Read Mary, Queen of Scots Online
Authors: Alison Weir
CSP Scottish
; Nau
Knox
Alloa Tower is still owned by the Erskines, but is substantially altered from what it was in Mary’s day. In the early 18th century, it was remodelled to match a nearby mansion, and in 1800, a serious fire damaged the roof and consumed many of the family heirlooms, among them what was said to be the only portrait of Mary painted while she was in Scotland. The Tower was restored in the 1990s and reopened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.
Lennox Narrative
Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts; CSP Scottish
CSP Spanish
Nau
Melville
Cotton MSS. Caligula;
Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts; CSP Foreign
; Keith;
Illustrations of the Reign of Queen Mary
CSP Foreign
Lennox Narrative
Nau
CSP Scottish
Leslie
Ibid.
Ibid.
Papal Negotiations
Raumer
Keith
Inventaires
CSP Scottish
; Nau
The peel tower in which Mary stayed is the oldest part of Traquair House, and is now attached to the north end of the main block, which was built in 1642. At the end of the 17th century another wing was added. In the King’s Room is a bed slept in by Mary when she stayed with Lord Herries at Terregles Castle in 1568, just prior to her flight to England; this bed was brought to Traquair in 1890. Also at Traquair are a rosary, crucifix, reticule and purse said to have belonged to Mary, and a document dated 1565, bearing her signature and Darnley’s.
Nau
Ibid.
Papal Negotiations
CSP Spanish
CSP Foreign
Keith
Nau
Ibid.
Cited by Gore-Browne
CSP Foreign
11. “NO OUTGAIT”
Cecil Papers
CSP Scottish; CSP Foreign
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Papal Negotiations
The Privy Council to Catherine de’ Medici, in Keith
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, ibid.
The Privy Council to Catherine de’ Medici, ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.; du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith;
Papiers d’Etat
, ed. Teulet
Du Croc to Catherine de’ Medici, in Keith;
Papiers d’Etat
, ed. Teulet; Labanoff
Nau
The Privy Council to Catherine de’ Medici, 8 October 1566, in Keith; Teulet
Ibid.
Leslie; Keith
Papal Negotiations
Register of the Privy Council
Melville
Register of the Privy Council
Lennox Narrative
“The Answer of Moray,” 1569, in Keith
Archibald Douglas to Queen Mary, ibid.
Diurnal of Occurrents
Bothwell had shot Elliott in the leg with a pistol before being wounded himself. There are conflicting reports as to Elliott’s fate: some claimed he died of his wounds, but Sir John Forster stated that he escaped and recovered (Additional MSS., British Library). There is some evidence that he continued to pursue his lawless existence until 1590, when he may have died.
Buchanan
Cited by McKechnie
Nau
Keith
Cited by Gore-Browne
Teulet
CSP Scottish
Keith;
Papiers d’Etat
, ed. Teulet
Labanoff
Du Croc to Catherine de’ Medici, in Keith;
Papiers d’Etat
, ed. Teulet; Labanoff
Report of 12 November, in
Papal Negotiations
Keith; Teulet
Cotton MSS. Caligula
Diurnal of Occurrents; CSP Foreign; Register of the Privy Seal
; Tytler:
Scotland
Hermitage Castle still stands today, its courtyard in ruins but its outer walls intact. Although extensively restored in 1820, it is perhaps the best preserved example of a Border fortress.
CSP Scottish
; Nau
A French 16th-century pocket watch and case were unearthed by a mole and found on this spot by a shepherd in the early 19th century. Both are now on display at Mary, Queen of Scots’ House in Jedburgh.
Lennox Narrative
Chalmers; Tytler:
Scotland
Nau, writing in the 1570s, states she fell ill on the day after her ride to Hermitage, i.e., on 16 October; on 18 October 1566, the Council informed Beaton that the illness came on two days after the ride, i.e., on 17 October. As their account was written only a day later, the Council are more likely to be correct.
Nau
Ibid.
CSP Venetian
Ibid.
Nau
Ibid.
Keith
CSP Spanish
Buchanan
Register of the Privy Council
Bishop Leslie to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Ibid.
Cited by Tytler:
Scotland
Bishop Leslie to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Nau;
CSP Spanish
. Mary’s instructions are in the archives of Edinburgh University.
Register of the Privy Council
Leslie; Nau
Nau; Leslie
Nau; Leslie
Bishop Leslie to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith;
Diurnal of Occurrents
Keith
Diurnal of Occurrents
The building known today as Mary, Queen of Scots’ House was greatly altered and extended in the 17th and 19th centuries, but was restored largely to its 16th-century state in 1986–87.
CSP Scottish
CSP Foreign
Teulet
Papal Negotiations
De Silva states he had learned about what followed in a letter from Mary “dated the 1st instant” (
CSP Spanish
). Buchanan incorrectly states that Mary received the letter from or about Darnley on 5 November when she was on her way to Kelso, but she did not leave Jedburgh until 9 November, and her messenger, Stephen Wilson, had left for England with news of the Darnley letter around the 8th. Mary must therefore have received the letter on or shortly before 1 November while she was still at Jedburgh.
Buchanan says the letter was from Darnley but it is hardly likely that Darnley would have himself divulged to Mary the information that de Silva states was in it. Armstrong Davison speculated that it had come from the Comte de Brienne, but he did not arrive in Scotland until 2 or 3 November.
CSP Spanish
Ibid., 17 February 1567
CSP Spanish
Labanoff;
Papal Negotiations
Fr. Edmund Hay, SJ, to Francis Borgia, Father General of the Society of Jesus, in the archives of the Society of Jesus
Keith
Sir John Neale:
Elizabeth I and her Parliaments
(2 vols, London, 1953–7)
CSP Foreign
CSP Scottish
CSP Spanish
CSP Foreign
CSP Scottish
Papal Negotiations
Melville
Buchanan:
Detectio
. A slightly different version appears in the
Book of Articles,
where it is said that Lady Reres’s purpose was “not altogether unknown to such as attended in the Queen’s company.”
Diurnal of Occurrents
; Keith
Keith
12. “UNNATURAL PROCEEDINGS”
Book of Articles
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, 6 December 1566, in Keith
Papal Negotiations
Keith
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, 6 December 1566, in Keith
Cotton MSS. Caligula. The full text is in Keith, Goodall and Mumby:
Fall of Mary
Stuart
.
It was not unusual for two people of the same sex to share a bed when space was at a premium.
Although restored to his title and earldom, Huntly had yet to recover his estates.
Goodall
It was actually drawn up two months before, not three, but after six years it would be natural for Ormiston to be a little inaccurate as to dates. Elsewhere in his confession, Ormiston quotes Bothwell as saying that the matter had been concluded at Craigmillar.
Pitcairn
Register of the Secret Seal
;
Inventaires
;
Register of the Privy Seal
The official record is in Cambridge University Library.
Moray’s Answer, dated 19 January 1569 and written by Moray and Cecil in London, is pasted to the back of the Protestation.
CSP Foreign
Nau
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Sir John Forster to Cecil, 11 December 1566, in
CSP Foreign
Melville
Register of the Privy Council
Lennox Narrative
Casket Letter II, in
CSP Scottish
Lennox Narrative
CSP Spanish
; Teulet
Register of the Privy Council
; Keith
Papal Negotiations
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Keith;
CSP Venetian; Diurnal of Occurrents
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Inventaires;
Cotton MSS. Caligula;
CSP Foreign
. Buchanan later referred only to Mary providing clothing for Bothwell: “The Queen did her best to make Bothwell appear the most magnificently dressed of all her subjects and guests.” He meant to emphasise that she was singling Bothwell out for special favour because he was her lover. This is a typical example of how Buchanan massaged the facts in order to support his denunciation of Mary.
Nau
Ibid.
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Buchanan
Knox
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
The Elizabethan historian William Camden says that Bedford had been instructed not to acknowledge Darnley as King.
Cotton MSS. Caligula; Nau
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Mary to Archbishop Beaton, 20 January 1567, in Labanoff
Ibid.
Register of the Secret Seal; Register of the Privy Seal
Antonia Fraser
CSP Scottish
Ibid.; Bothwell;
Bannatyne Miscellany; CSP Foreign
CSP Scottish
Register of the Privy Seal
CSP Scottish
Morton’s confession of 1581, in Holinshed. Buchanan alleges that Darnley left Stirling because his rival Bothwell had been “set up to his face as an object of universal respect,” but this is not corroborated by the other evidence.
Lennox Narrative
; Mary to Beaton, 20 January 1567, in Labanoff
13. “THE DAYS WERE EVIL”
Knox; Buchanan
Lennox Narrative
Pearson
CSP Scottish
Inventaires
The skull, which had been removed in 1768 from the vandalised royal vault at Holyrood, is now in the Royal College of Surgeons, London.
Pearson
Knox
CSP Spanish
Keith
Ibid.
Register of the Secret Seal
Ibid.; Keith; Buchanan
This interview must have taken place in the New Year, after Darnley had left Stirling and Mary had returned from Tullibardine. This would have been the first opportunity that Walker had had to speak with her.
Mary to Archbishop Beaton, 20 January 1567, in Labanoff
CSP Scottish
Labanoff
CSP Scottish
; Keith
Cabala
Inventaires
Labanoff
CSP Foreign; CSP Scottish
; Keith
State Papers in the Public Record Office;
CSP Foreign
Nau
Lennox Narrative
Nau
Buchanan says Mary had tried to lull Darnley’s suspicions “by her frequent loving letters,” but this seems unlikely in view of the other evidence.
CSP Scottish
Teulet
Throughout this book, I have quoted the modern English translations of the Casket Letters, except where there are discrepancies in the Scots, French and Latin versions.
CSP Scottish
Mahon:
Lennox Narrative
Buchanan
Keith
Birrel says the 13th, the
Diurnal of Occurrents
the 14th. These two sources often show a discrepancy of one day.
CSP Scottish
The date of the meeting at Whittinghame is not recorded, but it must have been after Maitland left Edinburgh on 17 January. As it was reported by Drury on the 23rd, it must have taken place around 18 or 19 January. For the Whittinghame episode, see
CSP Scottish
; Morton’s confession of 1581 in Holinshed; Archibald Douglas’s letter to Mary of 1583 in
Inventaires
;
Diurnal of Occurrents; Bannatyne
Miscellany
; Calderwood
Bothwell
Inventaires
CSP Scottish
CSP Spanish
Holinshed
Inventaires
Nau; his account is corroborated by a letter from Drury to Cecil dated 13 August 1575.
Labanoff
14. “SOME SUSPICION OF WHAT AFTERWARDS HAPPENED”
Diurnal of Occurrents
. Birrel; Anderson:
Collections; Book of Articles
; Moray’s Journal, in Cotton MSS. Caligula
Moray’s Journal, in Cotton MSS. Caligula; Anderson:
Collections; Book of Articles
Buchanan
Drury reported she had arrived on the 22nd (
CSP Scottish
).
Crawford’s Deposition, original MS. in Cambridge University Library, edited copy in
CSP Scottish
CSP Spanish; CSP Foreign
CSP Spanish
Cambridge University Library
CSP Scottish
; Goodall. After this was read out, Crawford said that the words quoted in his deposition were “the same in effect and substance as they were delivered by the King to him, though not perhaps in all parts the very words themselves.”
CSP Scottish
; Labanoff
Lennox Narrative