Chapter 41 #2
She thanked them in Latin, then responded in Greek to a loyal address in that language before attending a service in Christ Church, where a Te Deum was sung.
There followed a busy day touring the colleges and listening to public orations, disputations, sermons, lectures, and debates.
Then the students acted out a play based on the tale of Palamon and Arcite, which the Queen visibly enjoyed, until the stage collapsed, crushing many people, much to her horror—and Kate’s, who could not bear to look, while Francis jumped to obey Elizabeth’s order to fetch her own barber-surgeons to help the wounded.
Later, they learned that three people had been killed and five injured.
The rest of the performance was postponed until the next day, after which Francis received an honorary Master of Arts degree at the hands of Leicester.
Then Elizabeth gave a Latin speech she had composed herself, declaring it her wish that learning should prosper.
The applause was thunderous. When she left Oxford, the students and university officials ran alongside her litter for two miles beyond the city.
Kate and the rest of the court had been under the impression that Elizabeth would visit Leicester’s seat at Kenilworth Castle, and the gossipmongers were certain that it would betoken an imminent announcement of their betrothal.
Elizabeth was furious when she heard. “I have no plans to go to Kenilworth,” she told her ladies, almost spitting out the words.
But the next day, having been closeted for a long time with Leicester the previous evening, she declared that she had changed her mind.
So to Kenilworth she went and pronounced herself impressed with all the improvements he had made to the castle. But no announcement followed.
—
Early in January 1567, the Queen appointed Francis Treasurer of the Chamber, placing him in charge of payments to England’s ambassadors and envoys, and to foreign diplomats.
The extra income would be welcome, since he and Kate had so many children to support, but it was a weighty responsibility because the smooth success of Elizabeth’s foreign policy would to some extent be dependent on his efficiency.
Kate did not doubt that Francis would excel at his new duties.
He was shrewd, conscientious, and good with figures.
He got on well with Elizabeth these days, though Kate knew he had a poor opinion of her statesmanship, which he wisely took care to conceal.
“I can only deplore her obstinacy and willfulness,” he had confided recently, one night as they sat up late.
“I don’t fawn on her, like her courtiers do, and I think she likes me for my honesty.
I spoke frankly to her the other day. I told her that if she discourages her faithful, godly councillors by not taking their advice when all the passions of her mind are aroused, then I feared that she could not expect them to stand by her. ”
“And you were talking about…?”
“Her marriage—what else?” he groaned.
—
Toward the end of February, Kate was sitting with Elizabeth in the closet the Queen used as a study, going over the ladies’ and maids’ expenses, on which Elizabeth liked to keep a tight rein.
They were both swathed in fur-trimmed gowns because the weather was bitterly cold.
As Kate got up to add logs to the fire, there was a knock and Cecil came in.
“Your Majesty, you should see this. It is from your agents in Scotland.” He handed her a letter and a drawing. “The King of Scots has been murdered.”
“What?” Elizabeth rose to her feet.
“The house in which he was lodging was blown up. This letter gives a far more honest account than you will ever receive from the Scots. I will leave you to read it.”
He withdrew, and Elizabeth sat down heavily at her desk, looking stunned.
“Should I leave?” Kate asked, shaken herself.
“No, stay. I should be glad of your company,” Elizabeth murmured.
They had known that Darnley was ill. The official line had been that it was smallpox, but Cecil’s agents had discovered that it was syphilis.
Darnley had been taken sick while staying with his father in Glasgow, but they had recently heard that he had returned to Edinburgh to convalesce in a house at Kirk o’ Field, south of the city.
At the time, Elizabeth had thought it strange that Darnley would leave the safety of his father’s domain for the capital, because the lords who had murdered Rizzio had never forgiven him for betraying them and were likely to be out for his blood.
It was strange, too, she observed, that there had been a reconciliation between Mary and Darnley, given that he had not only colluded in her attempted murder, but had also, these past months, been doing his best to blacken her reputation in the eyes of the Pope and Catholic Europe—presumably in the hope of overthrowing her and seizing power himself, which was what he had always wanted.
Kate too had thought it odd that Mary would even contemplate taking him back.
But back he had gone, and she had been nursing him, apparently devotedly, back to health.
Kate had thought her a fool. If any man had treated her that way, she would have let him rot in Hell.
But Elizabeth felt that, really, Mary had had no choice but to make the best of things with Darnley.
“She cannot divorce him, because there are no grounds, and she dare not impugn the legitimacy of her child,” she had told Kate, as they lingered over the supper table a few weeks earlier, discussing Mary’s impossible situation.
“But surely he has committed treason?”
“Undoubtedly, he has, but in law, apparently, the King of Scots is incapable of committing treason, so she cannot be rid of him that way. No, Kate,” Elizabeth had insisted, “she must make the best of things, as so many married people do. It’s another reason why I shy from marriage.
I would never leave myself open to the anguish she has suffered. ”
But now Darnley was dead. Kate sat silent while Elizabeth read the report and pored over the drawing. She looked up, her expression unreadable.
Kate could not stop herself. “What happened?”
“There was a great explosion at two o’clock in the morning on the tenth of February.
It shook the whole city of Edinburgh and reduced the house at Kirk o’ Field to a heap of rubble.
They found the bodies of Darnley and his valet in the nearby orchard.
It looked as if they had been strangled or suffocated, for there were no injuries on them.
Possibly the explosion was merely supposed to destroy any evidence of murder. ”
Elizabeth paused. “He was just twenty, my young kinsman. Some might think he got what he deserved.”
“But who was responsible for his death?”
“Wait and listen, for there is more to it. Queen Mary was awakened by the blast. She showed herself shocked and horrified when they told her what had happened and vowed that the murderers would be speedily discovered and punished. She had spent the day with Darnley and only left to attend the wedding of one of her ladies at Holyrood Palace. She has concluded that the killers meant to assassinate her, too. Had she not decided to return to Holyrood, she would probably have died.”
Her eyes met Kate’s. Kate dared not voice what she was thinking; one could not accuse one sovereign to another.
Elizabeth spoke at last. “Many people had a motive for doing away with Darnley or stood to gain from his death. I know what is in your mind. You think that the prime suspect must be Queen Mary herself. She had long since ceased to love him and had certainly wanted to be rid of him. She regarded him, quite rightly, as a dangerous liability. But then we have to consider the Earl of Bothwell.” Elizabeth had once deemed Bothwell the best of the entire Scots nobility because he was the only one who had refused to accept the bribes her agents had pressed on him.
“His name has been linked with Mary’s, and it’s been said that he would attempt anything out of ambition.
He might have seen murdering Darnley as the way to gaining a crown for himself. ”
She rose and began pacing up and down. “Many of the Scots lords hated Darnley, and those who murdered Rizzio had vowed vengeance on him.”
“What do you think, Bess?” Kate asked.
“It is far too early to draw any conclusions,” Elizabeth replied, sitting down again. “I need to write to Mary and urge her to act now to preserve her honor. She must find the perpetrators and bring them to justice, even if they are near and dear to her.”
—
Kate did not know what to think. Certainly Queen Mary’s departure for the wedding had been timely—and some might see it as suspiciously so.
And there was something that didn’t ring true about her reconciliation with Darnley.
Later that day, over supper in Francis’s lodging, Kate asked him what he thought.
“Queen Mary is lucky to be rid of the young fool,” he said, “but if she does not immediately pursue and punish the murderers, the finger of suspicion will point at her.”
“Do you think her guilty of murder?” she asked.
“I have to say that the circumstantial evidence against her is damning. However, it is not proof of her guilt. We must keep open minds.”
But Mary seemed paralyzed by indecision and reluctant to act against Bothwell, who was widely believed to be the man who had plotted Darnley’s murder. Scotland, by all reports, was in an uproar, but the Queen was doing nothing to satisfy the public’s clamor for justice.