be bought by power and money but Lennox’s favour could be bought with the flicker of an eyelash. He was cosmopolitan, having been a lieutenant in the Garde Écossaise, a group of aristocratic mercenaries who acted as the French king’s personal bodyguard. He was sophisticated and could easily beguile the ladies of the court with his elegant manner.
    Such a flirtation with one person could be dangerous unless balanced by another, and Marie had a perfect foil in Patrick Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. He had already been exiled forarrogant unruliness and was reputed, wrongly, to be a royal bastard – a slander he did nothing to correct. Hereditary lord admiral, he was entitled to the profits from the sales of all ships wrecked on the coasts of Scotland, giving him a steady and dependable income. His castles were Crichton, near Edinburgh, and the grim tower of Hermitage in the Middle March, held on the royal behalf, but from where he could challenge or welcome any force from England as the fancy took him. His behaviour would have been recognisable to the knights of the twelfth century, with violence as the immediate answer to any problem; today he would enthusiastically embrace the code of honour of the Mafia. He was married, but as soon as he realised that he could soon be the stepfather of the queen he gained a rapid annulment.
    Lennox and Bothwell vied as to who should be the ‘most gallzeart in their clothing’ and ‘behaved themselves in the queen’s presence sometimes in dancing, sometimes in shooting, sometimes in singing and jousting and running of the great horse at the lists, with