scotianostra:On December 7th 1566 Mary Queen of Scots left Craigmillar Castle.It was Craigmillar
scotianostra: On December 7th 1566 Mary Queen of Scots left Craigmillar Castle. It was Craigmillar that sought the peace and quiet of after the murder of her secretary, David Rizzio, at Holyrood in March, she returned here in November knowing her marriage to Lord Darnley was all but over. Mary and her nobles are said to have discussed what should be done with Darnley, she could not divorce him, because she was a Catholic. The only other alternative was to have him killed. However, Mary refused to take part in any plan that would affect her honour or her conscience. So ,possibly, in her absence, the lords supposedly signed a pact called the “Craigmillar Bond” stating their intent to kill Darnley. I say possibly because there is in fact no copy of this bond and questions still remain to this day whether Mary knew of the pact and the plans or not. In February of 1567, Darnley was ill, most likely with syphilis. Mary agreed to nurse him and the plan was to bring him to Craigmillar. But Darnley refused to go and chose to convalesce in a moderate sized house in a quadrangle attached to the church called Kirk o’Field within the walls of Edinburgh but on the outskirts of town. On the morning of February 10, Darnley’s strangled body and that of his servant was discovered outside the house which had been blown to bits with gunpowder. This act ultimately led to the abdication of Mary’s Scottish throne, her imprisonment and execution in England nearly twenty years later. -- source link