Question: Alliegence of Scottish Earls

During the war between Protestants and Catholics at the end of Mary Queen of Scot's Reign, can anyone tell me which lords fell into which factions? So far, I know that

Catholic Faction

James Hamilton 2nd Earl of Arran, Duke of Châtellerault (Could be described as French faction)

Protestant Faction

James Stewart Earl of Moray
Archibald Campbell Earl of Argyll (initially Queen's Faction, reconsiled with King's Faction).
Matthew Stewart 4th Earl of Lennox. (Could be described as English Faction)
 
Possibly not. I fear I'm going to have to go through the whole peerage to find out. (Mind you, need to do that anyway to find seats.

I'd be happy to spend some of my spare time hunting, but I need to know what exact period you are referencing here? Late in Mary's reign has several meanings because of how it all turned out..

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Well, the PoD involves no James VI. So I'm mainly looking for strong Catholics, Strong Protestants, Francophiles and Francophones.
 
The trouble is that the Scots aristocracy were fiercely independent and highly clannish and that clan affiliation often crossed religious and political lines.
The independence had either been the cause or a sympton of the cause of the fact that virtually no Stuart King of Scotland had succeeded to the throne as an adult.
In the 16th century you have the added arguement and rivalry between the Earls of Lennox and Arran (Hamilton) (Mary Stuart's accession meant that the Hamilton Earl's of Arran technically fell heirs to the throne however the Stewart Earls of Lennox believed they had the better claim and a further problem was that Lennox had taken the English side in the 1540's and was married to Mary's half aunt Lady Margaret Douglas.)

Mary herself alienated her biggest Catholic allies the Huntley's within a year of returning to Scotland. Bothwell before the Darnley marriage for example was a Protestant Earl but was fiercely anti english, not keen on the french either but was loyal to the Queen.

If you want rid of James V - then your best option is Elizabeth refuses permission for Darnley to leave England for Scotland (not unlikely - she popped his mother in the tower often enough through the early 1560's) or kill Mary off in childbirth and then you have a civil war with Lennox (despite his suspect catholicism and his half Tudor wife) getting English backing (his wife is now Elizabeth's nearest heir) but more to the point his son is already technically King of Scots and the Earl of Arran (whose son is mad).
Elizabeth's council are going to be frantic either way as both candidates are considered Catholic (although Arran switched sides more time than i've had hot dinners and Lennox might have thought the crown worth a dramatic conversion) - Elizabeth's advantage is that she still has control of the new would be Queen of Scots (she never let the Countess of Lennox travel north after her son married Mary - one reason why he might have gone so off the rails as it was widely thought his mother was the only person he listened too) and her youngest son Charles Stuart.
 
Oh I know about Lennox and Hamilton. And really it's a miracle that having her secretary murdered while he was clinging to her skirts didn't cause Mary to Miscarry.

As far as I can plan out, I've got two large factions forming:

The Duke's Faction: Clan Hamilton, Staunch Catholics and Legitamists, universal support prevented due to strong Francophile leanings
The Earl's Faction: The Earl of Moray, Atholl, Argyll and the Protestant Lords. While Moray is technically an illegitimate son of James IV (V?) he's old, dosen't have an insane son, and though willing to accept some degree of English help, is not slavishly following Elizabeth.

Minor factions:

The Queen's Faction: A few earls staying loyal to Mary
Lennox Faction: Though they have a better claim to the throne than Moray, too close to England for most people. Not helped by the fact that the Earl's second son has married into the Cavendishes (as OTL, but with the Queen's blessing) in a thinly veiled attempt to produce an Anglophile heir.
Neutrals: Self evident.
 
Well she was around six months pregnant at Rizzio's death so a miscarriage at that late stage was rather unlikely, premature labour is a better bet if you want rid of the infant.
Incidentally what date are you discussing now for these factions - assuming Mary loses the child sometime between March and June 1566.
Without a direct heir the aristocracy are going to bide their time and there will be considerable pressure on Mary to allow Darnley or King Henry as he was known (though Mary kept resisting offering him the crown matrimonial) back into her bed. Assuming she wants to escape then its likely that she will fall in with Bothwell as in OTL which will be the ruin of her. The question is what next for your factions to work out and who do you intend to put on the vacant Scots throne - Hamilton is the heir at law the problem is he switched Protestant and pro English during Mary's infancy to Catholic and pro French when he as Regent arranged theFrench marriage he switched back again in 59 joining the Lords of the Congregation in 1565 he fell out with the Queen over her marriage and withdrew to France - his heir James was declared insane before your point of departure but his second son John is very much a possibility for you,
 
Ok, so there'll be about a decade in which the nobles attempt to get a viable heir, and then I'm thinking a period of about 30 years during which the nobles fight in a manner similar to the War of the Roses.
 
Interesting but i think quite difficult - Arran was the named heir during the reign of James V and during Mary's lifetime *until the birth of James VI*. his claim was undoubtedly the strongest. Also the wars of the roses in England were sporadic battles seperated between years of relative peace between rival monarchs with clear dynastic claims i don't think it translates well north of the border. Given that the Scots aristocracy already spent much of their time jostling and fighting each other its not much of a change for them anyway.
Whilst Mary lives there's the chance of a direct Stuart heir and there was no move to depose her despite her religion prior to the birth of James VI and the Darnley murder/Bothwell marriage. So she has to die preferably in childbed - then it becomes interesting - because her husband Darnley has a strong dynastic claim plus as her widower could legally be regarded as her heir, her heir could also be considered to be Arran and under Scots Law was certainly the strongest, also Charles IX of France is her heir under the codicils she signed on her marriage to Francis of France which stated that if she died childless her rights passed to the descendants of her father in law Henri II of France.
 
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