The Murder that Shook Mary Queen of Scots
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
4.7 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the night of Saturday the 9th of March, 1566, a pregnant Mary Queen of Scots was having a dinner party.
It was a night that ended in the brutal murder of one of her closest friends, David Rizzio, led by her husband, Lord Darnley.
How did this happen? How did Mary handle this traumatic moment? And did Mary have a Scottish or French accent?!
Joining Anthony once more as special guest co-host is author and historian Gareth Russell, to take us back to this disturbing night.
You can now watch After Dark on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhit
Edited by Tim Arstall and Anna Brant. Produced by Stuart Beckwith.
For tickets to see Anthony and Maddy talking about her new book, Hoax, click here: https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on/event/hoax/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, it's me, Maddie. I am back. Well, not quite. I will be back on the pod very soon. But in the meantime, if you've missed your fix of Anthony and me together, you can now catch us live on stage at Conway Hall in London on the 7th of May. There we'll be discussing my brand new book, |
| 0:22.4 | Hoax, Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment, out that very same day. We'll be discovering |
| 0:28.7 | how fake news is nothing new, chatting about what it's like to spend time in the darker side |
| 0:34.6 | of the Georgian world, and meeting the three extraordinary, bizarre and |
| 0:39.3 | often frightening characters at the heart of the book. Cops of hoax will be available on the |
| 0:44.9 | night, which I'll be signing after the show and hopefully chatting to as many of you as possible. |
| 0:49.6 | So get your tickets now. The link is in the show notes. You can go to the Conway Hall website |
| 0:53.7 | or follow the link in my Instagram bio. |
| 0:56.5 | I'm so excited about this book and I just can't wait to share it with you all. Do come along. It is going to be the most fantastic evening. See you there. |
| 1:15.6 | It's 8 o'clock on the night of March the 9th, 1566. In Mary Queen of Scott's private chambers of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, daggers are raised aloft and plunged into the flesh of a court favourite, over and over and over again. |
| 1:29.5 | Dark pupils of blood soon ooze across the wooden floor. |
| 1:34.1 | The palace is all a frenzy. |
| 1:37.0 | Then, it was said that the men at the heart of this chaos |
| 1:40.8 | lift the body of the murdered man and drag him towards the staircase, |
| 1:45.5 | where they unceremoniously proceed to fling his still warm body down the steps. |
| 1:50.5 | But did that happen? |
| 1:53.0 | Mary, distraught, can hear the commotion, of course. |
| 1:56.0 | She can hear the final thud as her one-time favorite musician's body finally hits the ground. |
| 2:02.9 | Who are we talking about? |
| 2:04.8 | None other than her rumored lover, David Ritzio. |
| 2:08.4 | And so, as Mary surrenders herself to her husband, Lord Darnley, and his men, |
| 2:13.5 | she will no doubt have wondered, how has it all come to this? Hello and welcome to After Dark. I'm Gareth. And I'm Anthony. I am a feeble substitute for malic. |
... |
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