Did you know....

 that one of Scotland's greatest unsolved mysteries concerns the paternity of King James VI? James, himself, was unsure of his legitimacy because of the common knowledge of the shocking murder of David Rizzio, Italian secretary to his Mother, Mary Queen of Scots, by her Consort, his legal Father, Henry, Lord Darnley, whose envy and jealousy prompted the unwarranted act. Mary and Darnley were Stewarts and cousins, yet the portraits of James VI are said to show a complete lack of Stewart facial characteristics. One portrait, however, does show a startling likeness to a portrait of John, second Earl of Mar, whose Mother, the Countess of Mar, was one of Queen Mary's ladies-in-waiting, and who was with child during the same period as the Queen. As was customary in those times, she was given complete charge of the Royal Infant during his first six months-from birth to christening-and her devotion to the child has been recorded in the writings of more than one of her contemporaries. The mystery was compounded when, in 1830, during repairs to the Queen's apartments in Edinburgh Castle, it was rumored that a tiny oaken casket was discovered behind the wainscoting. Within, wrapped in the remains of a silk coverlet embroidered with the letter "J,' were the bones of an infant. This claim brought forth numerous speculations: the illegitimate child of a court lady? The victim of an infanticide or the solution to the old mystery with the rather logical theory that the Baby James had died during his Mother's two-month absence on her tour of the Borders. the Countess surreptitiously substituting her own lately delivered child for the Prince? After such an interval Mary might easily have been deceived, and from his character and conduct Darnley was unlikely to have been so observant. It is a fact that King James VI held a life-long, though unstable and stormy, friendship with John, second earl of Mar, whom he resembled, and who, under such circumstances, could have been his elder
brother. Unfortunately for historians, the Commandant of the Castle garrison is said to have ordered the relics immediately replaced and the opening sealed. And so the ancient wall of Edinburgh Castle still holds the secret: Fact or Fancy?