Happy! –Dec 7 (Darnley/Chapin)

07 Dec 05 - 08:54 AM (#1621897)
Subject: Happy! –Dec 7 (Darnley/Chapin)
From: Abby Sale


Happy Birthday!

Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, was born Dec. 7, 1545

He was the second husband of Mary, Queen Of Scots and the son of Matthew, 4th earl of Lennox. He began to court the young Mary in February 1565. They were married according to Roman Catholic rites on July 29, 1565, much to the displeasure of the earl of Moray (who was Mary's half brother), the powerful Hamilton family, and John Knox. What appeared for dynastic reasons to be a good match soon soured. Darnley's jealousy of David Riccio, Mary's secretary, led him to take part in Riccio's murder (March 9, 1566), and this alienated him from the Queen, who had grown tired of her weak and inconsiderate husband. There is no proof of her complicity in Darnley's murder by time-bombed explosion and fire at Kirk o' Field on the night of Feb. 9-10, 1567, but she subsequently married the earl of Bothwell (5/15/1567), who authored the plot.

(All this from Grolier's Encyclopedia. Don't blame me. I use this item because it's a piece of my favorite bit of totally incomprehensible Scottish history. To me, anyway. Thousands of characters intertwined & whirling around each other. It's plagued me nearly 50 years – ever since Lucy Newmark first started reading to me the Shakespeare-history-type play she was trying to write around it. It even reached Twilight Zone level once when I was touring Holyrood in Edinburgh and the guide pointed to the floor and said, And there's the very spot where Riccio… Oh well.)

          1 Woe worth thee, woe worth thee, false Scottlande!
          For thou hast euer wrought by a sleight:
          For the worthyest prince that euer was borne,
          You hanged vnder a cloud by night.
  
                  "Earl Bothwell" [Child #174]

ALSO:
I never met the man but them what did thought pretty damn highly of him.

Happy Birthday!

Harry Chapin

was born In New York City,

12/7/1942
(d.7-16-1981 in a traffic accident on the Long Island Expressway)

The singer/songwriter cofounded World Hunger Year in 1975. Chapin's music funded his activism with every other concert a benefit. His widow accepted a Special Congressional Gold Medalon his behalf at a Carnegie Hall tribute concert in 1987.

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
What are Happy's all about? See Clicky

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