The True Life of Mary Stuart: Queen of Scots
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Mary was the unluckiest ruler in British history. A more glittering and charismatic queen could not be imagined, and yet Scotland was a small and divided country, prey to its larger neighbors. On top of this, the Protestant Reformation had combined with the factionalism of the lords to create a moment when the monarchy was more than usually vulnerable. “Mary Queen of Scots got her head chopped off” is still a familiar children’s skipping rhyme in Scotland. But to let the end of her life overshadow the whole is an injustice. The odds were stacked against her from the beginning.
In England and throughout the English-speaking world, Mary is known to almost everyone, even if they do not realize why. One of the best known children’s nursery rhymes relates to her:*
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And pretty maids all in a row.
The garden refers to the ornamental garden at the palace of Holyroodhouse. The silver bells are the Sanctus bells used in Mary’s private chapel at Mass. The cockleshells refer to the pilgrim badges beloved of all devout Catholics, especially those obtained at the shrine of Saint James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. And the pretty maids are the four Maries, Mary’s playmates and companions for as long as she could remember, who shared so many of her joys and sorrows.
To begin with, Mary’s enemies won the argument. While she was alive, Buchanan was Scotland’s (and England’s) official historian. Thereafter, the debate has raged and will continue to do so for as long as she exerts a fascination on biographers. When Blackwood described her as “by barbarous and tyrannical cruelty extinct,” he completely missed the point. If Elizabeth had triumphed in life, Mary would triumph in death. Far from disappearing into oblivion, as Cecil had intended, she rose from the ashes to become one of Britain’s most celebrated and beguiling rulers. In choosing the phoenix as her last emblem, she had written her own epitaph: “In my end is my beginning.”
Chronology
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
1542 Dec. 8. Mary born at Linlithgow
Dec. 14. James V dies at Falkland
1543 Sept. 9. Mary crowned Queen of Scots at Stirling
1547 Sept. 10. Battle of Pinkie
1548 July. Mary sails for France
Aug. 13. Mary arrives in France
1558 April 19. Mary betrothed to the Dauphin Francis April 24. Mary marries the dauphin
1559 July 10. Mary becomes queen of France
1560 June 11. Mary’s mother, Mary of Guise, dies at Edinburgh
Dec. 5. Mary’s husband, Francis II of France, dies at Orléans
1561 April. Mary meets her half-brother, Lord James Stuart, at St.-Dizier
Aug. 19. Mary disembarks at Leith, near Edinburgh
1562 April. Bothwell imprisoned on spurious charges
May–July. Meeting between Mary and Elizabeth planned
Aug. Mary’s progress in northeastern Scotland
Aug. 28. Bothwell escapes and goes into exile
Sept. Mary creates Lord James Stuart to be Earl of Moray
Oct. 28. Battle of Corrichie
1563 Feb. Chastelard hides under Mary’s bed and then enters her closet; Chastelard executed on Feb. 22
Feb. 13. Mary sends Maitland to London and Paris about her proposed marriage to Don Carlos
Feb. 18. Mary’s uncle the Duke of Guise is assassinated
Aug. Cardinal of Lorraine proposes Archduke Charles as husband to Mary, but she rejects him
1564 March. Mary urged to marry Robert Dudley, later Earl of Leicester
July. Mary’s progress to the far north
Sept. Castelnau’s mission to Elizabeth and Mary; Lennox returns to Scotland
1565 Feb. 17. Mary meets Darnley at Wemyss
July 19. Bothwell recalled by Mary
July 29. Mary marries Henry, Lord Darnley
Aug.–Sept. Chase-about Raid
Sept. 17. Bothwell lands at Eyemouth
1566 March 9. David Rizzio murdered at Holyrood
June 9. Mary summons the lords to hear her will
June 19. Prince James (later James VI of Scotland and James I of England) born at Edinburgh Castle
Oct. 15/16. Mary rides from Jedburgh to the Hermitage
Oct. 17. Mary falls ill at Jedburgh
Dec. 17. Baptism of James at Stirling
Dec. 24. Mary pardons the Rizzio plotters
1567 Jan. Darnley is treated for syphilis at Glasgow
Jan. 20/21. Mary rides to Glasgow to visit Darnley
Feb. 10. Darnley assassinated at Kirk o’Field
April 12. Bothwell acquitted of Darnley’s murder
April 19/20. Ainslie’s Tavern Bond
April 24. Mary abducted by Bothwell at Almond Bridge
May 15. Mary marries Bothwell
June 15. Mary and Bothwell confront the lords at Carberry Hill; Mary surrenders and Bothwell flees
June 17. Mary imprisoned at Lochleven Castle
July 24. Mary forced to abdicate
July 29. James VI crowned at Stirling
July/Aug. Bothwell sails to the Orkneys and Shetland, then escapes to Norway and Denmark
Aug. 22. Moray proclaimed regent
1568 Jan. Bothwell taken to Malmö Castle
May 2. Mary escapes from Lochleven
May 13. Mary defeated at the battle of Langside
May 16. Mary crosses the Solway Firth to Workington in Cumberland
May 18. Mary is at Carlisle Castle
July 13. Mary leaves Carlisle for Bolton Castle in Wensleydale
Oct.–Dec. Commissioners to examine Mary’s “guilt” meet at York and Westminster, concluding at Hampton Court; Casket Letters produced by Moray
1569 Jan. 10. Mary neither found guilty nor exonerated
Jan. 26. Mary sets out for Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire
April 20. Mary taken to Wingfield Manor, Derbyshire
May 25. Mary moved to Chatsworth
June 1. Mary returns to Wingfield
Sept. 21. Mary returns to Tutbury
Nov. 25. Mary arrives in Coventry
1570 Jan. 2. Mary returns to Tutbury
May 24/25. Mary moved to Chatsworth
Oct. Mary visited by Cecil
Nov. 28. Mary moved to Sheffield Castle
1571 Sept. Ridolfi plot discovered by Cecil
[Nov.–Dec.] The case implicating Mary in Darnley’s murder published by Cecil in imitation Scots in Detection of the doings of Mary Queen of Scots . . . , including Casket Letters
1573 April 25. Mary taken to Sheffield Lodge (or Manor) in Sheffield Park
June. Bothwell moved to Dragsholm Castle
Aug. 21/22. Mary sets out for Buxton
Sept. 27. Mary moves to Chatsworth
Nov. Mary returns to Sheffield Castle
1574 June. Mary at Buxton again
July 9. Mary returns to Sheffield
1575 June–July. Mary at Buxton
1576 March. Mary moves to Sheffield Lodge
June. Mary at Buxton again
July 30. Mary returns to Sheffield
1577 Jan. Mary back at Sheffield Lodge
Feb. 11. Mary makes her will
May. Mary at Chatsworth
July. Mary back at Sheffield Lodge
Sept. Mary at Chatsworth
Nov. Mary returns to Sheffield Castle
1578 April 14. Bothwell dies at Dragsholm Castle
Aug.–Sept. Mary at Chatsworth
Oct. 5. Mary at Sheffield Lodge
1579 June. Mary at Chatsworth
Sept. Mary at Sheffield
1580 May. Mary at Sheffield Lodge
July 26. Mary goes to Buxton
Aug. 16. Mary returns to Sheffield
1581 May. Mary at Sheffield Lodge
July. Mary at Chatsworth
1582 June. Mary goes to Buxton
July. Mary returns to Sheffield
1583 Throckmorton plot
; 1584 July. Mary at Buxton
Aug. 8. Mary returns to Sheffield
Aug. Sir Ralph Sadler replaces Shrewsbury as Mary’s custodian
Sept. 2. Mary taken to Wingfield
Oct. Bond of Association
1585 Jan. 4. Sir Amyas Paulet first named as Mary’s custodian
Jan. 14. Mary arrives at Tutbury Castle
April. Paulet arrives at Tutbury
Dec. 24. Mary is taken to Chartley
1586 Spring–early summer. Babington plot
July 17. Mary writes to Babington
Aug. 11. Mary taken to Tixall, her papers and ciphers seized
Aug. 25. Mary brought to Chartley
Sept. 25. Mary arrives at Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire
Oct. 8. Commission for Mary’s trial named
Oct. 11. Commissioners arrive at Fotheringhay
Oct. 12–15. Commission sits at Fotheringhay
Oct. 14–15. Mary appears before the commission
Oct. 15. Commission adjourned to Star Chamber
Oct. 25. Commission sits in Star Chamber, finds Mary guilty
Mid-Nov. Sir Drue Drury appointed to assist Paulet
1587 Feb. 1. Elizabeth signs Mary’s death warrant
Feb. 2. Elizabeth expresses reservations about the warrant
Feb. 3. Privy Council meets and decides to dispatch the warrant without telling Elizabeth
Feb. 7. Robert Beale and the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent arrive at Fotheringhay and tell Mary of her planned execution
EVENTS IN THE BRITISH ISLES AND FRANCE
1509 Accession of Henry VIII
1513 Death of James IV of Scotland; minority of James V
1542 English defeat the Scots at Solway Moss; death of James V; minority of Mary Queen of Scots
1543 Treaty of Greenwich between England and Scotland
1544 Henry VIII begins Rough Wooing of Scotland, campaign of terror to unite the crowns by marrying Mary to the future Edward VI
1546 Cardinal Beaton assassinated
1547 Death of Henry VIII; accession of Edward VI; death of Francis I; accession of Henry II; English defeat of the Scots at the battle of Pinkie
1553 Death of Edward VI; accession of Mary Tudor
1558 Death of Mary Tudor; accession of Elizabeth I
1559 Elizabethan religious settlement; treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis; death of Henry II; accession of Francis II; revolt of the Protestant Lords of the Congregation against Mary of Guise; Cecil sends covert aid to the lords; Bothwell steals money sent by Cecil
1560 Elizabeth sends expeditionary force to Scotland; treaty of Edinburgh; Scottish official Reformation; Protestant Kirk created; Catholic Mass abolished; death of Francis II; accession of Charles IX
1562 Elizabeth almost dies of smallpox; English intervention in the first War of Religion in France
1569 Northern Rising against Elizabeth I and in favor of Mary Queen of Scots
1570 Papal bull Regnans in Excelsis excommunicates Elizabeth and declares her deposed; assassination of the Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland; Earl of Lennox appointed regent
1571 Ridolfi plot to overthrow Elizabeth; Lennox killed and succeeded by the Earl of Mar
1572 Execution of the Duke of Norfolk; death of Mar; Earl of Morton appointed regent of Scotland; death of John Knox; massacre of St. Bartholomew in France
1574 Death of Charles IX; accession of Henry III
1578 Personal rule of James VI begins
1581 Trial and execution of Morton for Darnley’s murder
1583 Throckmorton plot to assassinate Elizabeth discovered
1584 William of Orange assassinated
1585 Elizabeth sends aid to the Dutch and so precipitates war with Philip II of Spain
1586 Babington plot to kill Elizabeth implicates Mary
1588 Philip II sends the Armada against Elizabeth
1589 Death of Catherine de Medici; assassination of Henry III
Notes
Abbreviated citations of printed primary and secondary materials identify the works listed in the Bibliography, where full references are given. For example, Cust (1903) refers to L. Cust, Notes on the Authentic Portraits of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1903); Dawson (1986) refers to “Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley and Anglo-Scottish Relations in 1565,” International History Review 8 (1986), pp. 1–24. Manuscripts are cited by the call numbers used in the relevant archive, record office or library. In citing manuscripts or rare books, the following abbreviations are used:
AN Archives Nationales, Paris
BL British Library, London
BNF Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
CP Cecil Papers, Hatfield House (available on microfilm at the BL and Folger Shakespeare Library)
CUL Cambridge University Library
FF Ancien Fonds Français
Folger Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
HEH Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Lambeth Lambeth Palace Library, London
MS Manuscript
NAF Nouvelles Acquisitions Français
NAS National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh
NLS National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
PRO Public Record Office, Kew
SP State Papers
Note on dates: In giving dates, the old style has been retained, but the year is assumed to have begun on January 1 and not on Lady Day, the feast of the Annunciation (i.e., March 25), which was by custom the first day of the calendar year in France, Spain and Italy until 1582, in Scotland until 1600, and in England, Wales and Ireland until 1752.
Note on transcription: The spelling and orthography of primary sources in quotations are always given in modernized form. Modern punctuation and capitalization are provided where there is none in the original manuscript.
PROLOGUE
The most reliable English sources for Mary’s execution and its setting are those from Beale’s collected papers in BL, Additional (hereafter Add.) MS 48027, fos. 636–41, 642–58v. These include a copy of the official report of the earls and their assistants (fos. 649v–50). Robert Wingfield’s eyewitness report to Cecil is from Dack (1889), where authorship is discussed and the narrative printed from the Loseley Park MS. Other copies are BL, Lansdowne MS 51, fos. 99–102; Ellis (1824–46), 2nd series, vol. 3.
The fullest English descriptions of Mary’s clothes are from BL, Add. MS 48027, fos. 658r–v, and the eyewitness report of Edward Capell (Shrewsbury’s servant) at BL, Stowe MS 159, fos. 108–11. Beale’s ink and pencil drawing of the execution is now'recatalogued at BL, Add. MS 48196 C, and is printed by Cust (1903). Lambeth, Fairhurst MS 4267, fos. 21–32, is a full summary of the context and proceedings. Other material is from PRO, SP 53/21, nos. 9–10, 13, 16, 20; BL, Harleian MS 290; BL, Cotton (hereafter Cott.) MS, Caligula (hereafter Calig.) C.9; BL, Cott. MS, Titus C.7; the appendix to Nicolas (1823); Morris (1874); Collinson (1987a). Some of these documents are summarized in CSP Scotland (1898–1969), vol. 9. A version of the execution from a contemporary commonplace book kept by members of a family in Ledbury, Herefordshire, is Folger MS, E.a.1, fos. 21v–22.
The best contemporary French account is the “Vray Rapport,” written by one of Mary’s attendants and printed by Teulet (1862), vol. 4, which is essential for Mary’s dress. Also useful, but less accurate, as he was not present in the great hall, is the report of Bourgoing, Mary’s physician, printed by Chantelauze (1876). A French translation of Andrews’s account is printed by Labanoff (1839). The French ambassador’s report to Henry III is printed by Strickland (1844), vol. 2.
1. THE FIRST YEAR
The key political documents are from Sadler State Papers (1809), vol. 1; Hamilton Papers (1890–92), vols. 1–2; Letters and Papers (1862–1932), vols. 17–18; Foreign Correspondence (1923). Valuable secondary accounts are Hay Fleming (1897), Bonner (1998), Merriman (2000). The best studies of Mary of Guise are by Marshall (1977) and Ritchie (2002).
Useful background works are Ca
meron (1998), Edington (1994), Wormald (1981 and 1985), Goodare (1999), Guy (1988), Elton (1977). More anecdotal, but still worth consulting, are Mignet (1852); Strickland (1888), vol. 1; Ruble (1891); Stoddart (1908). For the Guise family and their affinities, I have relied on Croze (1866), Romier (191314) and Carroll (1998). The notes in Lettres Inédites de Dianne de Poitiers (1866) fill in gaps. Standard accounts of France include Knecht (1994), Garrisson (1995), Potter (1995a).
2. THE ROUGH WOOINGS
The outstanding treatment of the Rough Wooings is Merriman (2000). Further detail, notably from French sources, is from Bonner (1998). The documents are from Letters and Papers (1862–1932), vols. 18–21; State Papers (1830–52), vol. 5; Foreign Correspondence (1923); Hamilton Papers (1890–92), vol. 2; Diurnal of Occurrents (1833); APS (1814–75), vol. 2; PCS, 1st series (1877–98), vol. 1. Hay Fleming (1897) is brief but to the point; Sanderson (1986) is essential for Beaton’s murder, and key documents are from State Papers, vol. 5; Letters and Papers, vol. 21, pt. 1. Bonner (1996) is definitive on the recovery of St. Andrews Castle. Ruble (1891), Stoddart (1908) and Bryce (1907) are useful for Mary’s departure for France. Somerset’s links to Cecil, and Cecil’s to Knox, under Edward VI are worked out from Revised CSPD, Edward VI (1992).
3. ARRIVAL IN FRANCE
Mary’s character unfolds when her correspondence begins. Her letters, very few in number before 1553, increase rapidly thereafter. They are cited from the edition by Labanoff (1844); those for 1550 are from vols. 1 and 7. Letters written to Mary of Guise are taken from Foreign Correspondence (1925).
The organization and personnel of Mary’s household were worked out from the manuscripts in Paris: BNF, MS NAF 9175; BNF, MSS FF 7974, 11207, 25752.