was allowed to go to Scotland to claim his forfeited estates, and there, to Elizabeth’s anger, was received with marked respect, which made the English queen hold Darnley and his mother more firmly than ever, and again push forward Dudley as a suitor for Mary’s hand.  Anxious to get Darnley to Scotland, not necessarily to marry him, but as a useful instrument, Mary feigned willingness to accept Dudley; and, in face of this, Elizabeth was induced to allow young Darnley to go to Scotland for a short time, ostensibly on business of the family estates.

In February 1565, Darnley, aged nineteen, crossed the border, to the dismay of the English agents in Scotland.  It was soon after Mary had received news that the Spanish match was at an end, and she was ready for a new plan to circumvent Elizabeth.  Darnley as a husband would bring to her the support of English Catholics, and a new claim to the English crown.  So when her eyes first lit upon the fair stripling at Wemyss Castle, she looked upon him with favour as “the properest tall man she ever saw.”  He was on his best behaviour, and danced delightfully with the queen.  Up to this time Mary had played her game with self-command and policy, but now for the first time her heart ran away with her, and she took a false step.

To have married Darnley as part of a transaction with Elizabeth, and with the approval of her own Protestant subjects, would have been a master-stroke.  But she fell in love with the “long lad,” and could not wait for negotiation; so she at once sent off to pray King Philip to support her with money and men against England and the Protestants if she married Darnley and became the tool of Spain.  Philip, nothing loth, consented, and welcomed the coming union as a Catholic alliance and a powerful weapon against Elizabeth.  Mary thus made herself the head of a vast Catholic conspiracy looking to Spain for support, and Elizabeth was furious both with Mary and Darnley for having apparently beaten her at her own cunning game.

How Elizabeth sought a diversion, at first by new matrimonial schemes of her own, has been told elsewhere, but her more effectual weapon was to arouse the fears of Scottish Protestants, and breed dissension in Mary’s realm.  “The young fool,” Darnley, insolent and proud of his new greatness, offended all the nobles, whilst Mary grew daily more infatuated with him.  They were married in July 1565, and the great conspiracy against Elizabeth and Protestantism was complete.  Already the Scottish Protestant lords were in a panic, and after an abortive rising, they fled before Mary’s bold attack, taking refuge in England.

The queen herself led her forces, armed and mounted, with her stripling husband by her side; but she was followed close by the shaggy, stern, martial figure of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, just returned from exile to serve her; and upon him she looked with kindling eyes as a stouter man than the fribble she had wed.  Mary had now apparently triumphed by her Darnley marriage, but the avalanche was gathering to crush her.  She looked mainly to Spain and the Pope for help, and had all Protestantism against her, led by Elizabeth, whose hate and fury knew no bounds.  It was a duel now of life or death between two systems and two women, one with a heart and the other without; and, as usual, the heartless won.