crown matrimonial, and to maintain his right to the crown failing the succession (ib. No. 165); and, on the other hand, he did not hesitate to promise them not merely full pardon for their offences, but even the full establishment of the protestant religion (ib. No. 164).
But after having been duped so far as to commit himself to the murder, and to play so conspicuous a part in it, Darnley immediately became the dupe of the new circumstances which were thus created, and the new influences they introduced. For one thing, Riccio had ceased to be a rival; for another he had a rooted dislike and dread of Moray; but, more than all, the queen not merely convinced him that they had common interests paramount to all other considerations, but that she would now confer on him the position of trust which he coveted. While concealing from her his own share in the conspiracy, Darnley therefore did not scruple to disclose ‘all that he knew of any man’ (Randolph to Cecil, 21 May, No. 205); and as he did his utmost to aid her in her escape from Holyrood to Dunbar, their relations became for the time being as cordial as during their days of courtship. But early in April the queen was shown the covenants and bonds between him and the lords, and discovered that his declaration before her and the council of his innocence of the murder was false (ib. No. 252). This discovery was fatal to him [see under Mary Queen of Scots], and although they nominally became somewhat reconciled in June, before the birth of James VI, there never was a recurrence of real friendship. The favour which the queen now began to show, not merely towards Bothwell, but towards Maitland, Moray, and other avowed enemies of the king, was ominous of how matters were drifting. Left almost without a friend—for even the catholic earls had grown weary of him—and seeing that the queen was more and more favourably disposed towards those whom he had most cause to dread, it is small wonder that he began to find his position almost intolerable. Perhaps, however, it was more in a spirit of sullen resentment and outraged pride than of fear that after the queen's departure on 25 Sept. from Stirling—where he remained—to Edinburgh, he began to form the resolution to leave the kingdom. This resolution he communicated to Le Croc, the French ambassador, who endeavoured to dissuade him, but without effect (Le Croc to Catherine de Medicis, 17 Oct., in Teulet's Relations Politiques, ii. 289–93), and on 29 Sept. Lennox informed the queen of his son's resolve and of his inability to change it. The same day Darnley came to Holyrood with the purpose of bidding the queen farewell; and, although he was induced to stay a night at the palace, he on the following day persisted in his resolve before the council, while admitting that he had no special complaint to make against the queen. He then left for Glasgow on a visit to his father, by whose persuasion, probably, he was induced to have another interview with Le Croc, who was successful in inducing him at least to postpone his departure (ib.) From Glasgow, however, he wrote a letter to the queen, in which he informed her that his resolution to depart was unchanged, and assigned as his reasons the refusal of the queen to grant him any real authority, and the fact that the nobility had left him in complete isolation (The Members of the Scottish Privy Council to Catherine de Médicis, 8 Oct. 1566, in Teulet, ii. 288).
During the queen's illness at Jedburgh, Darnley on 28 Oct. paid her a visit, but he left next morning for Glasgow. It was probably his attitude towards the nobles during this short visit that decided them to hold the famous conference at Craigmillar, when it was unanimously resolved that by fair means or foul Darnley should be got rid of. He also visited the queen when she was at Craigmillar, and while there had another interview with Le Croc, who on 2 Dec. expressed to Archbishop Beaton the opinion that he ‘did not expect, upon several accounts, any good understanding between them unless God effectually put his hand’ (Tytler, History, iii. 230). Le Croc also informed Beaton that he was much assured Darnley would not be present at the baptism at Stirling. His surmise was correct; for, though Darnley went to Stirling, he remained in his own room during the ceremony, and was not even present at the public entertainments—the fact probably being that the ordeal of facing insulting neglect from the queen and the court was more than his pride could brook. Writing from Stirling, Le Croc reported to Beaton that Darnley's ‘bad deportment was incurable;’ that ‘no good could be effected of him;’ and that matters could not ‘remain long as they are,’ without ‘sundry bad consequences’ (ib. iii. 232). On learning that Morton, Lindsay, Ruthven, and other murderers of Riccio had received pardon, he seems to have finally concluded that his cause was hopeless, if not worse, and abruptly left Stirling for Glasgow. His purpose was to have left the country by a ship from the west coast, but a sudden illness rendered this impossible. Knox, Buchanan, and others
