Rizzio: Darkland Tales

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A Narrative of the Minority of Mary Queen of Scots by James Maitland (Ipswich, 1842): W. Park, 'Letter of Thomas Randolph to the Earl of Leicester, 14 February 1566', Scottish Historical Review, 34:118 Part 2 (October 1955), pp. 135-139 at 138: National Library of Scotland MS 3657. Then for a historical account there were too many tiny details, feelings and unimportant bits that no one probably has ever recorded for them to be factually accurate. Which would make them unnecessary then and bad historical material as it is full of unimportant bits. 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.

To date, the entirety of Mina's work in comics has been published under DC Comics' Vertigo imprint: So I felt the basic story Mina sets out to tell is as likely to be true as any other. However, the novella is part of a series called Darkland Tales from Polygon, an imprint of independent Scottish publisher, Birlinn. The publishers say: “In Darkland Tales, the best modern Scottish authors offer dramatic retellings of stories from the nation’s history, myth and legend. These are landmark moments from the past, viewed through a modern lens and alive to modern sensibilities.” The “modern sensibility” Mina has used is the idea of misogyny and the subjugation of women to the control of powerful men. Again, I have no problem with this – all of the Queens of that Queenly era had to navigate the patriarchal society with great care to hold onto their power. Some did it by marrying powerful men, like Bloody Mary; some by remaining unmarried, like the Virgin Queen; and it is generally agreed that a lot of Mary QOS’s problems arose from her penchant for marrying unsuitable men. Unusually for a novella, Mina's characters are really well-developed. In particular, I got a really good sense of Ruthven and Darnley and their various foibles. The narrative voice feels surprisingly modern and the tone verges on dark comedy at some points, which I really enjoyed.

Rizzio: Darkland Tales

Anyway, Rizzio is the first I've read by Denise Mina but it definitely won't be the last. It's a riveting retelling of a particularly sinister night in Scotland's history that expertly blends bloody murder with the glitz and intrigue of court life. Mina's writing creates a real sense of immediacy that takes the reader right into the centre of the action as if you are watching the events unfold in real time around you. The tension is beautifully crafted and even although I know how events played out, Mina had me on the edge of my metaphorical chair throughout. 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.

Peter Anderson, Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney Lord of Shetland (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1982), p. 48. Flood, Alison (20 July 2012). "Denise Mina wins crime novel of the year award". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 July 2012. Of course her modesty is utterly misplaced and her talent and affinity with the written word resulted in Garnethill, which won the CWA Dagger for Best First Crime Novel. I’m not sure where the idea came for Mina’s reimagining of the murder of David Rizzio (in her afterword she suggests Jamie Crawford from her publisher as having ‘commisisioned’ it), but from her pen, and in her very dark style, it works wonderfully well. It is sometimes said that Rizzio was buried at the Canongate Kirk and burying ground. Holyroodhouse is within the old Canongate jurisdiction, and Rizzio's death was recorded in the Canongate registers. This pre-dated the building of the Canongate Kirk in 1688, and it is unlikely he could be buried there. [41] Representation in fiction [ edit ]

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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. I’ve read much of what Mina has written, and always enjoyed it, but this format brings out the very best of her, the grizzly and the gruesome stirred in with occasional pinches of dark humour. James Crawford, editor-at-large at Polygon, commissioned the series. He says: “These books are sharp, provocative and darkly comic, mining that seam of sedition and psychological drama that has always featured in the best of Scottish literature.” After this violent struggle, Rizzio was dragged through the bed-chamber into the adjacent Audience Chamber and stabbed an alleged 57 times. His body was thrown down the main staircase nearby (now disused) and stripped of his jewels and fine clothes. [29] The location of Rizzio's murder is marked with a small plaque in the Audience Chamber, underneath which is a red mark on the floorboards, which reportedly was left when Rizzio was stabbed to death. [30]

Where Mina began to lose me was with her modernisation of the thought processes of her characters – they began to feel as if they were too 21st century. I’m not sure that Mary would ever have had a thought that we would recognise as feminist. These Queens fought for their own power and the passing of that power to their sons if they had them, not to liberalise the world for other women, not even their daughters. They did not challenge the patriarchy – they upheld it. Not that Mina has Mary out in the streets with “Votes for Women” placards, but when she (Mina, not Mary) sneered that the Lords were all men, white and entitled, I was forced to grit my teeth. Of course they were “entitled” – they were “titled”. Entitlement in that era wasn’t pejorative as it is now – it was aspirational and came about through loyalty and service to the monarch of the day. Of course they were men – it was a patriarchy that worked on the basis of male primogeniture. And, oh dear, of course they were white. What other colour was there in 16th century Scotland? People of colour were not oppressed or marginalised in Scotland in 1566, for the simple reason that there were none. The issue of white entitlement only becomes a thing when society is not 100% white. Even today, Scotland is 96% white. While some of Mary’s problems were undoubtedly exacerbated by her sex, how many Kings were usurped and murdered too in those days? Her Catholicism was at least as much of an issue as her sex, and she was just as white and entitled as her Lords. So I found the modern sensibilities grated rather than adding any enlightenment to the history. Joseph Stevenson, The History of Mary Stewart: From the Murder of Riccio Until Her Flight Into England by Claude Nau (Edinburgh, 1883), pp. 16, 227.Denise Mina [ permanent dead link] talking with Ian Rankin at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (transcript and audio), 17 August 2006 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. Burn’s book about Fred and Rosemary West’s lives and murders affected me in a way that perhaps all true crime should: it left me feeling saddened and soiled. He vividly portrays the actual life of serial killers, the shallow affect, the casual brutality and suburban brutalising around the explosive events we hear about when the bodies are found. He talks a lot about the way Fred West’s language was a signal and uses phrases over and over in reprises that are operatic. I know he found the book harder to write than Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son, his study of Peter Sutcliffe, and the depth of his immersion shows. It is profoundly moving in a way that true crime very rarely is.