DARNLEY, LORD (1545 - 1567) First husband of Mary Queen of Scots. As a child I was troubled by episodes from Darnley's short life, particularly his murder of courtier David Rizzio. For years details from this crime, in which he was aided by a clique of swaggering yahoos, appeared to me in waking visions. Petulant and brutish, with a tendency to dress in his mother's clothes, Darnley died in mysterious circumstances when his body was discovered in the aftermath of an explosion, his neck mottled by signs of strangulation.

My investigation into Darnley's death for the proposed B.B.C. Scotland series 'Bloody Scotland' was cancelled after complaints in the Scottish Parliament as to tax payers money being wasted on the project. The irony of this, I'm sure, requires no further comment.

David Rizzio cowers from the approach of Darnley and his assassins

 

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