In my opinion, life is too short and provides too much real nastiness to bother with this song.

It was a great relief to me to find out that there is no record of anything like this ever happening in the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. The whole story is just another item of anti-Catholic propaganda, rather like the "nuns and priests have babies and bury them at midnight" tales heard in redneck America.

As for references, I can't provide any. I read armfuls of stuff and don't memorize all those authors and titles.

Another thing - in the olden days, attitudes toward infanticide were very lax compared to modern attitudes. I won't go into gruesome detail, but the chances of Mary's court going into a tizzy and hanging a member of the nobility over an illegetimate child are small.

The tune I know for "Mary Hamilton" is very lovely, however, and I have tried to write completely new words for it. Unf'ly I am not good at rhymes and meter. I wish somebody would save it from the "Four Maries" lyrics.