[6] Rizzio (whose name appears in Italian records as Davide Riccio di Pancalieri in Piemonte) went first from Turin to the Court of the Duke of Savoy, then at Nice.

However, finding no opportunities for advancement there, he found means in 1561 to get himself admitted into the train of Carlo Ubertino Solaro, Count of Moretta, who was about to lead an embassy to Scotland.

Towards the end of 1564, having grown wealthy under her patronage, he became the queen's secretary for relations with France, after the previous occupant of the post had retired.

[20] According to the report of a French diplomat, Paul de Foix, Darnley discovered Rizzio in the closet of Mary's bedchamber at Holyrood house in the middle of the night dressed only in a fur gown over his shirt.

[21] George Buchanan included a similar story in his History, that Darnley had a key to a secondary door to Mary's bedchamber, but found it locked or barred against him.

This account also focusses on Rizzio's presence in Mary's bedchamber:Since yon fellow Davie fell in credit and familiarity with your Majesty, you regarded me not, neither treated me nor entertained me after your wonted fashion; for every day before dinner, you would come to my chamber and pass time with me, and thus long time ye have not done done so; and when I come to your Majesty's chamber, you bear me little company, except Davie had been the third "marrow" [companion]: and after supper your Majesty hath a use to sit at cards with the said Davie till one or two of the clock after midnight; and this is the entertainment that I have had of you this long time.

[23]The chronicle account, the Historie of James the Sext, tells the story in a different way, asserting that Mary's secretary, William Maitland of Lethington, was jealous of Rizzio's increasing power.

[30] According to a letter of Thomas Randolph, Rizzio took part in a costumed masque in February 1566, celebrating the arrival of Nicolas d'Angennes, seigneur de Rambouillet, who brought the Order of Saint Michael for Darnley.

He was said to have £2,000 Sterling in gold coins, good clothing including 18 pairs of velvet hose, and his chamber at Holyroodhouse was well-furnished with a variety of hand-guns described as daggs, pistolets, and arquebuses, and 22 swords.

Mary, Rizzio, Jean Stewart, Countess of Argyll, Robert Beaton of Criech and Arthur Erskine were seated at the supper table.

[33] The supper room, which still exists as part of the bedchamber, and was then "a cabinet about XII foot square, in the same a little low reposinge bedde, and a table" according to an account of the murder written by Francis, Earl of Bedford, and Thomas Randolph.

Mary would allege that one of the intruders, Patrick Bellenden (brother of the Lord Justice Clerk), pointed his gun at her pregnant belly [35] while Andrew Kerr of Faldonsyde threatened to stab her.

[39] Buchanan states that shortly afterwards his body was removed by the Queen's orders and deposited in the tomb of the kings of Scotland in Holyrood Abbey.

The guard around her was relaxed and at midnight the next day they escaped and she rode behind Arthur Erskine of Blackgrange, master of her stable, to Seton Palace and then to safety at Dunbar Castle.

De Foix seems at first to have been misled about the events, thinking that Darnley had killed Rizzio because he found such a lowly servant having an adulterous relationship with Mary, an idea not present in the reports of the murder.

[47] Rizzio's brother, Joseph, arrived in Scotland with Michel de Castelnau and was appointed secretary in David's place by 25 April 1566.

The murder of Rizzio and the subsequent downfall of Darnley form the main subject of the 1830 play Maria Stuart by Juliusz Słowacki.

[53] John Carmichael of Meadowflat, later Captain of Crawford, was given a remission or pardon in 1574 for his "art and part" in the detention of Mary at Holyrood from the 9 to 11 March 1566.