This is an absolutely brilliant book! I am deeply interested in Mary Queen of Scots, yet have never managed to finish any of the many books about her. Denise Mina, who has written a number of crime novels set in gritty Glasgow, was the perfect person to pen the story of the murder of David Rizzio, servant and confidant of the Queen. Having said all that, it’s interesting enough and well written, and if treated with caution as to its historical accuracy, it is a tense and vivid account of the event. For that reason, I’d still recommend it, with reservations. 2½ stars for me, so rounded up. Flood, Alison (20 July 2012). "Denise Mina wins crime novel of the year award". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 July 2012.

Mary doesn't know that her Palace is surrounded - that, right now, an army of men is creeping upstairs to her chamber. They're coming to murder David Rizzio, her friend and secretary, the handsome Italian man who is smiling across the table at her. Mary's husband wants it done in front of her and he wants her to watch it done ... Rizzio doesn’t know they’re planning to kill him tonight. He hears rumours and sees the whispering, he knows something is going on, but something is always going on: that’s the essence of court life. The whispering has been intensifying for months, building up to the current session of Parliament, which will finally, irrevocably, divest the Queen’s rivals of their land and power and titles. This Parliament’s proclamations will take Scotland by the shoulders, turn her away from England to face Europe and concentrate power in the Queen’s hands. Told from the perspective of several of the characters involved, the story focuses on a 1566 plot to kill Mary, Queen of Scots’ friend and private secretary David Rizzio. Denise captures the dramas of the sixteenth century intrigue but is glad to link to more contemporaneous themes. “There are so many resonances,” she points out. Not least that, “there is no justice that can reach you if you are rich.”Rizzio's brother, Joseph, arrived in Scotland with Michel de Castelnau and was appointed secretary in David's place by 25 April 1566. Joseph and an Italian colleague, Joseph Lutyni, had some trouble over coins taken from the queen's purse, and in April 1567 he was accused and acquitted with Bothwell of Darnley's murder. [39] Legacy and memorial [ edit ] After the marriage, rumours became rife that Mary was having an adulterous affair with Rizzio. [15] It was said (in 1568) that Mary and Darnley's love decayed after they returned from the Chaseabout Raid, "she using the said David more like a lover than a servant, forsaking her husband's bed". [16] According to a French diplomat's report, Darnley had discovered Rizzio in the closet of Mary's bedchamber at Holyroodhouse in the middle of the night dressed only in a fur gown over his shirt. [17] Wealth, possessions and costume [ edit ] Joseph Stevenson, The History of Mary Stewart: From the Murder of Riccio Until Her Flight Into England by Claude Nau (Edinburgh, 1883), pp. ciii, 11, 16, 227. This novella is a fictionalised re-telling of the real-life murder of David Rizzio, a favourite of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1566. The event is well known in Scotland and most tourists to Edinburgh will have shivered over the “bloodstains” in Mary’s chambers in Holyrood Palace. However the reasons for the murder were murky even at the time and different theories have been put forward ever since. One of the many rumours was that Rizzio was Mary’s lover and that the child with which she was pregnant, who later became James VI of Scotland and I of England, was Rizzio’s rather than her husband, Darnley’s. Mina absolves Mary of this charge (I’m no expert, but I think most historians agree that it was a false rumour), and weaves a political conspiracy that the murder was done by the Protestant Lords to usurp power from the Catholic Mary and set Darnley up as a puppet King in her stead. I’d think that’s more likely than the jealous lover theory, myself. Mina also goes along with the theory that in fact Darnley and Rizzio had been lovers, a theory agreed to, I believe, by eminent historian and biographer of Mary, John Guy. Rizzio became an ally of Lord Darnley, and helped with plans for his marriage to Mary. [10] George Buchanan described Rizzio gaining Darnley's favour. As their familiarity grew, Rizzio was admitted to Darnley's chamber, bed, and secret confidence. [11] [12] [13] David Calderwood later wrote that Rizzio had "insinuated himself in the favours of Lord Darnley so far, that they would lie some times in one bed together". [14]

The story of Mary, Queen of Scots, so often characterised as a romance, was notably violent and grim. Visitors to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh who would like to sense the brutal reality should pay attention to a very small room off the royal bedchamber – it was here, on 9 March 1566, that David Rizzio, Mary’s private secretary and favourite, was murdered. He was stabbed 56 times. The queen, pregnant with a future king, is said to have had a pistol aimed at her belly. This, then, is a crime scene, and so it is appropriate that a crime writer should take up the tale. This breathtakingly tense work is a tale of sex, seduction, secrets and lies, one that looks at history through a modern lens and explores the lengths that men – and women – will go to in the search for love and power. It's Saturday evening, 9 March 1566, and Mary, Queen of Scots, is six months pregnant. She's hosting a supper party. Outside, Edinburgh is bustling. It's full of the Great and the Good and the Idiot Sons of the Rich, here for a Parliament that will take Scotland by the shoulders and turn it from England to face Europe. The political motivations are complex, and further weighted by animosity between Calvinists and Catholics. Poisonous rumours suggested Riccio was too close to the Queen, but the physical intimacies he shared were with her bisexual English husband, Lord Henry Darnley. Really, the most famous on this list. Capote is a god and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. He claimed to have invented the genre of the non-fiction novel but, for me, that discounts all autobiography. He immersed himself in the case, extensively interviewing the murderers of a family slaughtered at a small Kansas farm. The conflicting loyalty almost broke him. It’s one of those books that shouldn’t work but, once started, cannot be abandoned.The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, edited by John Hill Burton, LL.D., vol.1. 1545–1569, Edinburgh, 1877, p.437, lists all those charged with "the slauchter of David Riccio." Given the very many names shown, it presumably includes those in the wider conspiracy.

It’s the story of the assassination of David Rizzio, the secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots. One night, on a whim, he was murdered - not just by one person, but by a group who came together for this purpose. The story is tense, gritty, and dark. It feels like an historical crime thriller because this really happened even though all the details aren’t known. Also, Mary, Queen of Scots? She’s one of the most fascinating historical figures of which I’ve read, and I never tire of stories surrounding her life. Mary was a powerful woman whose gender made her vulnerable both physically and in terms of her hold on that power. Although Mina touches on this idea throughout, it feels at times as though this short novel is a step towards a longer work, one in which the predicament and point of view of the queen are explored in much greater depth. Perhaps she will write that book one day. Rizzio, meanwhile, is an intriguing sketch in blood. Mary remains one of the most intriguing & divisive characters in royal history. There was no shortage of drama in her short life but one of the most compelling incidents was the murder of her private secretary David Rizzio. Maybe because one of the ringleaders behind the plot was her snivelling weasel of a husband, Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley). The first Darkland Tales title will be Rizzio by award-winning novelist Denise Mina pictured right, with volumes to follow by Jenni Fagan and Alan Warner in 2022. The series aims to reclaim history for a modern audience and Polygon says that “while each book has a unique voice and distinctive individual identity, the Darkland Tales are united by their punky, anarchic and deliberately in-your-face aesthetic”. Diehard history enthusiasts (such as myself) may understandably meet “Rizzio” with a fair share of trepidation and reluctance; as “Rizzio” is not a typical, fleshed-out historical-fiction novel re-telling history. Instead, Mina presents a unique take on the murder of David Rizzio that combines elements of a modern-day satire, psychological thriller and historical character study that reads like the premise synopsis of a stage play. Yet, “Rizzio” is successful and impactful achieving a level of emotion that many historical fiction novels fail at even in longer lengths.

HMC Calendar of the manuscripts of the Most Honourable the Marquess of Salisbury preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, vol. 1 (London, 1883), p. 333, and in Thomas Wright, Queen Elizabeth and her Times, vol. 1 (London, 1838), pp. 226-235. There is a modern-take to “Rizzio” with some contemporary literary devices, descriptors and even an omnipresent narrator but this ‘works’, as well. Mina’s writing is intricately-woven and perfectly-balanced allowing her to get away with more than the typical author. At the time, Holyrood Palace was a quagmire of secrets, political intrigue & treasonous plots (you could argue not much has changed…). Mary’s enemies were mostly noblemen who stood to lose their estates & more importantly, their power. As far as they were concerned, Mary had 2 fatal flaws. She was Catholic. And a woman. To make matters worse, she was also 6 months pregnant with the all-important heir. Denise Mina was born in East Kilbride in 1966. Her father worked as an engineer. Because of his work, the family moved 21 times in 18 years: from Paris to The Hague, London, Scotland and Bergen; she has also professed an affection for Rutherglen, her mother's home town. [4] Mina left school at 16 and worked in a variety of jobs, including as a kitchen porter, a cook and behind a bar. She also worked for a time in a meat-processing factory. In her twenties she worked in auxiliary nursing for geriatric and terminal care patients, before returning to education and earning a law degree from Glasgow University. [5] From the shadows under the timber roof Yair can see the players on the bright court very crisply, the flitting nuances in their gestures and glances.

Mina’s approach is concerned with recreating the essence of the evening of the murder and its aftermath. It’s told in present tense, vividly imagining the sounds and smells of the rooms in Holyrood Castle, the ambitions and attitudes of Mary’s perfidious husband Darnley, her ladies in waiting, Rizzio, the leaders of the coup, and any number of peripheral players. And, most of all, Mary’s inner strength. There is a dark humor to many of the portraits, but somehow they are invariably sad as well. Rizzio (whose name appears in Italian records as Davide Riccio di Pancalieri in Piemonte) went first from Turin to the Court of the Duke of Savoy, then at Nice. However, finding no opportunities for advancement there, he found means in 1561 to get himself admitted into the train of Carlo Ubertino Solaro, Count of Moretta, who was about to lead an embassy to Scotland. [7] The Count in Scotland had no employment for Rizzio, and dismissed him. He ingratiated himself with the Queen's musicians, whom she had brought with her from France. James Melville, a friend of Rizzio, said that "Her Majesty had three valets in her chamber, who sung three parts, and wanted a bass to sing the fourth part". [8]It's Saturday evening, 9 March 1566, and Mary, Queen of Scots, is six months pregnant. She's hosting a supper party, secure in her private chambers. She doesn't know that her Palace is surrounded – that, right now, an army of men is creeping upstairs to her chamber. They're coming to murder David Rizzio, her friend and secretary, the handsome Italian man who is smiling across the table at her. Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, wants it done in front of her and he wants her to watch it done ... Rizzio knows his life is threatened. Of course it is, he’s a proxy for a queen. They resent her power, her sex, her religious devotion, her pregnancy which has the potential to carry on her Catholic line. They resent the compromise she represents, that there may not be a Protestant Europe, now and for ever. More than that, they hate her love match with Darnley because he’s Catholic and, almost worse, a Lennox.