Mary Queen of Scots

by Retha Warnicke

  23 Julian Goodare, The Government of Scotland, 1560–1625, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 134.

  24 Keith Brown, Bloodfeud in Scotland, 1575–1625: Violence, Justice and Politics in an Early Modern Society, Edinburgh: Donald, 1986, p. 15.

  25 CSP Scot, vol. II, p. 341.

  26 CSP Rome, vol. II, pp. 215–25. Three of the four deponents said she was forced to marry him, but one said he had heard both that she was constrained and that she was willing to wed him. See also, CSP Scot, vol. II, p. 362, for a letter of Robert Melville’s in which he states that when she requested assistance, the burgh’s inhabitants sallied forth through their portes. Sometimes, his letter is read as though she sent the messenger after arriving at Dunbar. That seems an impossible scenario. The author of A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents That Have Passed Within the Country of Scotland Since the Death of James the Fourth Till the Year 1575, (ed.) T. Thomson, Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1833, p. 109, said that during the abduction she sent to Edinburgh for help but that it was a ruse to conceal her consent.

  27 The Autobiography of Michel de Montaigne, ed. M. Lowenthal, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1935, p. 69

  7: SEEKING REFUGE, 1567–69

  1 Joseph Stevenson (ed.), Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts in the College of Arms and the British Museum, Illustrating the Reign of Mary Queen of Scotland, Glasgow: Maitland Club, 1837, No. 41, pp. 178–9.

  2 Claude Nau, The History of Mary Stewart From the Murder of Riccio Until her Flight into England, ed. Joseph Stevenson, Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1883, p. 37, later claims that Lethington, who was not Bothwell’s friend, and others showed her the Ainslie band and pressured her to marry him.

  3 Alexandre Labanoff (ed.), Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Marie Stuart, Reine D’Écosse, 7 vols, London: Dolman, 1844, vol. II, pp. 31, 44.

  4 Leah Marcus, Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose (eds), Elizabeth I: Collected Works, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 2000, p. 119.

  5 Samuel Cowan, Mary Queen of Scots, and Who Wrote the Casket Letters?, 2 vols, 2nd edn, London: Low, Marston, 1901, vol. II, p. 337.

  6 I wish to thank Robert J. Mueller, associate professor, Utah State University, Utah Basin Campus, for permitting me to read his unpublished manuscript, “Guest or Prisoner? Sir Francis Knollys and Mary Queen of Scots, 1568–1569.”

  7 BL Cotton MSS, Caligula B, IX, f. 347–8.

  8 Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series, Elizabeth, Addenda, 1566–1579, 12 vols, London: HMSO, 1855–1872, vol. VII, p. 274. I wish to thank Robert J. Mueller for this reference.

  9 CSP Scots, vol. II, 210.

  10 Quoted in Mark Jones (ed.), Fake? The Art of Deception, London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1990, p. 22. Letters were the evidence in many seventeenth-century trials although the accused often disputed their authorship. See Frances E. Dolan, “Reading, Writing and Other Crimes,” in V. Traub, M. Lindsay, and D. Collaghan (eds), FeministReading of Early Modern Culture: Emerging Subjects, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 146.

  11 Thomas F. Henderson, The Casket Letters and Mary, Queen of Scots, with Appendices, 2nd edn, Edinburgh: Black, 1890.

  12 David M. Walker, The Scottish Jurists, Edinburgh: Green, 1985, p. 48; The Practicks of Sir James Balfour, ed. Peter G.B. McNeil, 2 vols, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 1962–63, especially, p. 614.

  13 He was forfeited in August 1571, but received a remission for his crimes and a reduction of the forfeiture in 1572. Morton had the forfeiture extended to Balfour’s heirs in 1579. Later, King James made legal efforts to protect Balfour’s property and before Balfour’s death in 1583, he reacquired his lands. See Walker, Scottish Jurists, pp. 38–41 andOxford Dictionary of National Biography (www.Oxforddnb.com) for these details.

  14 Reginald Mahon, Mary Queen of Scots: A Study of the Lennox Narrative in the University Library at Cambridge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924.

  15 Ibid., appendix, for many of the documents, including the book of articles; see also Gordon Donaldson, The First Trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, New York: Stein and Day, 1969, pp. 142–83.

  16 Leslie, The Copies of a Letter Writen Out of Scotland (1572), Menston: Scolar Press, 1970, pp. 26–7. He said, “the said English commissioners were yet so moved with that which fell out before them to the manifest proof of the queen’s innocence...they began to pity her case, and made the earnest request that she might be restored to her crown.” Norfolk, he said (p. 17) especially believed her innocent since he wanted to marry her.

  17 CSP Scot, vol. II, p. 595.

  18 Quoted in C.A.J. Armstrong, “An Italian Astrologer at the Court of Henry VII,” in E.F. Jacob (ed.), Italian Renaissance Studies: A Tribute to the late Cecilia M. Ady, London: Faber, 1960, p. 442.

  8: NEGOTIATING RESTITUTION, 1569–1584

  1 For examples of her work, see Margaret Swain, The Needlework of Mary, Queen of Scots, London: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973.

  2 HMC, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury at Hatfield Hall, 20 vols, London: HMSO, 1883–1976, vol. I, p. 400.

  3 Frederick von Raumer (ed.), Contributions to Modern History from the British Museum and the State Paper Office, 2 vols, London: Knight, 1836–7, vol. I, p. 193.

  4 Alexandre Labanoff (ed.), Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Marie Stuart, Reine D’Écosse, 7 vols, London: Dolman, 1844, vol. III, pp. 48–9, for example.

  5 BL, Cott. MSS, Calig. CII, f. 23.

  6 Labanoff, Lettres, vol. III, pp. 35, 48–9.

  7 William Turnbull (ed.), Letters of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, London: Dolman, 1845, pp. 196–7; Labanoff, Lettres, vol. III, pp. 221–50.

  8 CSP Scot, vol. V, 75.

  9 Mrs P. Stewart-MacKenzie Arbuthnot (ed.), Queen Mary’s Book: A Collection of Poems and Essays by Mary Queen of Scots, London: Bell, 1907, pp. 102–5.

  10 An English crown was worth 5 shillings.

  11 Labanoff, Lettres, vol. IV, pp. 40–5.

  12 Ibid., p. 326.

  13 BL, Royal MSS, 18B, VI, f. 293b.

  14 Arbuthnot, Mary’s Book, p. 106 note.

  15 Labanoff, Lettres, vol. VI, pp. 352–62.

  16 John Jones, The Benefit of the Ancient Bathes of Buckstone which Cureth Most Greevous Sicknesses, London: East and Middleton for Jones, 1572. Shrewsbury appointed Jones to a rectory in 1581.

  17 PRO SP 53/11, nos 26, 28; BL Cott. MSS. Calig. CVIII, f. 57; Labanoff, Lettres, vol. IV, pp. 368–74.

  18 John Leader, Mary Queen of Scots In Captivity: A Narrative of Events, London: Bell, 1880, p. 584.

  19 Richard MacKenney, Sixteenth Century Europe: Expansion and Conflict, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993, p. 262.

  20 CSP Scot, vol. V, 198; CSP Rome, vol. II, 215–230.

  21 Labanoff, Lettres, VI, pp. 312–22.

  22 These rumors have been disputed. See Frederik Schiern, Life of James Hepburn, trans. D. Berry, Edinburgh: Douglas, 1880; and J. Watts De Peyser, Mary Stuart, Bothwell, and the Casket Letters, Something New, New York: Ludwig, 1890.

  23 HMC, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton Preserved at Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, London: HMSO, 1911, p. 153.

  24 HMC, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Honourable, the Marquess of Bath at Longleat, Wiltshire. Vol. 5: Talbot, Dudley and Devereux Papers, 1533–1659, London: HMSO, 1981, pp. 51–2.

  9: FAILING ENTERPRISES, 1584–86

  1 PRO, SP 53/13, no. 55.

  2 The Letters and Memorials of William Cardinal Allen (1532–94), intro.

  Thomas Knox, London: Nutt, 1882: lxiii–lxiv.

  3 The Intended Treason of Doctor Parrie and Complices Against the Queens Most Excellent Majestie, London: f. Car, 1585.

  4 John Bossy, Under the Molehill: An Elizabethan Spy Story, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001, pp. 175–6.

  5 Alexandre Labanoff (ed.), Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Marie Stuart, Reine D’Écosse, 7 vols, London: Dolman, 1844, vol. VI, pp. 274–93.

  6 Ibid. pp. 368�
�9.

  7 Knox, Letters of Allen, p. 320.

  8 Leo Hicks (ed.), Letters and Memorials of Robert Persons, 1578–1588, 2 vols, Catholic Record Society, 39, 1942: 246–51, 357–8.

  9 Frederick von Raumer (ed.), Contributions to Modern History from the British Museum and the State Paper Office, 2 vols, London: Knight, 1836–7, vol. I, p. 309.

  10 A.G. Smith, The Babington Plot, London: Macmillan, 1936, pp. 35–6 and p. 258 for a discussion of the various texts, which basically agree with each other and are confirmed by his various confessions.

  11 Smith, Babington, p. 61.

  12 Ibid., p. 63

  13 Conyers Read (ed.), The Bardon Papers, Camden Society, third series, vol. xvii, London: Royal Historical Society, 1909, p. 130.

  14 CSP Span, vol. III, 382.

  15 Samuel Cowan, Mary Queen of Scots, and Who Wrote the Casket Letters?, 2 vols, 2nd edn, London: Low, Marston, 1901, vol. II, pp. 240–44, for example, prints both letters, noting the inconsistencies to prove to his satisfaction that the references to Elizabeth’s assassination were forged.

  16 Samuel Cowan, The Last Days of Mary Stuart and the Journal of Bourgoyne, Her Physician, London: Nash, 1907, pp. 159–285

  17 CSP Scot, vol. VIII, 632.

  10: ENDING CAPTIVITY

  1 The Trial of Mary Queen of Scots, ed. A. Francis Steuart, 2nd edn, London: Hodges, 1951, p. 52.

  2 Samuel Cowan, The Last Days of Mary Stuart and the Journal of Bourgoyne Her Physician, London: Nash, 1907, p. 228.

  3 Henry Clifford, The Life of the Lady Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, trans. E.E. Estcourt, ed. Joseph Stevenson, London: Burnes, 1887, p. 119.

  4 G.R. Batho, “The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots,” Scottish Historical Review, 39, 1960: 42.

  5 Alexandre Labanoff (ed.), Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Marie Stuart, Reine D’Écosse, 7 vols, London: Dolman, 1844, vol. VI, pp. 474–80.

  6 Ibid.

  7 Cowen, Last Days of Mary Stuart, p. 268.

  8 Ibid., p. 275.

  9 Steuart, Trial of Mary, p. 196.

  10 Ibid., pp. 203–6.

  11 Ibid., pp. 204–6.

  12 BL, Add. MS. 35,324, f. 14.

  13 Est Natura Hominum: The Scottish Queens Buriall at Peterborough, Upon Tuesday Being Lammas Day, 1587, London, by A.I. for Venge, 1589; Allan Crosby and John Bruce (eds), Accounts and Papers Relating to Mary Queen of Scots, London: Camden Society, 1867, vol. 93, pp. vii–xxii, 28–62.

  14 The Political Works of James I, ed. Charles McIlwain, New York: Russell and Russell, repr., 1965, p. 34.

  15 John Bruce (ed.), Letters of Queen Elizabeth and King James VI of Scotland, vol. 16, London: Camden Society, 1849, p. 72.

  16 CSP Rome, vol. I, 320; Samuel Cowan, Mary Queen of Scots and Who Wrote the Casket Letters?, 2 vols, 2nd edn, London: Low, Marston, 1901, vol. I, p. 219.

  17 Life of Dormer, Estcourt, p. 175. The fear that she might be canonized led to the following attack: W. Barras, Proposed Canonisation of Mary Queen of Scots, Cardinal Beaton, and Archbishop Hamilton, Glasgow: Office of the Scottish Protestant Alliance, 1887.

  18 CSP Rome, vol. I, 293.

  19 Mrs P. Stewart-MacKenzie Arbuthnot (ed.), Queen Mary’s Book: A Collection of Poems and Essays by Mary Queen of Scots, London: Bell, 1907, p. 110. The French version, taken from Leslie’s Tranquilli Animi Conservatio et Munimentum, is on p. 166.

  FURTHER READING: SELECTED TOPICS

  MANUSCRIPT SOURCES

  The manuscripts concerning Mary, queen of Scots, can be found in a number of libraries and archives, among them, the British Library, the Public Record Office, the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, the National Library of Scotland, the Huntington Library at San Marino, the Folger Shakespeare Library at Washington, D.C., Cambridge University Library, and in the Cecil Papers at Hatfield House. This is by no means an exhaustive list. The most numerous are at the British Library in the Add MSS and the Cottonian MSS Caligula and at the Public Record Office in the State Papers Nos. SP 52 and 70. Readers can access these and other documents at the archives through various calendars and most of the relevant ones have been published and republished.

  PRINTED SOURCES

  Mary’s writings, creativity, and books

  Most, but not all, her letters can be found in Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Marie Stuart, Reine D’Écosse, ed. Alexandre Labanoff, 7 vols (London: Dolman, 1844). Some of them are available in translation in Agnes Strickland,Letters of Mary Queen of Scots, Now First Published the Originals, Collected from Various Sources, Private as well as Public, with an Historical Introduction and Notes, new edn, 2 vols (New York: Colburn, 1844); and Letters of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, ed. William Turnbull (London: Dolman, 1845). For copies of her creativity, see The Latin Themes of Mary Stuart Queen of Scots, ed. Anatole de Montaiglon (London: Warton Club, 1855); Queen Mary’s Book: A Collection of Poems and Essays by Mary Queen of Scots, ed. Mrs. P. Stewart-MacKenzie Arbuthnot (London: Bell, 1907); Francis de Zulueta, Embroideries by Mary Stuart & Elizabeth Talbot at Oxburgh Hall (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923); Margaret Swain, The Needlework of Mary, Queen of Scots (London: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973); and WritingRenaissance Queens: Texts by and about Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, ed. Lisa Hopkins (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2002). See also, The Library of Mary, Queen of Scots, ed. Julian Sharman (London: Stock, 1889) and A Book Bound for Mary Queen of Scots, ed. George Barwick (London: Bibliographical Society, 1901).

  British government domestic publications

  Some of the most useful publications are: Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, ed. Thomas Thomson and Cosmo Innes, 12 vols (by Queen Victoria’s Command, 1814–75); Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth I, and James I, 12 vols (London: HMSO, 1856–72); The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, ed. John Hill Burton, 14 vols (Edinburgh: H.M. General Register House, 1877–98).

  Privately printed state papers

  Only a sampling is included here : A Full view of the Public Transactions in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. Patrick Forbes, 2 vols (London: Hawkins, 1740–41); A Collection of State Papers Relating to Affairs in the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth...Left by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, ed. Samuel Haynes, 2 vols (London: Bowyer, 1740–59) ; A Collection of State Papers Relating to Affairs in the Reign of Elizabeth from 1571–96, Transcribed from Original Papers Left by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and Reposited in the Library at Hatfield House, ed. William Murdin (London: Bowyer, 1759); The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, ed. Arthur Clifford, 2 vols (Edinburgh: Constable, 1809); Frederick von Raumer (ed.), Contributions to Modern History from the British Museum and the State Paper Office, 2 vols (London: Knight, 1836–7); Robert Keith, History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland from the Beginning of the Reformation to the year 1568, ed. J.P. Lawson, 3 vols (Edinburgh: Spottiswoode Society, 1844); William Robertson, The History of Scotland During the Reigns of Queen Mary and King James VI, new complete edition (Aberdeen: Clark, 1847); Miscellany Two, ed. David Sellar (Edinburgh: Stair Society, 1984); and The Last Years of Mary Queen of Scots: Documents from the Cecil Papers at Hatfield House, ed. Alan G.R. Smith (London: Roxburghe Club, 1990).

  Diplomatic documents

  These must be read cautiously, for diplomats often reported as truth the rumors they heard from their spies without confirming them.

  Anglo-Scottish relations

  The Hamilton Papers. Hamilton Letters and Papers, Illustrating the Political Relations of England and Scotland in the Sixteenth Century, ed. Joseph Bain, 2 vols (Edinburgh: H.M. General Register House, 1890–92); The Border P pers:Calendar of Letters and Papers Relating to the Affairs of the Borders of England and Scotland, 2 vols (Edinburgh: H.M. General Register House, 1894–96); Calendar of State Papers Relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots, 1547–1603, ed. Joseph Bain, 13 vols (Edinburgh: H.M. General Register House, 1898–1969). Foreign Correspondence with M
arie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland from the Originals in the Balcarres Papers, 1548–57, ed. Marguerite Wood, 2 vols (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1923–5); and Two Missions of Jacques de la Brosse, An Account of the Affairs of Scotland in the Year 1543 and the Journal of the Siege of Leith, 1560, ed. Gladys Dickinson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1942).

  Other diplomatic correspondence

  Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers Relating to Negotiations Between England and Spain, ed. G. Bergenroth, et al., 13 vols, 2 supple-ments (London: Longman, 1862–1954); Armand Baschet, La Diplomatie Vénitienne: Les Princes de l’Europe au XVIe Siècle (Paris: Plon, 1862); Calendar of State Papers Foreign, Elizabeth, 23 vols (London: HMS0, 1863–1950); Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice and in Other Libraries of Northern Italy, 39 vols (London: HMSO, 1864–1947 );Despatches of Michele Suriano and Marc’ Antonio Barbaro, Venetian Ambassadors at the Court of France, ed. Henry Layard (Lymington: Huguenot Society of London, 1891); Calendar of Letters and Papers Relating to English Affairs of the Reign of Elizabeth, Preserved principally in the Archives of the Simancas, 4 vols (London: HMSO, 1892–96); andCalendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs Preserved Principally at Rome in the Vatican Archives and Library, 2 vols (London: HMSO, 1926).

  Scottish chronicles

  These, too, must be read with caution, for they were mostly written many years after the events had occurred. Collections Relating to the History of Mary Queen of Scots, ed. James Anderson, 4 vols (Edinburgh: Mosman and Brown, 1727–28);Fragments of Scottish History, ed. John Dalyell (Edinburgh: Constable, 1798); The Historie and Life of King James the Sext, Being an Account of Affairs in Scotland from the year 1566 to the year 1596, ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1825); and A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents That Have Passed Within the Country of Scotland Since the Death of King James the Fourth Till the year 1575, ed. T. Thomson (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1833 ).

  Scottish memoirs and histories