Murder of Lord Darnley (1567): The Kirk o' Field Explosion

The murder of Lord Darnley took place in Edinburgh in the early hours of 10 February 1567, when the house at Kirk o’ Field where he was recovering from illness was destroyed by gunpowder. Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, was found dead in the garden. The crime was never fully solved, but it set off the chain of events that cost Mary her throne within six months.

Background: a failing royal marriage

Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was a great-grandson of Henry VII of England, which gave him a claim to the English throne as well as a place in Scottish royal politics. Mary married him at Holyroodhouse on 29 July 1565, and he received the title of king, though not the “crown matrimonial” that would have let him rule in his own right.

The marriage quickly turned sour. Darnley was proud, unreliable and resentful of his limited power. On 9 March 1566 he joined a group of Protestant lords who murdered Mary’s Italian secretary, David Rizzio, in front of the pregnant queen at Holyrood. He then abandoned his fellow conspirators, which left him trusted by almost no one.

Their son, the future James VI, was born at Edinburgh Castle on 19 June 1566. Darnley refused to attend the baptism at Stirling in December. Around the same time, leading nobles met Mary at Craigmillar Castle and discussed how she might be freed from her husband, perhaps by divorce. Whether any of them already planned murder is still debated.

Kirk o’ Field

In January 1567 Darnley fell seriously ill in Glasgow, probably with smallpox or syphilis; the cause is uncertain. Mary visited him and brought him back towards Edinburgh. Instead of Holyrood or Craigmillar Castle, which had also been suggested, he was lodged in the Old Provost’s house at Kirk o’ Field, a former collegiate church on the edge of the town, where he arrived on 1 February.

Mary visited him often and slept in the house on at least two nights. On the evening of 9 February she spent some hours with him, then left to attend a masque at Holyrood celebrating the wedding of one of her servants. Darnley was due to return to court the next day.

The explosion

At about 2 a.m. on 10 February a huge blast destroyed the house. Gunpowder had been packed into the building, apparently in the room below the king’s chamber. Townspeople rushed to the scene and found the house reduced to rubble.

The bodies of Darnley and his servant William Taylor were found in the garden, some distance from the ruins. They showed no burns or injuries from the explosion. The most widely accepted explanation is that Darnley sensed danger, escaped through a window or door, and was strangled or smothered by men waiting outside. A sketch of the scene was soon sent to William Cecil, Elizabeth I’s chief minister in London.

The suspects

Public suspicion fell almost at once on James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, a powerful border lord and Mary’s closest adviser. Placards appeared in Edinburgh naming him as the murderer. Darnley’s father, the Earl of Lennox, demanded a trial.

Bothwell was tried on 12 April 1567, but Lennox, fearing for his safety in a city full of Bothwell’s armed followers, did not appear to press the case. Bothwell was acquitted. A week later many nobles signed the Ainslie’s Tavern Bond, supporting his marriage to the queen.

Historians agree that the plot involved more than one man. James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, later Regent of Scotland, was executed in 1581 for having known of the murder in advance. Several of Bothwell’s servants were executed in 1568. Whether Mary herself knew of or approved the plan remains one of the most argued questions in Scottish history.

Mary’s downfall

On 24 April 1567 Bothwell intercepted Mary on her way to Edinburgh and took her to Dunbar Castle. Whether this was an abduction or a staged event is disputed. He obtained a quick divorce from his wife, and on 15 May he married Mary at Holyrood in a Protestant ceremony.

The marriage united most of the Scottish nobility against the couple. On 15 June 1567 their forces faced the rebel lords at Carberry Hill. Bothwell fled, eventually to Scandinavia, where he died in captivity in Denmark in 1578. Mary was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle and forced to abdicate on 24 July in favour of her one-year-old son, crowned as James VI on 29 July.

Mary escaped in May 1568, was defeated at Langside, and fled to England. There her enemies produced the Casket Letters, said to prove her guilt. She remained Elizabeth’s prisoner for nineteen years until the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587.

Myths and facts

A common belief is that Darnley was killed by the explosion. The evidence of the bodies points instead to death by strangulation or suffocation outside the house, although exactly how he died has never been settled.

Another view, popular in older romantic accounts, holds that Mary was simply an innocent victim, while her enemies portrayed her as an adulteress who planned the murder. Most modern historians take a middle position: the evidence against her is weak and partly suspect, but her marriage to the chief suspect was a catastrophic political mistake.

Timeline

• 1565, 29 July: Mary marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, at Holyroodhouse.
• 1566, 9 March: Darnley and Protestant lords murder David Rizzio at Holyrood.
• 1566, 19 June: Birth of Prince James at Edinburgh Castle.
• 1567, 1 February: Darnley is lodged at Kirk o’ Field.
• 1567, 10 February: Explosion at about 2 a.m.; Darnley is found dead in the garden.
• 1567, 12 April: Bothwell is tried and acquitted.
• 1567, 15 May: Mary marries Bothwell.
• 1567, 24 July: Mary is forced to abdicate at Lochleven.

Why it matters

The Kirk o’ Field murder destroyed Mary’s position in Scotland and drove her into English captivity, where she became the focus of Catholic plots such as the Babington Plot. It also placed the infant James VI on the throne, the king who would later bring about the Union of the Crowns in 1603.