Chapter 10 Summary

Robert edges closer to marrying Elizabeth, who tells him that if she does marry an Englishman, it will be Robert. Mary, Queen of Scots, is pregnant. Lord Darnley is seen as a brainless, arrogant fool. Mary confides in her Italian secretary Rizzio, who manages the queen's correspondence and negotiations with the Pope and King of Spain. A group of Protestant lords murders Rizzio in the queen's presence. Even though Mary is seven months' pregnant, she collects herself and her husband and escapes to Dunbar, where she has a son. She invites Elizabeth to be the godmother. Elizabeth accepts but sends a stand-in and a beautiful gift to the baby's christening.

Parliament meets at the end of September. Its most urgent concern is to make Elizabeth marry and appoint a successor. Elizabeth promised an answer to their petition about her marriage and succession at...