David Rizzio

Introduction to Court

Rizzio (whose name appears in Italian records as David 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 to get himself admitted into the train of the Count de Moretto in 1561, who was about to lead an embassy to Scotland. The Court 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 personal 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". Thus, he was drawn into her court.

Further advancement

He was considered a good musician, and an excellent singer, which first brought him to the attention of the cosmopolitan young Queen. Towards the end of 1564, having grown wealthy under her patronage, he became the Queen's secretary for relations with France, after the previous occupant of the post retired there. This post attracted a quarterly salary of £20. Ambitious (seeing himself as all but a Secretary of State), a Catholic and a foreigner to boot, Rizzio, it was felt, was too close to the Queen. Rumours became rife that Mary was having an adulterous affair with Rizzio.

Murder

David Rizzio was stabbed 56 times on 9 March 1566 by Lord Darnley and his friends. He was accused of leaving the Queen pregnant.

Background

Jealousy precipitated his murder in the Queen's presence, in her supper chamber ("a cabinet about XII foot square, in the same a little low reposinge bedde, and a table") in the Palace of Holyroodhouse after the royal guards were quickly overpowered and the palace was turned over to the control of the rebels.

Queen as witness

The Queen was seven months pregnant (with James VI) at the time. Having burst into the Queen's private dining room, the rebels, led by Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven, demanded Rizzio be handed over. The Queen refused. Rizzio then hid behind Mary but was nevertheless seized and stabbed to death in the presence of the Queen.

Murder and burial

After this violent struggle, Rizzio was stabbed an alleged 56 times, before being thrown down the main staircase and stripped of his jewels and fine clothes. He was buried within two hours in the cemetery of Holyrood. Buchanan and Daniel state that shortly afterwards his body was removed by the Queen's orders and deposited in the sepulchre of the Kings of Scotland; a measure most impolitic, as it strengthened the previous reports of her familiarity with him> Rumours were thrown around as to why this happened to Rizzio – most claim Darnley was jealous.

Aftermath

Robert Melville arrived in Edinburgh from London and reported back to Elizabeth and Cecil on the aftermath of the murder. He noted that Morton, Lord Ruthven, and Lord Lindsay had fled, and William Maitland of Lethington, the Clerk Register James Balfour, the Justice Clerk John Bellenden, and some gentlemen of Lothian who were suspected of having knowledge of the plan had fled. Mary had escaped from Edinburgh to Dunbar Castle.

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.

Legacy and memorial

David Rizzio's career was remembered and referred to by Henry IV of France. Mocking the pretension of James VI of Scotland to be the "Scottish Solomon", he remarked that "he hoped he was not David the fiddler's son", alluding to the possibility that Rizzio, not Darnley, fathered King James.

Whilst it has been alleged that Rizzio is buried at Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh this is highly unlikely as this would have required reinterment of a Catholic with no living friends in a Protestant graveyard 120 years after his death. It is more likely and logical that he lies in an unmarked grave in the graveyard attaching Holyrood Abbey. The Protestant historian George Buchanan wrote in 1581 that David was first buried outside the door of the Abbey, and then Mary arranged for him to be buried in the tomb of her father James V and Madeleine of France within. As Buchanan described this circumstance as reflecting badly on the Queen, while his book was at the printers, a friend James Melville tried to get Buchanan to rewrite the passage, fearing that Mary's son James VI would suppress the whole book. Buchanan asked his cousin, Thomas Buchanan, a schoolmaster in Stirling, if he thought the story was true, and the cousin agreed. The story was published.

Representation in visual media and fiction

Rizzio is played by John Carradine in the 1936 RKO picture Mary of Scotland, directed by John Ford; by Ian Holm in Mary, Queen of Scots, the 1972 Universal picture directed by Charles Jarrot; by Tadeusz Pasternak in the BBC mini-series "Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot"; and by Andrew Shaver in The CW network television show Reign.

Rizzio's life and death are a key plot element in Caleb Carr's Sherlock Holmes story The Italian Secretary, Holmes vocally dismissing the idea that Rizzio was ever anything more than entertainment.

The takers in hand

Thomas Randolph listed these men as participants in Rizzio's murder:

with the preachers; John Knox and John Craig.