RIZZIO, DAVID, an Italian of considerable ability and accomplishments, who, in the reign of Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, came to Edinburgh in the train of the ambassa dor from Savoy. His first employment at court was as a musician; but his skill and fidelity led Mary to advance him to the post of her French secretary about the time of her marriage with Darnley; and in this situation he was believed to possess considerable influence over the queen. His advancement was distasteful to the nobles in general, but more especially to the party of the reformers, who suspected him of intriguing with the papal court. He became obnoxious on other grounds to Darnley and his father, tho earl of Lennox. The former, who had for a time been on the most friendly footing with him, was easily led to believe not merely that he was the real obstacle to his favorite design of having the crown settled on him and his heirs, but also that he had supplanted him in the affections of the queen. In this belief he entered into a compact with the leaders of the Protestant party—including Murray, Ruthven, Morton—to assassinate Rizzi°, and slay even in the queen's palace and presence whoever opposed them. Darn Icy formally bound himself to prevent the attainder of the conspirators, and procure their pardon, and to support and advance the Protestant faith, while the conspirators in return obliged themselves to procure the wished-for settlement of the crown in his favor.
Accordingly, on Mar. 9, 1566, when Mary, then seven months with child, was sitting at supper in a small cabinet adjoining her bedroom, at Holyrood, attended by the countess of Argyle; the, commendator of Holyrood, Beaton, master of the household, Arthur Erskine, captain of the guard, and Rizzio. the king led the conspirators up a secret stair: while the earl of Morton, with a troop of soldiers, seized the gates of the palace. Led by the king, the conspirators burst into the cabinet, overturned the table, and threw. themselves on Rizzi°, who sprang for protection behind the queen. Ruthven drew his dagger; Ker of Fawdonside, it is said, held a pistol to the queen's breast; while George Do: () Cglas, natural son to the earl of Angus, snatching the king's dagger, stabbed Rizzi over the queen's shoulder, and dragging him from the cabinet, dispatched him in a pool of blood in the adjoining apartment, with fifty-six wounds. This murder was the first of the series of tragic events in which Mary queen of Scots was involved. John Knox, in his history of the Reformation, characterizes it as a "a just act, and most worthy of all praise."