On the night of 10 February 1567 an explosion devastated the Edinburgh residence of Henry Steward, Lord Darnley, second husband to Mary, Queen of Scots and unpopular king-consort. Those arriving at the scene of devastation found, in the garden, the naked corpses of Darnley and his valet. Neither had died in the explosion, but both bodies bore marks of strangulation. It was clear that they had been murdered and the house destroyed in an attempt to obliterate the evidence.
Alison Weir's investigation of Darnley's murder is set against on of the most dramatic periods of British history. Her conclusions shed a brilliant new light on the actions and motives of the conspirators and, in particular, the extent of Mary's own involvement.
