end of 1564,
Murray and Maitland of Lethington tried their utmost to persuade her to
do so.

On the 29th July, 1565, Mary was married to Darnley in the chapel of
Holyrood. Elizabeth chose to take offence, and Murray raised a
rebellion. There are two stories of plots: there are hints of a scheme
to capture Mary and Darnley; and Murray, on the other hand, alleged that
Darnley had entered into a conspiracy to kidnap him. It is, at all
events, certain that Murray raised a revolt and that the people rallied
to Mary, who drove her brother across the border. Elizabeth received
Murray with coldness, and asked him "how he, being a rebel to her sister
of Scotland, durst take the boldness upon him to come within her
realm?"[71] But Murray, confident in Elizabeth's promise of aid, knew
what this hypocritical outburst was worth, and the English queen soon
afterwards wrote to Mary in his favour. The motive which Murray alleged
for his revolt was his fear for the true religion in view of Mary's
marriage to Darnley, nominally a Roman Catholic; but his position with
regard to the Rizzio Bond renders it, as we shall see, somewhat
difficult to give him credit for sincerity. It is more likely that he
was ambitious of ruling the kingdom with Mary as a prisoner. About
Elizabeth's complicity there can be no doubt.[72]

Mary's troubles had only begun. On the 16th January, 1566, Randolph, the
English ambassador, wrote from Edinburgh: "I cannot tell what mislikings
of late there hath been between her grace and her husband; he presses
earnestly for the matrimonial crown, which she is loth hastily to
grant". Darnley, in fact, had proved a vicious fool, and was possessed
of a fool's ambition. Rizzio, Mary's Italian secretary, who had urged
the Darnley marriage, strongly warned Mary against giving her husband
any real share in the government, and Darnley determined that Rizzio
should be "removed".[73] He therefore entered into a conspiracy with his
natural enemies, the Scottish nobles, who professed to be willing to
secure the throne for this youth whom they despised and hated. The plot
involved the murder of Rizzio, the imprisonment of Mary, the
crown-matrimonial for Darnley, and the return of Murray and his
accomplices, who were still in exile. The English government was, of
course, privy to the scheme.[74] The murder was carried out, in
circumstances of great brutality, on the night of the 9th March. Mary's
condition of health, "having then pa