The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots
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Acknowledgements
It has been an incredible journey into the world of Mary and Elizabeth and the sixteenth century. I have often been told while writing this book that one is either Elizabeth or Mary – you can’t be both. You have to pick a side. I hope I have proved that you don’t!
I always wanted a time machine. As a child, I made one myself out of a large cardboard box and put my brother into it and took him travelling across time. I got in myself but I could never get it to work for me. And now, I have one in the form of the letters that I read. It is so exciting to read one of Mary’s original letters in the archives, touching the page where she once did. And it is wonderfully satisfying when, after an hour of trying to make it out, you finally realise what a particularly faded or scribbled sentence says. It feels like a key when you are truly unlocking the secrets. I am very grateful to the staff of all the archives who were very generous with their time, particularly at the British Library, where I spend so much happy time, and the Manuscripts Staff and the staff of the Public Record Office, Bodleian Library, and Lambeth Palace Archives, as well as the overseas archives I have visited in France and Russia. We are so fortunate that with their hard work, and that of their predecessors, these letters and archives are preserved for us to read.
I couldn’t have written this book – or any of my books – without the support of fellow historians, their friendship and scholarship. For the help, support and discussions about Mary, Elizabeth and the sixteenth century, I am grateful to the distinguished and brilliant historians and friends Tracy Borman, Helen Castor, Jessie Childs, Lisa Hilton, Dan Jones, Suzannah Lipscomb, Sarah Gristwood, Charles Spencer, Nicola Tallis, Melita Thomas and Alison Weir, all of whom kindly shared scholarship, points of view, very generously sent me notes and transcripts from their research, and saved me from many errors! I am so very fortunate that the superb historians Charles Spencer, Lisa Hilton, Nicola Tallis, Sarah Gristwood and my old tutorial partner Sarah Baker read the manuscript in its entirety and noted many points – and so I no longer call Mary a ‘hot potato’! I also learned that as well as being a Stuart himself, one of Charles Spencer’s relatives was actually at Mary’s execution – which is so fascinating to think – thank you to him for reading it. My father, Gwyn, read it through with legal precision and picked up many anachronisms and dubious word uses.
I am very grateful to Antonia Fraser, the queen and trailblazer of us all, for always being so kind. Alison Weir was one of the first historians I ever met, gives so much great advice and she has been the most supportive friend. Lisa Hilton gave me so much of her generous time in long conversations in Venice and deftly unknotted a particularly problematic Gordian narrative knot, has shared so much of her excellent scholarship and is always there for me.
I am grateful to all the scholars who have written on Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth over time. The scholarship is dazzling and I have been in awe of it. Antonia Fraser, John Guy, Linda Porter, Leanda de Lisle and Alison Weir in particular have all written magnificent books about the period and its legacy.
Hutchinson published my first book and turned me into an author and I am so grateful to be with them. Hutchinson have gone beyond the call of duty in their patience, kindness and time given to me – thank you to Jocasta Hamilton, Sarah Rigby, Isabelle Everington and Grace Long for their utter brilliance, editorial genius and enthusiasm for the book. Many thanks to the eagle-eyed copyeditors and proof readers. Thank you to Susan Sandon and all the team at Cornerstone for their support and friendship and for making the world of books such great fun. I am grateful to my agents, Robert Kirby and Ariella Feiner, who are always there for me with patience and friendship and kindness; and to my television agents, Sue, Sue, Helen and all at Knight Ayton for always cheering on my endeavours. Thank you also to my students who have engaged in such detail in the question of sixteenth-century queens while studying ‘History of Women’ with me. Thank to the staff at University of Reading for their friendship.
Marcus Gipps has read this book more times than he can count, kept track of the different versions and pages, made brilliant points and even scanned quite a lot of it page by page when things got close to the deadline – thank you and I am so grateful!
I am most grateful to the readers – without you, we authors wouldn’t exist! Thanks to all of you who read my books, come to my events, review my work and contact me on social media. To use an un-Elizabethan term, you rock.
Illustrations Insert
Originally married to Louis of Orléans, Duke of Longueville, Mary of Guise was a desirable prize for a European monarch after his early death – both Henry VIII and James V asked for her hand.
‘It will end with a lass’. Mary of Guise was James’s second wife and she bore him three children during their marriage, although their two sons died young on the same day. Mary, Queen of Scots was their surviving child.
Daughter of the Scottish ki
ng and the powerful Guise family of France, great-granddaughter of Henry VII and great-niece of Henry VIII, Mary was of the highest possible birth.
Henry VIII was determined to have an heir, and in the end had three children, all of whom went on to reign after his death: Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
Although Elizabeth’s father was initially fond of her, she spent a large part of her childhood living on a knife-edge, removed from the succession, constantly at risk.
Dauphin Francis had weak health, but he was kind and affectionate and his marriage to Mary was happy.
A portrait of Mary, aged around thirteen. ‘It is not possible to hope for more from a Princess on this earth.’
Mary’s Book of Hours and rosary. Mary infuriated her keepers by refusing to give up her rosary and crucifix while imprisoned – and she held tight to her crucifix when she was sent to her death.
Elizabeth’s mother-of-pearl locket ring, dating to around 1575. When closed, the ring shows ‘ER’ in diamonds. Underneath them, secretly, are paired portraits of Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn, the mother she could never acknowledge.
Elizabeth knew she had to make her mark as queen, and her coronation in 1559 was an expensive public display of her royal lineage.
Mary at about eighteen. Six feet tall, red-haired and beautifully dressed, Mary was striking and regal. But her robust looks belied a delicate health; she was often tormented by sickness, stomach problems and muscle pains.
Smallpox was frequently a deadly disease, and Elizabeth’s recovery from it in 1562 was seen as a blessing to be celebrated. Various medals were struck to commemorate her survival.
Mary turned Holyroodhouse into a graceful and beautiful court – and yet it became the location of some of the most horrific scenes of her life.
James Stewart, Earl of Moray was Mary’s half-brother, her trusted confidant and friend. She trusted him too much.
Lord Darnley aged seventeen or eighteen – handsome, charming and entirely corrupt.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was brilliant, witty, handsome and always by Elizabeth’s side. Mary was outraged by the offer of him as a husband.
The Lennox Jewel dates from around 1565 and was probably commissioned by the Countess of Lennox, mother of Lord Darnley. Legend has it that it played a significant and secretive role around the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots. Whatever the truth, it is comparable in terms of value and intricacy with Mary’s own court jewels – which were promptly raided by the lords and lost after her imprisonment.
Mary promoted her musician, David Rizzio, to the post of secretary, much to the fury of the court. He was suspected by everybody and the consequence was a murderous plot.
In a complicated and violent world, Mary hoped her bedchamber and adjoining rooms could be a place of peace.
Rizzio screamed and held onto Mary’s skirts but the conspirators dragged him away. One held a gun to the queen’s womb.
Despite the trauma of Rizzio’s murder, Mary gave birth to a young boy, James, in 1566 and her messenger rode post haste to give Elizabeth the news.
James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell at thirty. Three years later, Darnley would be dead and Bothwell would be prime suspect.
This incredible drawing by English spies of Darnley’s death on 1 February 1567 makes it clear that it was murder. Darnley and his servant are dead in the orchard with the rope, the chair, the dagger and the gown nearby. The provost’s lodging is reduced to rubble. In the upper left of the picture, Prince James sits up in his cot and demands vengeance.
This placard appeared in Edinburgh on 1 March 1567, a scandalous slur on the queen for she is depicted as a mermaid, denoting a prostitute. The sea plant she is holding represents the female genitalia, and the hare refers to Bothwell.
Elizabeth, majestic and all-powerful, aged around forty-two. Superbly political and intelligent, skilful and diplomatic, she was a brilliant stateswoman and she feared that Mary’s acts might undermine the reputation of all queens regnant.
Elizabeth’s letter to Mary of 24 February 1567, horrified at Darnley’s death. She tells her fellow queen to take immediate action as people were saying she was ‘looking through her fingers’ while the guilty escaped.
Dunbar – Mary gave this castle to Bothwell and then it became her prison.
Letter from Elizabeth to Mary, 21 December 1568, after the inquiry at York into Mary’s guilt, which used the so-called casket letters as evidence that Mary was not allowed to see. Elizabeth here demands that Mary answer the charges against her. But Mary, as a queen, refused to submit to the court.
Letter from Mary to Elizabeth from her imprisonment at Sheffield Castle, October 1571, begging Elizabeth to allow her to write to her son and permit her to speak to the French ambassador. Mary sent dozens of begging letters to Elizabeth – to no avail.
Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Naive Norfolk attempted to make Mary his fourth wife – and was terribly punished for doing so.
The fascinating list of Mary’s codes, taken from Chartley. Her son is signified by a small heart.
The fateful letter of July 1586 from Mary to Anthony Babington, intercepted by Walsingham’s man Phelippes, who then added the postscript at the bottom, asking for the identity of the other conspirators. This was the dynamite Cecil needed to put Mary on trial and deal with her once and for all.
When Mary was moved to the bleak and damp Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire, there was no getting away from it – she was a prisoner.
Mary’s trial at Fotheringhay Castle in 1586. The throne is empty – to show that the trial is in front of the English queen, even though she was not present.
Elizabeth claimed to have regretted signing the death warrant of her cousin, and punished those who carried it out with such speed. But once it had been signed, there was no going back.
Elizabeth at her most glorious in 1588, the queen who conquered the Spanish Armada and ended the Spanish threat. Rescue by Spain had been Mary’s dream – but the ships came two years too late.
Index
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
absolute monarchy, 5, 138, 342, 343
Act for the Queen’s Safety (1585), 295, 308, 320, 325
Act of Council (1567), 222, 239
Act of Exclusion (1562), 115
Act of Uniformity (1549), 70
Ainslie tavern bond, 190–1, 194, 196, 199, 201, 203, 245
Alexander III, King of Scotland, 17
Amboise conspiracy, 94, 98
Ancrum Moor, Battle of (1545), 28, 29
Ane Godlie Dreame (Melville), 19
Angus, Earl of, see Douglas, Archibald, 6th Earl of Angus
Anjou, Duke of, see Francis, Duke of Anjou
Anna d’Este, Duchess of Nemours, 265
Anne of Cleves, Queen of England, 65–6, 343
Anthony, Duke of Vendome, 8
Antoinette of Bourbon, Duchess of Guise, 14, 34–5, 42, 88, 101, 115
Argyll, Earl of (1507–58), see Campbell, Archibald, 4th Earl of Argyll
Argyll, Earl of (1532–73), see Campbell, Archibald, 5th Earl of Argyll
Arran, Earl of (1516–75), see Hamilton, James, 2nd Earl of Arran
Arran, Earl of (1532–1609), see Hamilton, James, 3rd Earl of Arran
Arundel, Earl of, see FitzAlan, Henry, 19th Earl of Arundel
Ascham, Roger, 66, 73, 75, 84
Ashley, Kat, 65, 66, 71–5, 84, 85, 130
Askew, Anne, 67
Aston, Sir Walter, 303, 304
Atholl, Earl of, see Stewart, John, 4th Earl of Atholl
Aylmer, John, 126
Babington, Anthony, 300–3, 305–6, 307, 312
Babington plot, 300–3, 305–6, 307, 311–12, 318, 323
Bacon, Nicholas, 250
Bagehot, Walter, 342
Bailly, Charles, 272
Balfour, James, 178–9, 182, 187, 191, 203–4, 205, 208–9, 223,
286–7
Ballard, John, 300–1, 303, 313
Beale, Robert, 277–8, 320, 325–6, 327
Beaton, Andrew, 282
Beaton, David, Cardinal of Scotland, 21–5, 27–8, 34
Beaton, James, Archbishop of Glasgow, 176, 182, 183, 188, 201, 204
Beaton, John, 228
Beaton, Mary, 33–4, 107–8, 141, 152, 163–4, 184, 248
Beauchamp, Viscount, see Seymour, Edward, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp
Bedford, Earl of, see Russell, Francis, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Bedingfield, Sir Henry, 82–3
Berwick, Treaty of (1560), 94, 109
Bess of Hardwick, 260, 264, 279–80, 291
Bethune, Elizabeth, 109, 154
Bethune, Janet, 23
Blackadder, William, 215
Blount, Thomas, 132–3
Boleyn, Anne, Queen of England, 19, 45, 46, 49, 53–60, 76, 82, 86, 119, 121, 342
and Mary I, 54–5
birth of Elizabeth, 50–1
coronation, 49–50, 123
relationship with Elizabeth, 51–2, 53, 55, 58, 63, 119, 121
trial and execution, 61–2, 316–17
Boleyn, George, 59
Boleyn, Mary, 59
Bolton Castle, Yorkshire, 240, 260