End of Mary Queen of Scots
When Mary Queen of Scots crossed the Scottish border and placed herself on the mercy of the English Queen Elizabeth, it was a last desperate throw of the dice.
After having already lost public support, suffered imprisonment and borne the indignity of having her throne seized from her by the Scottish people, Mary felt she had nothing left to lose by fleeing the country.
But there was still one thing that could be taken from her - her life. And by leaving Scotland and crossing the Solway, that is exactly what the tragic Mary eventually ended up surrendering.
Mary was still only 25 years old when she made for Carlisle with a small party of attendants to seek support from the English Queen, who was also her cousin.
By that age, Mary had already suffered three disastrous marriages, been implicated in the murder of one of her husbands, and caused so much scandal in Scotland that much - though by no means all - of the nation had risen up against her.
Mary's presence in England presented Elizabeth with an immediate dilemma. The Queen of Scots' own Tudor blood gave her a strong claim to the English throne. There was also another problem: Mary was a Catholic, while Elizabeth was a Protestant.
Elizabeth quickly realised that Mary could not be allowed her freedom in England - it would have been too potentially disruptive. So she arranged for her to be held in captivity.
At the start, Mary's imprisonment was so subtle that she may not even have realised she was being held. She was kept in considerable comfort at Carlisle Castle and afforded every luxury while Elizabeth pondered what to do with her.
The English Queen quickly realised that she had to have an excuse for holding Mary in captivity for any length of time. So she used the murder of the Scottish Queen's second husband, Lord Darnley, in which Mary may have been implicated, as an excuse.
Elizabeth, who was far shrewder politically than Mary ever was, decided to hold a formal inquiry into her removal from the Scottish throne and the installation of her infant son James VI under the guardianship of the Earl of Moray. It appeared as if she was concerned about the rebellion, but in reality she was giving Moray and the others to opportunity to state their case against Mary.
The inquiry began in York but later moved to London to allow Elizabeth and her advisers more access to it. Mary was not allowed to speak in person, which infuriated her, and eventually she walked out.
This was the excuse Elizabeth needed. The inquiry swung away from Moray and towards Mary and her involvement in Darnel's death, and the so-called Casket Letters - passionate correspondence written by her to the Earl of Bothwell, her hugely unpopular third husband who was the most likely candidate to have murdered Darnley - were introduced as evidence.
The letters were copies, and highly dubious ones at that. But they appeared to suggest that Mary was involved in the plot to kill Darnley. However, nothing could be proved and, in any case, the hearing was not a legal trial, since Mary was still arguably the Queen of Scots and could not be subjected at this stage to English justice.
She was, nevertheless, kept in custody, first at Tutbury castle in Staffordshire and then in Wingfield Manor, the home of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was her guardian in captivity. A plan was also hatched by some English nobles to marry Mary off to Thomas Howard, the 4th Duke of Norfolk.
Norfolk is said to have been genuinely in love with Mary, but Elizabeth would not hear of a marriage and kept her firmly locked up. Mary was then shuffled around the country, though she continued to be kept in comfort and at times was even allowed out riding and hunting.
Unsurprisingly, she grew tied of being kept in captivity and began to plot her own escape. She had not given up hope both of reclaiming the Scottish crown and getting hold of the English one, and managed to persuade the Catholic earls of Cumberland and Westmorland to mount an incursion into Scotland on her behalf. The invasion was a disaster and petered out almost before it had begun.
Other sympathisers plotted an invasion from Holland which would encourage Catholics in England to rise up in favour of Mary and overthrow Elizabeth. But one of Elizabeth's closest advisers, Francis Walsingham, heard of the scheme and the Duke of Norfolk, who was also implicated, was taken to the Tower, tried for treason and executed.
The plot caused fury at the highest levels of the English establishment. Parliament called for Mary to be tried, though Elizabeth refused this. However, she did agree to the passage of a bill removing Mary's claim to the English throne and making her liable for trial if further attempts to undermine her were discovered.
However, some of Elizabeth's felt their Queen had not gone far enough with Mary. They attempted to persuade her that while she remained alive, a Catholic threat to the English throne would always remain.
The result was that, after hearing their arguments, Elizabeth agreed to let them set a trap for Mary. A false conspiracy was established, with a rebel called Anthony Babington set up to form a plan for the murder of the Elizabeth and Mary's release.
Coded messages to and from Mary were sent in beer barrels but, unknown to her, were intercepted and read. Walsingham again then moved in, arrested Babington and his allies, and had them tried and executed at Lincoln.
Mary was not told of their deaths, but was then herself challenged while out hunting at Chartley in Staffordshire. She was accused of encouraging Catholics to overthrow the English Queen and her secretaries were arrested and questioned and her papers examined. Mary was then herself arrested and charged with trying to harm the life of Elizabeth.
The Queen of Scots was then taken to Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire, where her trial took place. She insisted on defending herself, claiming that as a monarch she was only answerable to God. Mary refused to disclaim her right to the English throne, but said that she had not intended to harm Elizabeth's life.
However, the arguments didn't matter, as the verdict was a foregone conclusion. Mary was found guilty, though the sentence was left to Elizabeth to pass. Her cousin prevaricated over striking the killer blow and another five months passed before the death sentence was finally handed out.
Once the deed was done, sentence was carried out quickly. A week later, In February 1587, Mary was told she was to be beheaded the very next day. She decided she was going to die a Catholic martyr, even though the authorities refused to let her see a priest to receive the last sacraments of the church.
On the day of her execution, 44-year-old Mary dressed herself in black satin with a petticoat of crimson velvet. She wore a maroon shirt - the Catholic colour of martyrdom, and was led into the Great Hall of Fotheringhay, where dozens of people had gathered to watch the execution.
Giving her prayer book and rosary to her ladies in waiting, she stepped towards the block quietly and with great dignity. Placing her head on the block, she stretched her arms out and said in a strong voice in Latin: "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit."
Then the axe fell, and one of the most romantic and tragic eras in Scottish history was finally over.
Meanwhile around the world...
- 1572 The Dutch use pigeons to carry letters during the Spanish siege of Haarlem
- 1572 The Fourth War of Religion begins in France
- 1587 The Rialto Bridge is constructed in Venice
- 1612 The German mathematician, Bartholomew Pitiscus uses the decimal point in his trigonometrical tables
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Scottish Engineers
Successfully built and launched the first commercially successful steamship in Europe.
Engineer best known for his invention of the steam hammer.
Mathematician regarded as inventor of logarithms
Engineer remembered by his bridges over the River Thames in London.
Inventor of the india-rubber pneumatic tyre.
Brilliant civil engineer, responsible for the Caledonian Canal.
Glasgow-born Engineer who played a key supply role in both World Wars.
Regarded as the father of the Clyde shipbuilding industry.
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The Edinburgh Enlightenment of the 18th Century
The Failure of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite rebellion put new strains on the union between Scotland and England - but it also led indirectly to the one of the greatest ever flowerings of Scottish patriotic pride and identity.
After the '45 and Culloden, many people south of the border thought of the Scots as little more than Jacobite barbarians who could only be civilised by introducing them to English ways.
However, the Scots decided to hit back - and they did so by producing some of the greatest thinkers, writers, historians and scientists the world has ever known.
This incredible explosion of talent, which was centred on Edinburgh, became known as the Scottish Enlightenment. It created men of genius who were determined to show the world that - despite the Act of Union - Scotland remained very much a living, breathing nation.
However, the changes which were taking place in Edinburgh in the second half of the 18th century weren't just intellectual. The physical shape of the city was changing, too.
The creation of the New Town was a masterpiece of architectural planning which showed that the Scots could design buildings and streets as grand and elegant as anywhere in the world.
The result was that Scotland's capital became a place which rivalled London for the brilliance and influence of its citizens and for its desirability as a place to live.
As well as the determination of the Scots thinking classes to show their mettle after the failed Jacobite rebellion, one of the reasons for the explosion of talent in the late 18th century was Edinburgh's reputation as a seat of learning.
The university was particularly known for its teaching of medicine, but students were allowed to attend lectures in a range of subjects and this helped to broaden their outlook and give them an open, critical view of life.
Another reason was that following the Act of Union, the old rulers of Scotland - the nobility - had largely gone to live in London. This left a political and social vacuum in Scotland which clever, educated men (and they were all men) were able to fill.
Some of the greatest figures of the Enlightenment are still known and respected around the world to this day. One of the most important of them all was the philosopher and historian David Hume, who tried to describe how the mind works in acquiring knowledge.
Hume, who eventually became Keeper of the Advocates Library in Edinburgh, spent much of his time in England and abroad and wrote his vast masterwork A Treatise of Human Nature, which examined human understanding, emotions and morals.
Another Scots genius whose influence still resonates to this day is the Kirkcaldy-born economist Adam Smith. He spent eight years writing one of the world's greatest ever theories of economics, a remarkable work known as An Inquiry Into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Smith argued that economies should be based on enlightened self interest tempered by the hand of God, which would provide happiness and prosperity.
The Wealth of Nations was so influential that it is impossible to overstate its importance. It was treated like a Bible by the Victorians, and even modern politicians refer to it regularly. Since it was first published, it has never been out of print.
There were plenty of other influential figures during this golden period in Scottish history. The architect Robert Adam, for instance, introduced radical new styles based on classical sources. His work can still be seen in the design of Culzean Castle in Ayrshire and the elegant frontages of Register House and Charlotte Square in Edinburgh's New Town.
Other developments during this period were the invention of statistics and the production of the world's first comprehensive population census by the Rev Alexander Webster. He managed to calculate the exact population of Scotland at the time as 1,265,380 compared to the five million who live north of the border today.
To my mind, most remarkable of all was the founder of geology the farmer and industrialist James Hutton who through careful attention to the physical phenomena before his eyes developed a theory of geological change and transformation that forms the bedrock for modern geology and and by creating a theory that allowed for huge time periods produced a theoretical underpinning for the later work of Charles Darwin who read Hutton's work whilst sailing around the world.
In publishing, too, Edinburgh excelled. The rush for knowledge led to the creation of Encyclopaedia Britannica in the city by the printer William Smellie in 1768. Even Robert Burns came to the capital in 1786 to arrange for the publication of some of his work.
The Building of the Edinburgh New Town
However, as well as developing mentally, Edinburgh was changing physically. For centuries, the city had centred itself around the Castle and Holyrood Palace. There was a simple reason for this - it was hemmed in to the north by marshland and a lake known as the Nor' Loch, and so didn't really have room to expand.
The decision was taken to get rid of the loch by draining it - a move which would also make the rest of the ground firmer. This was done, creating the valley through which the main railway line into Waverley station from the west now runs.
However, this still left the problem of bridging the valley, allowing access from the Old Town to the higher ground to the north. This was finally solved in 1772 when the North Bridge, 70 feet high and 1130 feet long, was completed.
Even before the route to the north had been fully opened up, an innovative decision had been taken to develop an entirely new planned urban area. This became known, unsurprisingly, as the New Town.
A competition was held to decide who the architect should be, and a 27-year-old called James Craig - the nephew of the poet James Thomson, who wrote the words of the song Rule Britannia - emerged as the winner.
Craig had decided that the New Town should be a grand and elegant spectacle, mirroring the confidence and European spirit which were found in Edinburgh at the time. At the same time, however, it was to pay homage to Scotland's place within the union and the supremacy of the Hanoverian kings.
He decided to centre his design on three streets running from east to west with a square at each end. In deference to the monarchy, he called his new avenues Princes Street, George Street and Queen Street, with the squares called St Andrew Square and St George - later re-named Charlotte - Square. The narrow lanes in between, Rose Street and Thistle Street, reflected the national flowers of Scotland and England.
The elegant, classically designed townhouses Craig created quickly became popular and provided new housing for the professional classes. Lawyers and judges, for instance, seized the opportunity to move out of the cramped and dirty old town and to relocate across the valley into the pleasant new accommodation the New Town provided.
The result was that Edinburgh society divided, and the New Town quickly became the place to live. The Old Town began to crumble and decay, hit by falling rents, and became a home largely to the poor and destitute.
In other parts of Edinburgh, however, great things were happening. The spread of classical architecture led to it being dubbed the Athens of the North. Designs and follies based on ancient Greece went up in places such as Calton Hill. The aim was to create an elegant, spacious and beautiful city which represented the very best in urban living.
The New Town was one of Scotland's greatest ever statements of confidence in itself and its own abilities, and arguably its greatest ever architectural success. To this day, students, locals and tourists from all over the world admire the area's beauty and grace, which act as a perfect complement to the ancient, picturesque, higgledy-piggledy and once again fashionable old town.
The Enlightenment is a part of Scotland's past which isn't just history. Whether in the thoughts of David Hume and Adam Smith or the geological theories of Hutton or the statistics of Webster or the striking form of Edinburgh's architecture, this proud and golden period continues to live today.
Meanwhile...
- 1768 France buys Corsica from Genoa
- 1768 Citizens of Boston refuse to quarter British troops
- 1768 Gas lighting is attempted for the first time in Germany and England
- 1768 Balmat and Paccard climb Mont Blanc
- 1791 Wilberforce's, "Motion for the abolition of the slave trade" is carried through parliament
- 1791 Claude Chappe creates a mechanical semaphore system
- 1759 Carron Ironworks is established
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Missionary and African explorer whose work helped eliminate slavery.
Made an incredible two-year crossing of Africa which for many years was disbelieved.
Explorer of the Niger River, he would meet his fate there.
One of the best organised of the Scottish 19th century explorers.
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Fergus Mor / Kings and Queens
- Name : Mor
- Born : ?
- Died : 501
- Category : Kings and Queens
- Finest Moment : Landing in Scotland and burning his boats, in 500 AD.
'The first to have the name Scot, and to speak Gaelic, in Scotland'
Going back to mists of time here, so that details are sketchy, but Fergus Mor, or Fergus mac Erc ' Son of Erc, was the ruler of Dalriada (or Dal Riata) in Ireland. Some time about 500 AD he led his people, the Scoti, from Antrim to Kintyre, in mid-Argyll, where they settled.
Fergus is credited, therefore, with the name Scot, which would also lend itself to the current name of Scotland. He also introduced the Gaelic language to Scotland. In addition, he is credited as being the founding father of the royal house of Scotland, which would continue its wobbly way for almost 800 years.
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- 43 AD - Romans reach Britain.
- 79 AD - Romans first invade southern Scotland.
- 84 AD - Battle of Mons Graupius.
- 98 AD - Cornelius Tacitus first writes down his account of the Roman invasion.
- 122 AD - Start of the construction of Hadrian's Wall.
- 142 AD - Antonine Wall constructed.
- 185 AD - Antonine Wall abandoned.
- 211 AD - Scotland abandoned again by the Romans.
- 305 AD - New Roman campaigns against the Caledonians.
- 350 AD - Ninian born.
- 411 AD - The Romans finally abandon Britain.
- 563 AD - Columba arrives on Iona.
- 597 AD - Columba dies.
- 612 AD - Death of St. Kentigern.
- 664 AD - Synod of Whitby.
- 685 AD - Battle of Nechtansmere.
- 795 AD - Skye and Iona raided by Vikings.
- 843 AD - Kenneth MacAlpin crowned King of Alba.
- 997 AD - Kenneth III begins his reign as King of Alba. He is known as the brown haired one, and is thought to have been the grandfather of Macbeth's wife Gruoch.
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Battle of Flodden & Rule of James IV
It was the most awful moment in our history - the day when the flower of the nation's nobility perished in the last great battle between an independent Scotland and England.
The Battle of Flodden in 1513 was the most devastating clash ever between the two nations. But this time, the Scots ended up as losers, and their defeat dealt a crushing body blow which lasted for decades.
In one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on British soil, between 10,000 and 12,000 Scottish soldiers died. They included the king, James IV, an archbishop, two bishops, 10 abbots, 12 earls and 15 Lords. The scale of the carnage was such that hardly a family in Scotland did not lose someone in the fight.
Yet the greatest tragedy of Flodden was that it was a battle which need not have been fought at all. It only came about because of our Auld Alliance with the French - a sort of medieval NATO pact which meant that we were obliged to help them out by taking on the English on their behalf.
The Auld Alliance had first been signed in 1295 at the time of William Wallace. The king on whose behalf Wallace had fought, John Balliol, renounced his allegiance to Edward and negotiated a pact with the French instead. The pact was renewed periodically, and was still in force when James IV came to the throne in 1488.
The deal between the two countries always benefited France more than it did Scotland - there is no record of French troops ever having fought in any numbers during this time north of the border - but the fierce fighting abilities of the Scots were well regarded by our allies.
Scottish soldiers fought against the English in France during the hundred years' war and gained a reputation for leaving the battlefield last - if they left at all. There were also occasions, such as the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, when the Scots marched into England and attacked to try and divert the English from their battles with France.
James IV was a tough but fair king who was determined to strengthen his kingdom and to build up its military power. He tried to bring the Highlands under his control, ordering the forfeiture of the powerful lordship of the isles in 1493 and ensured that everyone had weapons according to their status.
James was particularly keen on building up the navy. He saw Scotland as a great seafaring power and even thought that Scots could join the crusades against the infidel Turks, although the other European nations never took this particularly seriously.
He ordered every Scottish burgh to provide a boat of 20 tons in weight. However, the crowning glory of the age was The Great Michael, a warship built at a specially constructed dockyard at Newhaven near Edinburgh. At 240 feet long and with the ability to carry 420 gunners, it was ridiculously oversized - its construction is said to have used up all the forests in Fife - but it certainly helped to boost the king's ego.
Despite the auld alliance and James' formidable military machine, Scotland and England were actually enjoying a period of relative peace with each other. The English king, Henry VII, was really only interested in keeping his throne and did not want to start another fight with his northern neighbours. He even went as far as to marry off his eldest daughter, Margaret Tudor, to James in 1503. The two kings then became blood relations, so helping to assure stability.
However, this all changed when Henry died in 1509, to be replaced by the much more belligerent Henry VIII. The new king regarded James's navy as little more than a piracy fleet and started to attack Scottish vessels, but his main concern was with France.
Henry decided to move against the French as part of an international offensive which had the backing of the Pope. James had a so-called perpetual treaty of friendship with England, but neither he nor Henry - who remained his brother-in-law - had bothered much with it and James was infuriated by the attack on his vessels by the English navy.
The result was that James decided to stick by the terms of the auld alliance. Seeing that was between England and France was coming, he tried to make diplomatic moves to head it off, but to no avail. War between the two countries finally broke out in 1512 and James felt obliged to support the French cause.
The Scottish king despatched his fleet - including The Great Michael - in support of the French. More importantly, however, he marched across the border into Northumberland with the aim of creating a diversion for the English forces on their home soil, so taking some of the pressure off France.
James crossed the River Tweed at Coldstream and took Norham Castle and a number of other strongpoints until he finally occupied a fortified position on Flodden Edge, near the village of Branxton, overlooking the River Till, a subsidiary of the Tweed.
However, the English were well prepared for the Scottish invasion. Henry had left Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey, in charge of the defence of the country while he was fighting in France. Surrey marched north with an army of 30,000 men - numerically about the same as that of the Scots - and the two armies met at Flodden on Friday 9 September 1513.
James actually watched the English from the high ground he occupied, but for some reason he decided against attacking them at this stage, when they were at their most vulnerable. Instead he ordered camp refuse to be burned, creating a wall of smoke behind which he moved his army from Flodden Hill to the nearby Branxton Hill.
It was a clever move, because it left the English having to cross a large marshy area to get to the Scots, who were still above them. James thought the English would tire tramping through the marsh, but he didn't realise that there was a bridge across, which Surrey's army found and used.
It was 4pm on a wet day when the Scots finally opened fire on the English below. But it started to go wrong for the Scottish army almost straightaway. The gunners were equipped with new and cumbersome artillery pieces, but they were unable to handle them and missed their targets. The English attacked with much greater precision, blowing the Scots gunners to pieces.
James gave the order to charge, and his army came off the hill in a mass. They initially attacked what they thought was a weak point on the right flank, but it was quickly reinforced. At the base of the hill, the Scots were slowed down by a ridge and an area of bog and lost their momentum.
In the hand to hand fighting which followed, the Scots could not match the superior English equipment. The 15-foot-long Scottish spears were ineffective compared to the long halberds and eight-food blades of the English. In just two hours, some 10,000 Scots lay dead.
Among them was the king himself. James had been impatient to get involved in the action, and impulsively charged directly towards the Earl of Surrey. As he aimed for the English banners, he was felled from his horse and slaughtered, His body was so badly mutilated that it was not recognised until the next day.
Flodden was not a one sided victory - Surrey also suffered huge losses, and the English did not try to follow up on their victory by pushing north into Scotland. In that sense, it was a stand-off, and the Scots never had the opportunity to avenge their terrible defeat.
The consequences of Flodden were massive. Scotland lost so many of its nobles and fighting men that from then on, there was never again any rush to fight the English. After 200 years of war, there was a recognition that a Scottish army could never again beat its mightier and bigger neighbour. From then on, rather than seeking military conflict with England - though plenty of battles still took place - Scots tried to avoid it at all costs.
One of the greatest ironies of all is that Henry VIII, whose fight against the French caused Flodden, made peace with France only a few months later. It was a peace in which Scotland, through the auld alliance, was included.
Today, a few miles south of the border, the site of the battle can still be seen, set among the rolling hill country of north Northumberland. A large granite cross stands in commemoration to the fallen, inscribed with the simple, impartial and deeply moving words: "To the brave of both nations."
Resources: Remembering Flodden
Meanwhile...
- 1488 The first drug dispensary is established in Berlin
- 1503 Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
- 1512 Copernicus publishes his "Commentariolus" stating that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun
- 1514 The Portuguese are the first Europeans to sail in Chinese waters
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- Name : MacDonald
- Born : 1722
- Died : 1790
- Category : Famous Historical Figures
- Finest Moment : Passing the Young Pretender off as an Irish maid
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