Thursday, June 17, 2010

Mary, Queen of Scots Imprisoned at Lochleven Castle

On June 17, 1567, Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, following her surrender at Carberry Hill. It is thought that she bore a child while interred, but the fate of that child is unknown. Mary signed papers abdicating the throne in favor of her son James while at Lochleven, prior to her escape the following spring.  Scott writes of Mary's travails in "The Abbot"...

However weary Roland Graeme might be of the Castle of Lochleven--however much he might wish that the plan for Mary's escape had been perfected, I question if he ever awoke with more pleasing feelings than on the morning after George Douglas's plan for accomplishing her deliverance had been frustrated. In the first place, he had the clearest conviction that he had misunderstood the innuendo of the Abbot, and that the affections of Douglas were fixed, not on Catherine Seyton, but on the Queen; and in the second place, from the sort of explanation which had taken place betwixt the steward and him, he felt himself at liberty, without any breach of honour towards the family of Lochleven, to contribute his best aid to any scheme which should in future be formed for the Queen's escape; and, independently of the good-will which he himself had to the enterprise, he knew he could find no surer road to the favour of Catherine Seyton. He now sought but an opportunity to inform her that he had dedicated himself to this task, and fortune was propitious in affording him one which was unusually favourable…

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