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Loch Leven - Mary Queen of Scots
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Lochleven is best remembered for its
association with Mary Queen of Scots. She was a frequent visitor during
her short reign and used it as a base in 1563 for her favourite pastime
of hawking. However, the final time she came to Lochleven Castle is
as a prisoner on the 17th June 1567. A few days earlier, Mary Stuart
and her third husband, Bothwell, found their army heavily outnumbered
by the Confederate Lords at Carberry Hill, not far from Edinburgh.
The Douglas Family had been made 'Castellans of Lochleven' by King
Robert III in 1390 and it fell to Sir William Douglas to be Mary's
gaoler. At first, the Queen was imprisoned in the Glassin Tower at
the eastern corner of the castle and, throughout her time in the Castle,
she was accompanied by her own cook, physician and 2 ladies-in-waiting.
Under considerable duress, Mary Queen of Scots abdicated in favour
of her one year old son on the 24th July 1567 with the regency going
to her half brother, the Earl of Moray. To make matters worse, she
had previously given birth to stillborn twins after which she was
extremely ill from loss of blood.
Mary retained considerable support on the mainland and plans were
hatched to free her but these suffered a setback when she was moved
to the Solar Storey of the Main Tower above the Great Hall with her
companions on the top floor.
Aided by George and Willie Douglas, various plans were made to help
Mary escape such as smuggling her out in a box or commandeering on
of the coal-boats, which carried fuel from the mainland to the island,
in order to launch a night raid. These came to naught, as did the
plan for the Queen to jump down almost 3 meters to a waiting boat
from out of the oriel window in the Glassin Tower. This plan was abandoned
when one of the ladies-in-waiting badly damaged her ankle practising
in the courtyard. A fourth plan, for Mary to leave the castle disguised
as a laundry woman nearly succeeded until she was discovered by a
boatman.
Finally, on 2nd May 1568, Mary succeeded in escaping with the help
of Willie Douglas who stole the keys to the Postern Gate from the
table beside Sir William Douglas during a banquet in the Great Hall.
They slipped away in one of the boats and legend has it that Willie
threw the keys into the water. When the Loch was being lowered in
1831, a set of eight keys was found in the mud.
Mary tried to have her abdication declared invalid but her army was
defeated by her half-brother, the Earl of Moray, at the battle of
Longside. She fled south to England in the hope that Queen Elizabeth
I would help her but, instead, she was held in captivity for a further
17 years. In 1587, Mary was found guilty of being associated with
the Babington Plot to murder Queen Elizabeth and was eventually beheaded
at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire.
In 1672, the castle was sold to Sir William Bruce of Balcaskie who
then proceeded to build Kinross House for himself on land between
Lochleven Castle and the town of Kinross. |
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Loch leven Castle
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| Glassin Tower |
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