The mystery of Lord Darnley's murder

THE story of Lord Darnley's murder is mired in mystery, as the culprit was never caught.

What is known is that a band of nobles undertook to free Mary from her marriage to Darnley.

Details of the conspiracy are not clear, but at two o'clock in the morning of 9 February, 1567, Darnley's lodgings at Kirk O'Field were reduced to rubble by a gunpowder explosion.

Darnley must have suspected something, as he and his valet managed to escape the building before the explosion.

Both men, dressed in nightgowns, were found dead, apparently strangled, in the garden. No hard evidence about precisely what occurred has ever been found. Mary's third husband - James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell - was later acquitted of any involvement in the murders.