Rizzio

Rizzio PDF

Author: Denise Mina

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-09-07

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1643138464

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From the multi-award-winning master of crime, Denise Mina delivers a radical new take on one of the darkest episodes in Scottish history—the bloody assassination of David Rizzo private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, in the queen’s chambers in Holyrood Palace. On the evening of March 9th, 1566, David Rizzio, the private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, was brutally murdered. Dragged from the chamber of the heavily pregnant Mary, Rizzio was stabbed fifty six times by a party of assassins. This breathtakingly tense novella dramatises the events that led up to that night, telling the infamous story as it has never been told before. A dark tale of sex, secrets and lies, Rizzio looks at a shocking historical murder through a modern lens—and explores the lengths that men and women will go to in their search for love and power. Rizzio is nothing less than a provocative and thrilling new literary masterpiece.

Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley

Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley PDF

Author: Alison Weir

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 722

ISBN-13: 0307431479

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BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Alison Weir's Mary Boleyn. Handsome, accomplished, and charming, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, staked his claim to the English throne by marrying Mary Stuart, who herself claimed to be the Queen of England. It was not long before Mary discovered that her new husband was interested only in securing sovereign power for himself. Then, on February 10, 1567, an explosion at his lodgings left Darnley dead; the intrigue thickened after it was discovered that he had apparently been suffocated before the blast. After an exhaustive reevaluation of the source material, Alison Weir has come up with a solution to this enduring mystery. Employing her gift for vivid characterization and gripping storytelling, Weir has written one of her most engaging excursions yet into Britain’s bloodstained, power-obsessed past.

David Rizzio & Mary Queen of Scots

David Rizzio & Mary Queen of Scots PDF

Author: David Tweedie

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2011-09-16

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 0752470817

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On the evening of 9 March 1566, a raiding party forced their way into the palace of Holyrood House and stabbed Italian secretary, David Rizzio to death while he was at supper with Mary, Queen of Scots. The attack was savage and brutal - Rizzio was stabbed over fifty times - and Mary's husband, Darnley, was among the conspirators. David Rizzio came to Scotland in 1561. There, he rose to power and influence in the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was her secretary, chief minister and the architect of her plan to avoid Scotland turning into a Calvanist republic. It was also rumoured that he was her lover and father of her child, James VI and I. David Tweedie explains how Rizzio so enraged the Scots lords that they plotted his murder. He points to the complicity of Elizabeth and her ministers and shows that Rizzio's murder was a serious political event, since with his death, died the possibility of religious counter-reformation in Scotland. While the other men in Mary's life have received their dur from the historians, Rizzio remains a shadowy figure. This book restores the balance and explores one of the most shocking events of Mary's colourful reign.

The Italian Secretary

The Italian Secretary PDF

Author: Caleb Carr

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2006-05-02

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780312939137

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Legendary detective Sherlock Holmes finds himself on the trail of a murderer whose connections may run all the way up the social ladder to the royal family.

The Challenge to the Crown

The Challenge to the Crown PDF

Author: Robert Stedall

Publisher: Book Guild Publishing

Published: 2012-07-26

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 1846246466

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Mary Queen of Scots: Catholic martyr or manipulative femme fatale On 10 February 1567, conspirators bent on killing Henry, Lord Darnley, King-Consort of Mary Queen of Scots successfully razed his Edinburgh residence at Kirk o' Field in a huge explosion. Soon afterwards, Darnley's partially-clothed body was discovered in a nearby orchard, strangled to death by an unknown assailant. Rumours of Mary's involvement in his murder quickly surfaced. Placards across Edinburgh implied that she had provoked the Earl of Bothwell into killing her husband in a crime of passion. This became more plausible when she tried to avoid having to prosecute him for the murder, and subsequently married him, encouraged by her most senior Protestant nobles. While Mary's motives for the marriage might be explained by her need for his protection, those of the Nobility who had encourage it are confusing. Why would they want a union, which would inevitably place Bothwell, a man they hated, as head of government? Was their motif to associate her in the murder plot? Mary's involvement in Darnley's murder has remained one of the great historical mysteries. Genealogist and author Robert Stedall has spent ten years researching the inter-marriages within Scottish peerage to provide an explanation for their motives in removing Mary from the throne. In this first volume, of his two volume history of Mary and James, he explains in vivid detail the switching allegiances of the nobility, and can reveal for the first time, the gripping true story of Mary's downfall and imprisonment.

The Other Queen

The Other Queen PDF

Author: Philippa Gregory

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-09-16

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 1416549129

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Presents a tale inspired by the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, in a work that follows the doomed monarch's long imprisonment in the household of the Earl of Shrewsbury and his spying wife, Bess.

Hex

Hex PDF

Author: Jenni Fagan

Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

Published: 2022-03-03

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13: 1788854837

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A powerfully poignant tale of one of the most turbulent moments in Scotland's history: the North Berwick Witch Trials. IT'S THE 4TH OF DECEMBER 1591. On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below Edinburgh's High Street, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor – Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe. As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace – and the tantalising prospect of escape. Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king's violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day. 'This series has already produced two works of note and distinction. It raises the question – if a country cannot re-tell its history, will it be stuck forever in aspic and condemned to be nothing more than a shortbread tin illustration? Hex and Rizzio are showing the way towards a reckoning, and about time too' – Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday