The Scottish Protestant nobles, encouraging Darnley’s jealousy, view Riccio as an arrogant parvenu and desire his removal as the preliminary to the virtual deposition of Mary.

A group of lords—the fourth Earl of Morton, Lord Ruthven, and other armed men—acting with the support of both Darnley and Maitland, on March 9, 1566, drag Riccio screaming from Mary’s skirts in her supper room at Holyrood Palace before callously stabbing him to death.

Mary is six months pregnant; Darnley apparently suspects Riccio of being the agent of her condition.