Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
Henry Stuart was, as his title ‘Lord Darnley’ proclaims, member of the Scottish Parliament as the 1st Duke of Albany and even in line for the Scottish crown due to his family relations. However he is more famous for the prominence of his wife Mary Stuart and the circumstances of his death.
He was born on December 1545 in Yorkshire and was killed only at age 21 on the 10th of February in 1567 in Edinburgh.1
In 1565 he married Mary Stuart, his cousin (among other intricate family connections), who had either fallen in love with him or married for political reasons, depending on the source.1 The marriage soon bore their only child in 1566, James I, who later would unite the English and Scottish throne under his crown and herald the start of the Stuart regency in Britain.2
The couple separated not long after their marriage, when Henry believed that Mary Stuart had a relationship with her Italian private secretary David Riccio and that she even was pregnant by him. Driven by envy, Henry Stuart and some accomplices violently entered a banquet at The Palace of Holyroodhouse where Riccio and Mary were present, and Riccio was stabbed to death under the eyes of Mary.
Only a year later, Darnley got word of an imminent conspiracy against him and fled to safety in Glasgow. There however, he fell seriously ill and when Mary came to visit him, husband and wife became reconciled. After a mutual trip to Edinburgh, Darnley was staying at Kirk o’Field, just inside the city walls of Edinburgh. On the evening of the 9th of February 1567, Mary said goodbye to her husband and left him for some festivities inside town. On the next morning, the apartment building blew up by a gunpowder explosion in its basement and Henry Stuart was found dead. Surprisingly however, his body was located at a distance to the destroyed building and showed signs of strangulation. It is speculated that he tried to flee from his murderers but was caught and strangled.1
A group of Scottish conspirators under the lead of James Bothwell where held responsible. Since Mary was well acquainted with Bothwell, it is believed that she at least knew, if not ordered the murder of her husband. The fact that the murderer subsequently kidnapped her to Dunbar where they got married for a wonder supports this assumption.2
References:
1. Alison Weir: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley. Random House, New York 2004.
2. Maurer, Michael: Kleine Geschichte Englands. Reclam: Stuttgart 2007.
3. http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/snapshots/snapshot02/kirk-o-field-popup1.htm [as accessed on 31/05/2010]