ALL MY TUDORS...history chat

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I've read lots of stuff on Mary Queen of Scots, but for the life of me I can't figure out why Ruthven, Darnley, & the rest of the conspirators who stabbed him to death in Mary's supper chamber at Holyrood were so convinced he was a threat! Rizzio seemed like a harmless little monkey.....what was the deal here???

The word that comes immediately to mind is SPITE. The second word is JEALOUSY.

Rizzio was the only one Mary truely trusted. She disscussed things with him, laughed with him, etc.. Darney knew who (and what) he was and that he'd never have the intellectual intimacy with Mary that Rizzio did. Because of this Darnley also felt Rizzio had more "power" that he did.

Also, up until the time of the murder of Rizzio, Mary had tried (with some success) to take the reins of Queenship, which no one in her court (except Rizzio) wanted her to have . If you consider all the events which happened AFTER Rizzio's murder, it is the pivitol point when Mary's rein begins it's slide downhill.

I also think that it was entirely possible that the Ricco murderers hoped that the incident would cause the Queen to have a miscarriage, and possibly damage her own health. It also provided a great way to make the Queen hate Darnley for sure, so if she did survive that horrible night, he would be the fall guy. Without her husband or her most trusted secretary, she would have to look to the "nobility" (using that word loosely to describe these men!) to help her rule. Also, there was a long history of child rulers in Scotland, with their regents accumulating enormous power & wealth (well, for Scotland) during the regency. So, if the baby survived, Mary had fufilled her biological destiny for these ambitious men by providing them a heir. Don't think that her brother James didn't know about this murder plot! With Ricco dead, and Darnley in effect, negated, James could swoop right in and regain his place in Mary's affections and trust - so he hoped. Another reason is religion - Ricco was Catholic, as was MQOS, and the Lords of the Congregation were not happy about what they considered a papal spy being the queen's chief advisor. I think, as in many things that happened to MQOS, there were hidden reasons for the things that happened, and things were rarely as they seemed.

I think the noble's problem with Riccio had a lot to do with the fact that he was a foreigner, and the Queen trusted him more than she did her own countrymen... it was an insult to their pride.

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