by John Guy
Upsettlington, treaty of, [>]
d’Urfé, Claude, [>], [>], [>]
Vaucelles, truce of, [>]
Villegagnon, Nicolas de, [>], [>], [>]
Vives, Juan Luis, [>]
Walker, William, [>], [>]
Walsingham, Sir Francis, [>]–[>], [>], [>]
mole recruited by, [>], [>]–[>]
and Ridolfi, [>], [>]–[>]
and conspirators’ code, [>]
double agents of, [>]
Cecil to on frustration with Elizabeth, [>]
Mary’s letters intercepted by, [>]–[>], [>], [>]
pretense of confidentiality ended, [>]
Elizabeth sends on mission to Scotland, [>]
Paulet to on Mary’s resilience, [>]
and Babington plot, [>]–[>]
Mary’s documents taken to, [>]
and severity of Mary’s arrest, [>]
and Mary’s trial, [>], [>], [>], [>]
and manner of Mary’s execution, [>], [>]
private and public duties of, [>]
and Mary’s notes for incriminating letter, [>]
and public proclamation of Mary’s death sentence, [>]
and warrant for Mary’s execution, [>]
and Mary’s execution, [>], [>]
Camden’s knowledge of papers of, [>]
death of, [>]
Wars of Religion (France), [>], [>]–[>], [>]
Mary’s position on, [>]
agreement on peace and unity against English in Normandy, [>]
and Moray’s revolt, [>]
renewal of (1584), [>]
St. Bartholomew’s Day massacres, [>]–[>]
Warwick, Earl of, [>]
Westminster Abbey, Mary’s tomb in, [>], [>]
as shrine of canonized saint, [>]
Westmorland, Countess of, [>]
Westmorland, Earl of, [>], [>], [>]
Wharton, Lord, [>]
White, Nicholas, [>]
“White queen,” Mary as, [>]
Whittingham Castle, [>]–[>], [>]
Will
of Henry VIII, [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]
of Mary Queen of Scots, [>]–[>]
William of Orange, assassination of, [>]
Wilson (pirate), [>]
Wilson, Thomas, [>]
Windsor Castle, [>]–[>]
Wingfield, Robert, [>], [>], [>]
Wingfield Manor, [>], [>]
Wishart, George, [>], [>]
Witch, reported prophecies of, [>]
Women, at French court, [>]
Women rulers
Knox on
and forceful overthrow, [>]
stereotype of, [>], [>], [>]
rules for, [>]
classic dilemma for, [>]
and Mary, [>], [>]
Wood, John, [>]
Yaxley, Francis, [>], [>], [>], [>]
About the Author
JOHN GUY, formerly provost and history professor at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, is a Renaissance historian and a fellow in history at Clare College, University of Cambridge. He has written several books, including a best-selling textbook, Tudor England, and he consults for the BBC.
Footnotes
* A bond (or “band”) was a feudal contract or indenture promising loyalty, support, protection and service, usually for life.
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* Archaic usage introducing the infinitive, literally “for to advance.”
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* Deuil, or “dole,” is the French word for mourning clothes. The deuil blanc was a white wired hood or cap to which a wide gauze veil was attached, enveloping the body from the top of the neck down. A white streamer attached to the back of the cap hung down loosely.
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* “Kirk” is the Scottish word for “church,” before and after the Reformation. It designates either a building or the institutional church, but is used in this book chiefly to mean the Protestant Reformed Church.
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* Jack: a quilted leather tunic worn by foot soldiers, usually plated with iron. Knapscall: a headpiece or helmet.
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* Bothwell’s sister is variously called Jane, Jean and Janet in the sources.
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* It seems that using ropes and chairs was the standard way to escape from a building in case of fire.
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* Mary had only just recovered after childbirth, but her resolute actions to protect her son from kidnapping suggest that she was not suffering from postpartum complications.
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* One of the greatest confusions about the plot would be the later claim that the lords had signed a bond at Craigmillar in which they had promised to murder Darnley. According to this legend, the bond was in Bothwell’s possession on the day of his final confrontation with his enemies and given to Mary as an insurance policy before Both well fled for his life. Although confidently discussed in innumerable works of history, an authentic copy of this bond has never been found. It was only in hindsight that it was ever said to have existed, and when Mary demanded to see a copy of it while in ex ile in England—which she would hardly have needed to do if the original bond had been presented to her by Bothwell, as the legend claims—a “copy” was obtained, but this was forged by the unscrupulous Sir James Balfour, who took the opportunity to de nounce his own enemies as Darnley’s murderers while omitting the names of those he wished to protect.
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* R. H. Mahon, The Tragedy of Kirk o’Field (Cambridge, 1930).
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* Two letters Mary was later said to have written from Glasgow will be the subject of chapter 25.
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* Several of the signatories said later that they had agreed to the bond only after Bothwell told them Mary wanted them to sign. No such claims were made at the time, but the charge may well be true, and Mary herself leveled it against Bothwell. See chapter 22.
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* Her remaining servants, as well as Maitland, Huntly and Sir James Melville, were also taken to Dunbar.
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* This letter from Mary to Elizabeth is missing from the archives. Fortunately its contents can be recovered, as Mary quoted them in 1568. A verbatim extract from that later document is used here.
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* An oblique reference to Morton, whose curfew Mary lifted at Bothwell’s request in March 1567
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† The secretary first wrote “petite verole,” which means smallpox. However, Bothwell, reading through the text, crossed out “verole” and substituted “roniole.” The word “rognole” is still French slang for syphilis.
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‡ Not surprisingly, since Bothwell had 4000 retainers and Lennox was allowed only six.
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* This refers in particular to the “long Glasgow letter” said to have been written by Mary to Bothwell. For a full discussion of this significant and contested document, see chapter 25.
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* But in reality, Mary met Hubert only as she was leaving the house.
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* I have followed the numbers given to the Casket Letters by Henderson (1890), which are those most commonly used.
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* The innuendo is that Mary is tied to the Lennoxes by her marriage to Darnley, just as Bothwell is to the Gordons, the family of his wife, Lady Jean.
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* His father, Patrick Earl of Bothwell, had no living brothers, and his uncle on his mother’s side, Alexand
er Earl of Buchan, had died in 1563.
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* No one else could have been meant. Lord John of Coldingham, husband of Jane Hepburn, Bothwell’s sister, had died in December 1563, and Jane took as her second husband John Sinclair, Master of Caithness, who was loyal to Mary.
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* His correction is clearly visible. Cecil’s t can sometimes look like a k. The reading is erroneously given as “make” in the modern scholarly editions, which obscures the meaning, and yet no one appears to have gone back to the handwritten transcript to check it.
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* This could mean either that Bothwell could choose between his wife and Mary, or that he could mend his fences with the lords and ditch her.
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* This really means the original Casket Letters and not the transcripts or copies.
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* This is one of the earliest references in the English language to the use of hair extensions. Later, when Mary’s hair became thin and gray, she wore a wig.
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* A Latin version was also anonymously published, without identifying the publisher or place of publication. A genuine Scots translation followed in 1572, printed at St. Andrews, after which the Casket Letters were in the open.
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* That is, a plot using agents provocateurs to foment a conspiracy that was then conveniently “detected.”
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* The surviving French versions of the letter are all enemy translations, used either to discredit Mary in France or for the interrogation of her French servants.
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* Some experts have questioned this on the grounds that no written proof has been found of the rhyme before 1744, but all this means is that it was not printed or anthologized until then.
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