Invitations went out later to members of the English Queen
Elizabeth’s court as well. It was
requested through more than one channel, in August, that Robert Dudley, the Earl
of Leicester, who had supported Darnley’s marriage to Mary, be the court’s
representative at the affair. Mary personally wrote Elizabeth’s principal secretary,
William Cecil, in early October, to invite him to attend even though she knew
full well that he was her staunch opponent at court.
On November 3, the Venetian ambassador to France, Marc' Antonio
Barbaro, reported that
Sad news has arrived from Scotland to the effect that the
Queen has been seized with acute internal pain and high fever, which have rendered
her insensible for such a length of time, that there is very little hope of her
life, and this calamity is aggravated by a suspicion that her death may be
violent, and procured by poison.[2]
The crisis had occurred on the 17th of the
previous month and had passed by the time of Barbaro’s letter. The infant James was also
reported, in the English court, as having been gravely ill.
Darnley was elsewhere. He had made
no haste to ride to his wife’s side, and there would seem to be some question
as to what the matter was actually about. He is reported to have departed the
next day.[3]
Barbaro reported that the crisis had passed in a letter to his
Venetian masters of November 26. In the same letter he reported that
the Scottish Parliament have determined that the Prince is to
be baptized according to the Roman rite, and this solemnity is only delayed
until the arrival of an Ambassador from the Duke of Savoy, to represent his
Excellency.[4]
Surely they had not saved their debates until the last
minute but they may have held off announcing their decision until then in order
to limit time available for the country’s staunch majority Protestant faction
to organize a reaction.
The sacrament of baptism finally occurred at Stirling on
December 17 (presumably at the Church of the Holy Rude). The English court had
directed its emissaries not to give Darnley the honors due a king as he had not
been given permission from Elizabeth, his Queen, to marry the Scottish Queen.
Rather than bear what he undoubtedly viewed as an insult he chose not to attend
the ceremony.
At about the time of the baptism, Giovanni Correr relieved
Barbaro as the Venetian ambassador to the court of France. His January 23 report
about the ceremony follows:
The Count de Brienne has returned from Scotland, whither he went
to hold the Prince, the son of the Queen, at his baptism; he reports that her
Majesty awaited little less than two months Mons. de Moretta, who was to
represent the Duke of Savoy, but as he failed to arrive, she substituted for
him the Ambassador in ordinary of his French Majesty.
The baptism was performed on the 17th of last month, when all
the rites of the Roman Church were observed, very much to the satisfaction of
the Catholics, who for the last seven years have never seen any bishop in
pontifical habits.
The Ambassador from England would not enter the church [it
being Catholic], but prayed the Countess of Argyle (Aghilar), known as the
Bastard of Holland, to go thither in his stead, and presented her for her trouble
with a ruby worth five hundred crowns.
The Count de Brienne presented the Queen of Scotland, in the name
of the King of France, with a necklace of pearls and rubies, and two most
beautiful ear-rings.
Much greater was the present from England, as it was a font of
massive gold, of sufficient proportions to immerse the infant Prince, and of
exquisite workmanship, with many precious stones, so designed that the whole
effect combined elegance with value. Mons. de Moretta, Ambassador from the Duke
of Savoy, on his passage through this place, told me that he had with him as a present
a fan of large size with jewelled feathers, of the value of four thousand
crowns.
The King of France believes that the marriage of Queen
Elizabeth with the Archduke Charles will be speedily concluded, very much to
his Majesty's regret.[5]
None of the English noblemen invited by Mary had attended. The ambassador who did attend refused to enter a Catholic church. The gift he brought from the English Queen, however, outshone all others.
[1]
Strickland, Elizabeth. Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, and documents (1842).
21. “King Henry Darnley to Monsieur the Cardinal de Guise. From the Castle of
Edinburgh, this 19th day of June, 1566.”
[2] Calendar
of State Papers and Documents… Venice, Volume 7 (1890). 383 (original in
Italian).
[3]
Strickland, 27.
[4] Venice,
Volume 7, 385 (original in Italian).
[5] Venice,
Volume 7, 386-7 (original in Italian).
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