Chapter I
A century of non-stop turbulence, a century of Drama, even Netflix can’t do better. It packed a lot in just over 120 years. Kings, Queens, Revolution, Religion, Adultery, Regicide, Murder, Executions, Monarchy, Republicanism, Massacres, War, and Internecine conflicts of one kind or another. The story I want to tell will unfold over ten long chapters. In fact, I begin with a brief visit to 1545, at the onset of the English Reformation, which ultimately led to the development of Anglicanism (Church of England, today, High Church) in England, and the Scottish Reformation, which ultimately led to the establishment of Presbyterianism, Calvinism, and the Covenanters (more on that later). I take my story all the way to 1688, the Glorious Revolution, and the Act of Settlement, even a little later. As we approach that period, we encounter numerous religious wars among all claimants to God’s chosen people, each asserting their claim to truth. An assumed Truth given by God to justify their killing one another in his name.
In terms of popularity, this chapter of English history is underrated, in my opinion, particularly in relation to the kings and Queens, which overshadow the Tudor period that preceded it and the Hanoverian period that followed. Where the Tudor period was mainly taken up by Henry VIII's marriages, and the Hanoverian period by mad George and the loss of the thirteen colonies, the body of this story is Religion.
Catholic, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland
So let me start with Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. Mary was born at Linlithgow Palace to James V, King of Scots, and his French second wife, Marie de Guise (Catholic). At five years of age, the young princess was betrothed to Prince Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII of England. Mary’s mother will hear none of it, though, so she shipped the child to France, out of Henry’s reach, which meant Mary was brought up a Catholic. At the age of 15, she married Francis, the heir to the French Throne, who was 14 at the time, and later became King of France. That meant Mary was fortunate to be queen of France, England, Scotland, and by extension, Ireland. Quite a standing start, yet to think that she was later beheaded by her cousin Queen Elizabeth. Lamenting the unfortunate queen from such a promising start, only to later fall foul of such a sad end. Poor old Mary never had much luck in her short life; she was to take a wrong turn at every crossroads.
Mary, Queen of Scots
Born 08/12/1542 Linlithgow, Scotland - Died 08/02/1587 Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire, England.
After a brief marriage, rumoured never to have been consummated, Mary’s French husband died, and his mother, Catherine de Medici, who never liked Mary, suspected the Guise nobility were always conniving after the French Crown. So, the question was, why would Mary stay when she was a Queen elsewhere, albeit with not as much luxury as the French Court could offer? She didn’t.
She returned to Scotland in 1561, by then a Protestant country. Mary Stuart ended up as the Catholic queen over a Protestant Scotland and presided over a protestant Parliament. In a modern take on things, she was quite tolerant of the religious situation, believing in religious plurality, so she wasn’t out to change the system. She married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a charismatic, tall, and handsome man, but he later came to be seen as a shifty, untrustworthy figure. Soon after their wedding, he wanted to be King and wear the crown in his own right rather than remain as consort. She refused him that privilege. So he turned against her to the point that, when her son, James (later James VI of Scotland), was born, he never attended his son’s baptism, implying that James was not his son and therefore illegitimate. That was a lie, but it stuck as a stain on Mary’s character.
A couple of months later, Darnely’s castle caught fire due to a mysterious gunpowder plot. Mary was implicated with the murder of her husband, but no proof was ever produced in evidence. Inevitably, James, believing it to be true, disowned his mother, believing she was an adulteress and guilty of murdering Darnley, his father. In his younger days, James loved books, but his tutor, George Buchanan, was a hard man who hated Catholics, and Mary Queen of Scots, his mother, most of all. James grew up with his ears ringing with stories of his mother’s wickedness, inevitably growing up with a visceral hatred towards her. Buchanan thought she was a witch, a whore and a murderer.
The Protestant Parliamentary calm, however, did not last for very long; eventually, the Scottish elite turned against Mary’s Catholicism, chief amongst them being her protestant stepbrother. Eventually, she was forcibly removed as Queen of Scotland in 1567 and imprisoned immediately to be succeeded by her infant son, James VI, who was thereafter raised as a Protestant with no father or mother. She still had local supporters, and with their help, she managed to escape the castle where she was being held. She gathered an army composed of her Catholic supporters, with some French assistance, to regain Scotland. Unfortunately, Mary's forces were heavily defeated by the Earl of Moray, her half-brother and regent for her son James, at the Battle of Langside in 1568, forcing her to flee once again.
Woman to woman
She fled to England, believing that Elizabeth, a woman, would understand her situation and provide protection and support. She would have had a listening ear with Queen Elizabeth, but for a treacherous guy called Cecil, a Protestant, who had other ideas, unfortunately for Mary. After arriving in England in 1568 and seeking refuge, she was placed under house arrest in various locations for the next nineteen years. Yes, Cecil (William Cecil, Lord Burghley) accused Mary of plotting against Elizabeth, and he played a key role in building the case against her, producing nine letters incriminating Mary in a plot to kill her cousin. Cecil, as Elizabeth's chief minister, saw Mary as a serious threat due to her Catholic faith and her potential claim to the English throne since Catholics did not accept Henry VIII's dissolution of marriage from Catherine of Aragon, making Elizabeth an illegitimate daughter of his next wife, Anne Boleyn, who was later beheaded. Elizabeth was later declared a bastard by her own father in the Act of Succession. Yes, I know it gets complicated, but try to stay with it.
While incarcerated, Mary wrote numerous letters, most of which were coded. One of them stood out; in it, Mary wrote to Elizabeth that she would recognise her as the rightful queen of England if, in return, Elizabeth would name Mary as heir to the throne, provided that Elizabeth did not marry and have children. She also asked her if they could meet woman to woman away from these mischievous men who twist things to their advantage. Elizabeth seriously considered this offer, believing it to be very reasonable, but for one Cecil, whose primary business, other than seeing Mary as an obsession, is to protect England and its Protestantism. The religious divide he felt as heightened tensions, as Protestant England feared that Catholic powers, such as Spain or France, might support an invasion to install Mary as queen. Being Protestant, England could be a target, so security was important, which made Mary all the more dangerous. The meeting between the two queens, however, never materialised, while uneasiness continued as Mary ceaselessly plotted many schemes to unseat Elizabeth, which further aggravated Mary's position. England was a marginal power in Europe at this time. Not one of the big boys, or the main focus in Europe.
An explainer: Mary and Elizabeth were first cousins once removed through King Henry VII of England. Two of Henry VII’s eight children were Henry VIII Tudor and Margaret Tudor. Margaret went to Scotland and married James IV; their son, James V, had Mary with his second wife, Mary of Guise. Six days after Mary was born, King James V died, rendering her Queen of Scotland.
William Cecil
William Cecil: Secretary of State. He was the centre of power who ensured the Protestant religion prevailed in the country. He was a brilliant rhetorician in modern parlance, a master in the Art of Persuasion - a PR expert. Devious, using his brutality by all means at his disposal, while on matters he needed used his charm to the hilt. He built a network of informers and bribed Scottish officials to spy on Mary. He and Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's spymaster, actively sought evidence of the infamous Babbington Plot to implicate Mary against Elizabeth, in a conspiracy she was supposed to be plotting to encourage a Spanish invasion of England and Elizabeth’s assassination, thereby installing Mary as queen. That ultimately led to Mary’s execution. That so-called evidence, many would argue, was a forgery put together by Cecil.
After much heart-searching, Elizabeth, then residing at Richmond Palace, signed the order of Execution of her cousin, an anointed queen with a divine right to the throne, just as she herself was. By then, James, Mary’s son, also believing in the ‘evidence’ against his own mother, initially sided with Elizabeth. Notwithstanding, on hearing of the judgment passed and the sentence of death on his mother, he strongly objected to the possible execution. Elizabeth had, at the time, asked him What will you do, “to transform yourself to my state and suppose what you ought to do. She later disregarded his appeals to spare his mother.
Mary was arrested in September 1586 and held at Fotheringay Castle (near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire) until her trial. Convicted in 1586, sentenced to death, and executed in 1587 at the age of 44. She went down saying, “tell me friends that I die a true woman to my religion, and like a true Scottish woman, and a true French woman”. The Queen's small lap dog had refused to leave the dead corpse, but lay between her head and shoulders, which dripped in blood. Before that, she had requested that, should she be executed, her body should be buried alongside her mother in the Convent of Saint-Pierre-les-Dames in Reims, France. Poor Mary, even that was denied her. She was laid to rest in Peterborough Cathedral, but later, in 1612, her son, King James I of England, had her body reburied in Westminster Abbey.
I developed a soft spot for Mary. Nothing was working for her, and without a father figure to lean on, she had no one to confide in or turn to for advice.
As one can imagine, Catholic Europe, France, Spain, and the Papacy were beside themselves. The Spanish Armada, by Philip II of Spain, who incidentally was now claiming to succeed Elizabeth on the English Crown, then followed. The claim was not new, as he had been granted the title ‘King of England’ by Parliament during his marriage to Mary Tudor, and in his own right, he had a Lancastrian lineage from Edward III.
If I pursue this line of history, in the run of things, this will become very messy, so I am quitting when I think I am winning. Therefore, I will not go that way for this story. After all, this episode marked not only the death of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, but also the death of the Princess of Guise, Queen of France.
Elizabeth I, Queen of England.
Queen Elizabeth I
In the background, it must be said, an element of jealousy was brewing, primarily coming from Elizabeth. Mary was tall (as all members of the Guise family), pretty, and cultured, very much a woman of the world, who spoke many languages and made decisions instantly. Whereas the English queen is short. 5’4”, not so attractive, and rather bookish, and took forever to make a decision, refused to be rushed or allowed Parliament to pressure her into any action. Another interesting point to consider regarding royalty at the time is that Mary’s status as a born sovereign, as a princess, and an anointed Queen should ensure that she remained exempt from human jurisdiction and subject only to the judgment of God, and that execution would be an offence to Christendom. The English remained undeterred, “mercy should not be extended to this enemy of our felicity.” Following Mary’s execution, it is said Elizabeth was enraged, rebuking her privy councillors, sending some court officials to the Tower of London, would not speak to Cecil for six months, and was reputed to have suffered a type of mental breakdown.
Queen Elizabeth, who never married, was very stubborn and never let on who she preferred to succeed her. In fact, whoever mentions any reference to succession is liable to be executed. That is despite her commitment in the Treaty of Berwick not to raise any objections to Scottish twenty-year-old James’s hereditary claim to the English throne on her death. Included in that treaty, by the way, what is called a league of Amity with England, which, in July 1586, had guaranteed Scottish neutrality should England be invaded by a foreign power, in return for James’s receipt of an English annuity of £4,000.
Despite her Catholic faith and the rejection of her Queenship, the crowds in Edinburgh were very angry, and one of Elizabeth’s courtiers visiting King James was refused entry to Scotland. James continued to refuse emissaries coming from Elizabeth, not knowing how sorry she was over his mother’s death, offering monetary compensation for her action. His anger assumed a greater dimension than at Elizabeth's funeral in 1603, when he remembered how his mother was put to death at the hands of the public executioner with “great disgrace and cruelty”. On the continent, she was named Jezebel, the wicked female ruler incarnate as an immoral heretic bastard responsible for Mary’s death. Avenge the killing was coming from Mary’s former brother-in-law, King Henry of France, as well as from Spain and the Papacy. Elizabeth was now convinced the Pope and the kings of Spain and France were in league to ruin her. All ports in England were closed for fear of invasion. But more importantly, there was the fear that the Guise family was encouraging the end of the Toleration of the Protestant Huguenots in France, which was likely to end in massacres.
Elizabeth died in 1603, and James VI of Scotland, as the next in line, became King of England as James I. It was a union of the crown, not of the Kingdoms. England and Scotland remained separate kingdoms until the Act of Union in 1707, under Queen Anne, when the Kingdoms became united.
In the background
Protestantism in England: By the time of Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII, Lutheran Protestantism had largely withered away; instead, a Geneva-type Protestantism, characterised by moderate Calvinism, had taken hold.
Protestantism in Scotland adopted a more radical form of Calvinism, known as Presbyterianism, which is based on the principle of presbytery, a ruling body that operates without bishops in its hierarchical structure.
Elizabeth became queen in 1558, after her Catholic half-sister Mary Tudor. Elizabeth, a Conservative Protestant, who did not like rapid change.
England suffered from paranoia, always feeling threatened of being invaded. If not by Spain, then by France through the Guise family connection.
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