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Historic Love and Marriages From Hell

Khalid Elhassan September 22, 2020 31 min

Jerry Lee Lewis - Myra Gale Brown — Jerry Lee Lewis and his child bride, back home after a disastrous overseas trip. The Commercial Appeal

14. Trying to Terrify His Pregnant Wife Into a Miscarriage

allan, william, 1782 1850; study for 'the murder of david rizzio' — Allan, William; Study for ‘The Murder of David Rizzio’; National Galleries of Scotland

While David Rizzio was getting murdered, Queen Mary was held at gunpoint by her husband’s henchmen. One of them pointed a pistol at her pregnant belly, while another threatened to stab her. By murdering the queen’s secretary in her presence, Darnley had not only sought to intimidate and bend his wife to his will, but also to shock the pregnant Mary into miscarrying.

Mary did not miscarry, and gave birth to the future king James in June, 1566. However, between seeing her psycho husband commit bloody murder in her presence, while his sidekicks threatened to visit deadly violence upon her and upon the baby in her womb, the queen was, understandably quite intimidated. If her love for Lord Darnley was not already dead, it died then. After the deed was done and it was all over, Mary was forced to pardon Rizzio’s murderers. However, Darnley would not get away with it for long.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.