Editing Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (section)

==Estrangement==
[[File:The Murder of David Rizzio.jpg|thumb|300px|''[[The Murder of David Rizzio]]'' by [[William Allan (painter)|William Allan]], 1833]]
Soon after Mary married Darnley, she became aware of his vain, arrogant, and unreliable qualities, which threatened the state's well-being. Darnley was unpopular with the other nobles and had a violent streak, aggravated by his drinking.<ref name=Fraser>''Mary Queen of Scots'', by [[Antonia Fraser]], 13th reprint, London: 1989; {{ISBN|0-297-17773-7}}</ref> Mary refused to grant Darnley the [[Crown Matrimonial]], which would have made him the successor to the throne if she died childless.<ref name="Davison, Meredith Henry Armstrong 1965"/> By August 1565, less than a month after the marriage, William Cecil heard that Darnley's insolence had driven Lennox from the Scottish court. On 28 August 1565, a pair of diplomatic letters were sent from the Scottish court to the [[Frederick II of Denmark|King of Denmark]], one signed by Mary, the other by Darnley. This seems to have been an effort to confirm his royal status.<ref>Cynthia Fry, [https://www.ssns.org.uk/journal/northern-studies-43-2012/ 'Henry, King of Scots: An Analysis of Royal Authority and Diplomatic Influence', ''Northern Studies'', 43 (2012), pp. 50–70]</ref> Mary soon became pregnant.

As a token of friendship, [[Charles IX of France]] sent an ambassador, [[Nicolas d'Angennes]], seigneur de [[Rambouillet]], to invest Darnley in the [[Order of Saint Michael]] in February 1566. Mary, Darnley, and her private secretary [[David Rizzio]], took part in a costly [[masque]] with seven other dancers in rich attire to welcome Rambouillet and celebrate Darnley's investiture. His costume for the ceremony in the chapel of Holyroodhouse, of satin guarded with black velvet and satin, sewn with [[aglet]]s of gold, was given to a French herald as a perquisite.<ref>''A Narrative of the Minority of Mary Queen of Scots by James Maitland'' (Ipswich, 1842): W. Park, 'Letter of Thomas Randolph to the Earl of Leicester, 14 February 1566', ''Scottish Historical Review'', 34:118 Part 2 (October 1955), pp. 135-139.</ref>

David Rizzio was stabbed 57 times on 9 March 1566 by Darnley and his confederates, Protestant Scottish nobles, in the presence of the queen, who was six months pregnant. According to English diplomats [[Thomas Randolph (diplomat)|Thomas Randolph]] and the [[Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford|Earl of Bedford]], the murder of Rizzio (who was rumoured to be the father of Mary's unborn child) was part of Darnley's bid to force Mary to cede the Crown Matrimonial. Darnley also bargained with his allies to advance his claim to the Crown Matrimonial in the [[Parliament of Scotland]] in return for restoring their lands and titles.<ref>''Calendar State Papers Scotland'', vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 259–61 no. 351, 6 March 1566, or so Randolph and Bedford were advised before the murder.</ref>

When the Spanish Ambassador in Paris heard this news, the headlines were that Darnley "had murdered his wife, admitted the exiled heretics, and seized the kingdom." However, on 20 March, Darnley posted a declaration denying all knowledge of or complicity in the Rizzio murder. 
Mary no longer trusted her husband, and he was disgraced by the kingdom. On 27 March, the [[Regent Morton|Earl of Morton]] and [[Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven|Lord Ruthven]], who were both present at Rizzio's murder and had fled to England, wrote to Cecil claiming that Darnley had initiated the murder plot and recruited them, because of his "heich quarrel" and "deadly hatred" of Rizzio.<ref>''Calendar State Papers Scotland'', vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), 270–1 no. 364 & no. 369.</ref>