It is surprising how often Lust intervenes in simple human situations, wreaking disaster – and that includes in history. For example, the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots after the death of her first husband, the King of France, might seem an easy matter: she being not only young and beautiful but also endowed with a kingdom. But of course it had to be a marriage which was, as it were, politically correct. And this is where a pang in a human heart played its part.
When Mary Queen of Scots first saw her young cousin Henry, Lord Darnley, she described him glowingly in the language of her time as “the properest and best proportioned long man that ever she had seen”. In other words, she felt lust. The emphasis was on the word “long”. Mary herself was exceptionally tall for a woman, possibly 5’9” or 5’10” when women were, on average, a foot shorter. Her troubles dancing with shorter partners can only be imagined.
