Note 36 — Chapter I

This, however, does not altogether apply to the Darnley marriage. Darnley, as grandson of Margaret Tudor, was not only cousin to the Queen of Scots, but first prince of the blood in England; and Mary’s great object in espousing him was to improve her chance of succeeding to the Crown of England, to which she was already heir-presumptive. But in Scotland the marriage of the queen to a Catholic could not be viewed with indifference; and the General Assembly of the Church proceeded to declare that the laws against papacy applied to the royal family as well as to the subjects: “That the Papisticall and blasphemous masse, with all Papistrie and idolatrie of Paip’s jurisdictione, be universallie suppressed and abolished throughout the haill realme, not only in the subjects, but also in the Q. Majestie’s awn persone” (The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland, p. 28).