bility (Melville, Memoirs, p. 132); and it was soon recognised by all who needed favours that they could best be gained by an arrangement with the ci-devant ‘valet de chambre’ (ib.) If we are to credit Sir James Melville, even Moray, when in exile, did not disdain to seek to purchase the advocacy of Riccio for his recall by the present of a ‘fair diamond’ and the most humiliating promises (ib. p. 147). Riccio bore his new honours by no means meekly. He assumed a haughtiness of carriage towards the Scottish nobles greater than they would have brooked even from the most exalted prince of the blood; and his equipage and train, according to Knox, surpassed that of Darnley (Works, ii. 521). There is direct evidence that he had a large stud of horses (‘Treasurer's Accounts,’ quoted by Laing, ib. ii. 597); and, according to Randolph and Bedford, ‘the great substance he had’ was, after his death, ‘much spoken, some say in gold to the value of 11,000l. His apparel was very good, as it is said, twenty-eight pairs of velvet hose. His chamber well furnished, armour, dagger, pistolets, harquebusses, twenty-two swords’ (quoted in Appendix xv. to Robertson's History of Scotland). The fact that his pride and ostentation were an eyesore to the fierce Scottish nobles gratified Mary more than it alarmed her (Melville, Memoirs, p. 133). It was her deliberate purpose that they should accustom themselves to treat with due respect him whom she specially delighted to honour. His ‘generous spirit and faithful heart’ were not less valuable because he was ‘of humble origin’ and had been ‘poor in goods;’ and, being convinced that he possessed fit qualifications for the service required of him, she proposed to elevate him to the high estate of prime minister to an absolute sovereign, a sovereign independent of the nobility (‘Mémoire sur la Noblesse’ in Labanoff, vii. 297). To render herself and him secure against sudden surprise, she also resolved to form a bodyguard of Italians (Herries, Memoirs, p. 74).
Riccio thus owed his elevation primarily to the queen's political necessities or ambition. This, of course, does not disprove that he was also her lover; and some of the methods used to defend her from this suspicion tend rather to stimulate than to allay it. Riccio has been described not merely as ugly—after all, to some extent, a matter of opinion—but, by the indiscreet partisans of the queen, as old, which he certainly was not, his age when he arrived in Scotland being only twenty-eight (despatch addressed to Cosmo I in Labanoff, vii. 86). Since Riccio's elevation may be sufficiently accounted for on political grounds, distinct and independent proof of other motives must be forthcoming before they can be accepted. The theory is, moreover, supported by little more than insinuations. It rests chiefly on the jealousy of Darnley, who was persuaded by others, or succeeded in persuading himself, that he had ‘a partaker in play and game with him’ (Randolph, 13 Feb. 1565–6, quoted in Tytler, ed. 1864, iii. 215). He apparently supposed that he had discovered the queen with Riccio under suspicious circumstances (De Foix to Catherine de Médicis, 20 May 1565, in Teulet, ii. 265), and immediately after the murder of Riccio taxed the queen with unfaithfulness (Ruthven, Narrative). But Darnley's evidence is in itself absolutely worthless. He had sufficient reason to detest Riccio on mere political grounds. His exclusion from the crown matrimonial was a corollary of Riccio's elevation; and since Riccio practically held the political position which Darnley coveted, it was almost inevitable that Darnley should believe, or pretend to believe, that Riccio had also superseded him in the queen's affections. In addition to this, Darnley was in the hands of those who had resolved to utilise every semblance of evidence to fan the embers of his jealousy. It specially suited the conspirators against Riccio to make his undue familiarity with the queen one of the main pretexts for his murder, for by this means, besides securing the sanction and aid of Darnley, they gave to their violence a superficial aspect of legality.
Although the whole scope of the queen's purpose and ambition was possibly not suspected even by the astutest of her opponents, many of the nobles witnessed the remarkable and sudden ascendency of Riccio with alarm as well as indignation. Sooner or later his violent removal was inevitable, but what finally decided the conspirators to act was her refusal to pardon Moray and the other exiles in England, and the knowledge or suspicion that the former associates of Moray in Scotland would also be proceeded against. It has been supposed that Morton, who undertook the command of the conspirators, was induced to do so by the fact that Riccio had superseded, or was about to supersede, him in the chancellorship. This theory is supported by a report of Randolph that the seal was ‘taken from Morton, and, as some say, given to David’ (6 March 1566, in Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, No. 163), and by a marginal note to Knox's ‘History,’ ‘to Davie was the great seal given’ (Works, i. 446); but the proper version of the story is probably that given by Lord Herries, who says: ‘Lest the king should be persuaded to pass gifts
