Having in the previous chapter touched on the various points which occupied the attention of Queen Mary's enemies during the past four months, we now arrive at a critical period, the month of November. The situation was gradually becoming more serious and more acute, indicating that the mind of Elizabeth was not only fixed on the Scottish Queen during the day but during the night. The subject, in short, engrossed her whole attention. On 16th November 1586 she formulated her final instructions to Lord Buckhurst regarding the sentence of death which in her former letter she had ordered her ministers to find and pronounce. In this document, which we give in full, much is false and conjectural, much of it grotesque, while none of it is sincere or truthful. It would not occur to the Queen of England that these interpolations on Queen Mary's letters would ever be discovered:—

“Instructions given by Elizabeth to Lord Buckhurst and Robert Beale to declare to the Queen of Scots the sentence passed against her and the demand for her execution:

“After you have informed yourselves particularly as well of the treatise offered and other things needful which have passed between us and the Scottish Queen; of the manifold favours we have from time to time shown to her, both before and since her arrival within our realm, requited by her great ingratitude toward us, of which our pleasure is you shall receive some special note and remembrance from our principal secretary Walsingham, as also of the whole course of our proceedings with her in trial of the late unnatural and wicked conspiracy against our life and Crown, whereof she is found by a just and honourable sentence of our nobility to have been not only privy and consenting, but also a compasser and contriver to the inevitable danger of our life and state. God of his great mercy towards us and our poor people most happily and miraculously discovered and prevented the same. Our pleasure is that you shall immediately repair to Fotheringay, where the said Queen now remains in charge of Sir Amias Paulet, and after you have delivered our letter to him and imparted our instructions and other directions, you shall go together to the Scottish Queen, to whom you shall signify the cause of our sending you to her, namely, to let her understand how the lords and our commissioners lately sent to Fotheringay have proceeded from their return from her. You shall particularly explain the causes which moved them to postpone the pronouncing of their sentence, their several meetings after their return at our Star Chamber to examine and perfect their proceedings, so that no just exception might be taken against the same; the producing before them of Nau and Curle; their free, voluntary, and public maintaining and confirming in their presence, without either hope of reward or fear of punishment, of all those things which they had before testified both by word, subscription, and oath, against her; and finally, the sentence given by the universal consent of all the lords and other commissioners, that she was not only privy to the late most horrible and wicked conspiracy against our person, but a contriver and compasser thereof according to the words of the sentence, which to this effect our pleasure is shall be delivered to you. And also how the Parliament of this realm now assembled, having been informed of our honourable and just proceedings by our commission, directed to the lords and others appointed for the examination and trial thereof, and made acquainted with the particulars of those things with which they found her charged, together with the testimonies and proofs produced against her, and her own answers to the same. Finding, after deliberate consideration, that the sentence pronounced by the commissioners was most just, lawful, and honourable, have not only with full consent and without scruple or contradiction affirmed and approved the same, but also by sundry deputies selected from both Houses of the Lords and Commons and addressed to us in the name of the realm, offered and presented their humble and earnest petitions to us, both written and oral, tending to the moving and persuading of us by their strong and invincible arguments to proceed to the finishing of the sentence by the execution of her whom they find to be the seed plot, chief and motive and author of all these conspiracies which these many years past have been hatched, intended, and attempted against our person, Crown, and State, and do yet still threaten the same. If we should not apply that remedy which in honour, justice, and necessity appertaineth, we should be guilty and inexcusable before God and the whole world of all the miseries and calamities that may ensue of our neglect or refusal to agree to their humble petition, so greatly affecting the safety of our person and preservation of the State, of religion, and common weal of our realm, none of which can in their opinion be otherwise sufficiently provided for and assured against such outward dangers than by a just execution of her by whom and for whom they have been, and are still likely to be, devised, attempted, and followed out against us. And for that we are pressed on all sides as well with respect to honour, justice, surety, and necessity as the unfortunate suit and petition of our Lords and Commons, who still protest that they can find no other way of assurance for our person, religion, and State than by proceeding against her according to justice. You shall therefore let her understand that we know not how it shall please God to incline and dispose our heart in this matter, but we have thought meet in conscience that she should be forewarned thereof, so that she may the better bethink herself of her former sins and offences both to God and to us, and call on Him for grace to be truly penitent and for her late unnatural and ungodly conspiracy against our life. This crime is so much the greater and more odious in the sight of God and man in that she hath suborned and encouraged some of our own subjects to be the actors and doers of an act so foul and horrible against their Sovereign and anointed prince her own near kinswoman, and one that, however she may account thereof in nature and duty for past benefits, ought to have received a more charitable measure at her hands if either the fear of God or common humanity had prevailed anything with her. And because she should have no reason to think herself hardly dealt with in the manner of our proceedings against her, you shall let her know how much the respect of her degree, calling, and nearness in blood to ourselves hath moved us to take the course we have done in sending her a number of our chief and most ancient nobility to examine and try her offence. We might have proceeded otherwise by an ordinary course of law without these respects and ceremonies if we had not preferred our own honour to any other particular affection of malice or revenge against her, which you may truly say is such as if the consequence of her offence reached no farther than to ourselves as a private person. We protest before God we could have been very well contented to have freely remitted and pardoned the same, if we might hereafter have lived sufficiently cautioned and assured against the like, a thing so much the more hopeless however she might hereafter reform herself. The taking of our life and subversion thereby of the present state of religion and commonwealth is amongst her factors and instruments abroad and at home now held and approved in their bloody divinity, as work meritorious and lawful before God and man. And whereas in the opening of these particulars she may happen, as in the late meeting of our commissioners with her, to fall into some justification of her former offers and demeanour towards us, removing the cause of all these mischiefs from herself and imputing the same to the hard treatment she may pretend to have received at our hands. We have thought meet, in case she shall fall into any such argument, that you remind her how much she is to blame to wrong us in honour with her unjust and untrue assertions, considering how much more graciously we have dealt with her than she could with any judgment or reason expect, if we had proportioned our favour with her own demerits. You may take occasion to point out to her those our deserts and benefits with her many ingratitudes in recompense for them, which is conform to a special note from our secretary which shall be delivered to you. Lastly, in case you shall find her desirous to communicate with either of you apart under a pretence of revealing any matter or secret of weight to be delivered to us concerning either ourselves or our service, we think it not amiss that you conform yourselves to her desire, and thereby, if you find cause, to advise us before your return, which we leave to your discretion.

“Elizabeth R.”

This is probably the most startling official paper to be found during the period covered by our narrative. It is pure fiction and was written a month after Queen Mary's trial. The first question that arises is this: Was Elizabeth connected directly or indirectly with the interpolations on these letters, and if so, to what extent? She was much too clever a woman to commit anything to writing that would incriminate herself. We have evidence that Walsingham, her secretary, was the writer of them, and that he paid Phillips to open the letters surreptitiously, copy them, and on the copies introduce the interpolations. The originals were evidently destroyed, for they were never seen again. [11]

Could anyone suppose that this momentous proceeding was going on without the knowledge of the English Queen? Such a supposition would be impossible. Walsingham was a daily visitor at court and Elizabeth's paid secretary. It would have been as much as his life was worth to negotiate this diabolical plot unknown to his mistress, and particularly as every movement in connection with the Queen of Scots had to be communicated to her. It was a case where she reserved to herself exclusively the privilege of giving every order, with no intention whatever of consulting her responsible ministers or her Privy Council. In this particular matter they were merely figureheads. Walsingham, therefore, whose character we have already described, was in this case nothing but a puppet in the hands of a powerful and unscrupulous woman, stronger than himself. If he had an audience of her daily no correspondence between them would be necessary. The spies employed were Walsingham's servants. Their object was to inveigle Mary into a crime that was punishable with death. Walsingham having failed to get Babington's consent to Elizabeth's assassination, and thereby compromise the Scottish Queen, evidently resolved on the other alternative, and manufactured the material which Phillips introduced into the letters. The circumstantial evidence is too strong to permit of Elizabeth's escape from the responsibility. The actual extent to which she was compromised we shall probably never know, but it is a fair and reasonable deduction from the correspondence, as now disclosed, to say that she and Walsingham were responsible for connecting Mary with the plot against her life. There is no proof against Mary that will stand investigation, and no proof at all save forged and interpolated letters (see pp. 228-40). It was, in plain language, a cunning plot by Elizabeth against Elizabeth to encompass the Scottish Queen in a false conspiracy against her life.

The foregoing paper containing instructions to Buckhurst, the outcome of this plot, we shall proceed to analyse. For audacity and unblushing falsehood it is almost without precedent. It proceeds on the assumption that the duplicity of the writer would not be found out, and we have no evidence that during her lifetime, or for long after, it was found out. The first paragraph takes us back to the beginning of Mary's captivity, and considering the length of that captivity and the treatment Mary experienced, the paragraph and its charges may be regarded as sheer imagination, to which the innocence of Mary has given the lie. The second paragraph requires Buckhurst to explain the cause of his mission, the entire responsibility of which Elizabeth put on the shoulders of her lords and commissioners, who, she says, gave sentence against Mary unanimously! This almost takes away one's breath. The reader will take note that the sentence was written out by Elizabeth, handed by her to her ministers with a command to make it their finding notwithstanding Mary's guilt or innocence. No one dared to offer a word against it, or in short to have any opinion of his own; otherwise it might have cost him his life. As regards Nau and Curie, their evidence was obtained by the rack, and is of no value. The third paragraph orders the execution, with the hypocritical reasons which led to it, in all of which the wish is father to the thought, and plainly indicates the mind of Elizabeth. The conspiracy trick was an excellent trump card for such a woman to play against Mary, and by that means get quit of a rival whom of all the women in the world she knew to be superior to herself in every accomplishment. No woman could frequent the court of Elizabeth who was superior to her in these respects. We have a proof of this in the famous interview between her and Sir James Melville in 1564, when Melville's ingenuity was taxed to the uttermost to acknowledge Elizabeth's accomplishments against his will. The fourth paragraph may be considered as perjury and hypocrisy and a repetition of the unblushing falsehoods already expressed. The fifth paragraph doubtless was intended to convey to Mary some idea of the saintly conduct of Elizabeth and the wicked conduct of Mary, which reminds us of the Pharisee in the Hebrew story. The commissioners were to let her know “how much in respect of her degree, calling, and nearness in blood to us, have moved us to take the course we have done in sending our chief nobility to try her case.” Whether this sentimental and insulting message was conveyed to Mary is not recorded, but the probability is it was not. The sixth paragraph is an “instruction” to the captive that as she has no case she is not to abuse the plaintiff. If she attempted to justify herself before the commissioners she was to be told what was equivalent to an insult: “how much she is to blame to wrong us in honour with her unjust and untrue assertions.” This was before any assertions were made! Obviously the English Queen was not endowed with the common feelings of humanity. If we wished to get a side-light into her character this paper would afford us as much information as we require.

On the same day, 16th November, Queen Elizabeth wrote Paulet, authorising him to allow the commissioners an interview with Mary:—

“We have thought it convenient, for sundry reasons, to send Lord Buckhurst and Beale to acquaint the Queen your charge, as well with the proceedings of the commissioners since their departure from Fotheringay, as with what hath been lately done in Parliament concerning the commissioners' proceedings. Our pleasure is that you permit them to have access to the said Queen, hoping in God that before they repair thither you will be restored to that good state of health, so that you may be able to assist and join them in the present service committed to them. And in case the said Queen shall desire to have any conference apart, upon pretence to reveal some secret matter to be communicated to us, either with Lord Buckhurst or with any one of our servants, we are willing to assent thereto if she shall request the same; otherwise we could best like that you should be present when any such remarks should be delivered.”

When Parliament ordained the sentence to be carried out, Elizabeth was the more overjoyed at it as she believed herself thereby cleared, while she had accomplished her brutal purpose; and she took care to hint that but for the love of her people she could never have made up her mind to sign the death-warrant of Mary Stuart! She said, “I must tell you one thing, that by the last Act of Parliament you have reduced me to such straits and perplexities that I must resolve upon the punishment of her who is a princess, so nearly allied to me in blood, and whose practices against me have so deeply affected me with grief and sorrow that I have willingly chosen to absent myself from this Parliament lest I should increase my trouble by hearing the matter mentioned, and not out of fear of any danger or treacherous attempts against me, as some think. But I will now tell you a further secret (though it be not usual with me to blab forth in other cases what I know). It is not long since these eyes of mine saw and read an oath wherein some bound themselves to kill me within a month. Hereby I see your danger in my person, which I will be very careful to prevent and keep off.”[12]

The unabated energy shown in the espionage of the Scottish Queen is evident from Paulet's letter to Walsingham under date 21st November 1586:—

“My letter to Her Majesty enclosed herein will be, I doubt not, imparted to you; and although it pleaseth you to impute her intended liberality to my servants and soldiers to the report of Stallenge, yet I am persuaded that the same hath proceeded of your favour towards me and mine; wherein you have bound me very much, and indeed I thank you for it as for a singular benefit. I do not remember, and I think I may be bold to deny, that I have at any time left this lady in her passionate speeches. I have said to Stallenge, and it is very true that in former times I have observed this course: to have as little talk with her as I might. Lately, following your direction, I have given her full scope to say what she would; and yet at some times, finding no matter to come from her worthy of notice, I have departed from her, as otherwise she would never have left me; and I am deceived if Lord Buckhurst will not give the same testimony of her tediousness.”

At this crisis the conduct of James VI. surprised many of the friends of Mary. He was indifferent about his mother, because he was shaping his policy to succeed Elizabeth, and to do so he must not quarrel with her. A judicious and well-expressed letter on the subject was sent by Henry III. of France to Courcelles, his Ambassador. It was intended that this letter should be put before James, which doubtless was done, but for the reason stated was not acted upon. It is believed he could have saved his mother's life, but he was a selfish young man, and from all reports indifferent to his mother's circumstances, he never having seen her since he was an infant. The letter from the French King is full of sympathy, with every expression of anxiety for the sad and pitiful condition of the unfortunate Mary. It bears date, St. Germains, 21st November 1586:—

“I have received your letter of 4th October informing me of the conversation which passed between you and the King of Scotland on your expressing to him the sincere affection I bear him, by which he seems to have an earnest desire to correspond with me entirely; but I wish that letter had also informed me that he were better disposed towards the Queen his mother, and that he had the heart and the will to do everything to assist her in her present affliction, considering that the captivity in which she has been unjustly held for eighteen years and more might have induced him to listen to the many proposals which have been made to him for obtaining her liberty, which is naturally most desirable to all men, but more particularly to those who are born sovereigns and to command others, who are more impatient of being thus detained prisoners. He ought also to think that if the Queen of England should follow the advice of those who desire her to imbrue her hands in the blood of his mother, it will be a great stain on his reputation, inasmuch as it will be thought that he has withheld the good offices which he ought to render her with the Queen of England, which might be sufficient to move her if he had employed them as early and as warmly as natural affection commanded. It is much to be feared that in case of the death of his mother there may be hereafter some scheme for acting the same violent part towards him, to render his accession to the throne of England more easily attainable by those who have it in their power to secure it after the Queen of England, and not only to deprive the King of Scotland of the right that he may claim to it, but render doubtful that which he has to the crown of Scotland. I know not in what state the affairs of my sister-in-law (Queen Mary) may be when this reaches you, but I desire you will endeavour to excite the King of Scotland by these remonstrances and any others that can bear on this subject, to take up the defence and protection of his mother; and tell him in my name that this is a thing for which he will be highly praised by all other kings and sovereign princes, and that he may be assured if he fails in this, great blame will attach to him and perhaps great injury ensue to himself.”

In the circumstances this was a noble letter, but on James it was quite lost. He had been repeatedly asked to befriend his mother, but we have no evidence that he ever did so. With him “the love of money was the root of all evil,” for he was constantly in want of money. Elizabeth aided him, and in fact controlled him; but that was no reason for allowing his mother to be murdered when he could have prevented it. King Henry III. of France behaved to Queen Mary as a brother and exerted himself more than anyone else to save her. But what is to be said of her son, on whom this eloquent letter of the King of France was lost!

It is evident from the conduct of Elizabeth that Mary's life could not have been saved except by military force, and nothing should have prevented James from appealing to arms. The kings of France and Spain would have given him the necessary assistance. The more we know of James the less do we feel enthusiasm for him.

On 23rd November 1586 sentence of death was communicated to Queen Mary by Buckhurst, by order of Elizabeth. It does not appear that Mary was surprised by the announcement; it would rather appear that for some time she had been daily in expectation of it. To an ordinary individual the intimation would have been overwhelming, it would have crushed him to the earth. Mary, however, was made of sterner stuff. She had an overflow of spirits, which during her captivity did her great service and was a great factor in preventing her falling into melancholy. It may be said that her brilliant spirit never left her, but carried her through all her troubles up to their final termination. On the very day when she received this crushing intimation she sat down and wrote a long and beautiful letter to the Pope, a letter which His Holiness could not read without emotion. She also wrote to the Duke of Guise. These letters have been preserved and are as follows (slightly condensed):—

23rd November 1586, Fotheringay:

“Holy Father; And so it is that it has pleased God by his divine providence to make an order in his Church by which he has willed that under His Son Jesus Christ crucified all those who should believe in Him and be baptized in name of the Holy Trinity should acknowledge one universal and Catholic Church....

“I have been unable to give due testimony to your Holiness in consequence of my detention in this captivity together with my long illness, but now that it has pleased God to permit for my sins and those of this unfortunate island that I should be, after twenty years of captivity, shut up in a close prison and at last condemned to die by the Government and heretical Parliament of this country: as it has been signified to me today by Lord Buckhurst, Amias Paulet, my keeper, one Sir Drew Drury, and a secretary named Beale, in name of their Queen commanding me to prepare to receive death, offering me one of their bishops and a Dean for my consolation, a priest whom I had having been by them long ago taken from me and kept I know not where, in their hands. I have considered it to be my first duty to turn myself to God, and then with my hand to signify all to your Holiness, that although I cannot make you hear it before my death, at least after it the cause of it may be manifest to you; which is, the whole well sifted and considered, for the subversion of their religion in this island alleged by them to be by me designed and in my favour attempted both by their own subjects obedient to your laws, their declared enemies, and by strangers, in particular the Catholic princes and my relations, who all maintain my right to the crown of England, causing me to be named as such in their prayers in the churches. I leave to your Holiness to consider the consequences of this opinion, supplicating you to cause prayer to be offered for my poor soul; and of all those who have died or shall die for the same and the like opinions. And also in honour of God to distribute of your alms, and instigate the kings to do the same, to those who shall remain alive from this shipwreck. My intention being to confess, to do penance so far as is in me, and receive my viaticum if I can obtain my chaplain or other lawful minister to administer to me my last sacrament, as in default of this with a contrite and penitent heart I prostrate myself at the feet of your Holiness, confessing myself to God and to His saints a most unworthy sinner, and deserving of eternal damnation, if it please not the good God who died for sinners to receive me by His infinite mercy to the number of poor sinners penitent by His grace. Entreating you to accept this my general submission and as a testimony of my intention to fulfil the rest in the form ordained and commanded by the Church and to give me your general absolution....

“I entreat your Holiness to impetrate from the most Christian King that my jointure may be charged with the payment of my debts and the wages of my poor desolate servants, and with an annual obit for my soul and those of all my brethren deceased in this just quarrel; having had no other private intention, as my poor servants present at this my affliction will testify to you, and how I have willingly offered my life in their heretical assembly to maintain my religion, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, and bring back the devout of this island; protesting in this case that I would willingly demit all title and dignity of Queen, and do all service and duty to theirs, if she would cease to persecute the Catholics, as I protest that this is the object at which I have aimed since I have been in this country, and have no ambition or desire to reign or dispossess others for my own sake, being by sickness and long affliction so weakened that I have no more desire to trouble myself in this world than with the service of His Church and the gaining of the souls of this island to God. For evidence of which at my end I would not fail to prefer the public safety to the private interest of flesh and blood, which makes me beseech you, with a mortal regret for the perdition of my poor child, after having by all means endeavoured to retrieve him, being to him a true father as St. John the Evangelist was to the youth whom he recalled from the company of the robbers, to take at last all the authority over him which I can give you to constrain him, and to call on the Catholic King to assist you in what relates to temporal matters, and especially together to endeavour to unite him by marriage. And if God for my sins permits him to be obstinate, knowing no Christian prince at this time who exerts himself so much for the faith, nor possesses such means of assisting in the reduction of this island, as the Catholic King to whom I am so much indebted, he being the only one who has assisted me with his money and advice in my necessities, under your good pleasure I leave him all the rights or interest which I can have in the government of this kingdom. Should my son remain obstinately out of the Church; whom if he can be brought back I desire to be by him and my kinsmen of Guise assisted, supported, and advised, enjoining him by my last will to consider them after you as fathers, and to ally himself by their advice and consent and with one of these two houses, and if it should please God I wish him worthy to be a son of the Catholic King. You shall have the true recital of the manner of my last struggle and all the proceedings against me and by me, so that, knowing the truth, the calumnies which the enemies of the Church would fasten on me may be by you refuted and the truth known. [13]

“Marie R.”

Queen Mary at the same time wrote to the Duke of Guise, Fotheringay, 23rd Nov. 1586:—

“You whom I hold most dear in the world I bid you farewell, being on the point of being put to death by an unjust judgment, such a one as never any belonging to our race yet suffered, much less one of my rank. But praise God, my good cousin; for, situated as I have been, I was useless to the world in the cause of God and his Church; but I hope that my death will bear witness of my constancy in the faith and my readiness to die for the support and restoration of the Catholic Church in this unfortunate island. And though executioner never yet dipped his hand in our blood, be not ashamed, my friend; for the judgment of these heretics and enemies of the Church, and who have no jurisdiction over me, a free Queen, is profitable before God to the children of His Church, which, had I not adhered to, this stroke had been spared me. All those of our house have been persecuted by this sect; witness your good father, with whom I hope to be received in mercy by the just Judge. I recommend then to you all my poor servants, the discharge of my debts, and the founding of some annual obit for my soul; not at your expense, but to make such solicitation and arrangements as shall be requisite to fulfil my intentions, which you will be informed of by my poor disconsolate servants, eye-witnesses of this my last tragedy. May God prosper your wife, children, brothers, and cousins, and all belonging to them. May the blessing of God and that which I should give to my own children be upon yours, whom I commend to God not less sincerely than my own unfortunate and deluded son. You will receive tokens (rings) from me to remind you to have prayers said for the soul of your poor cousin, destitute of all aid and counsel but that of God, who gives me strength and courage to withstand alone so many wolves howling after me; to God be the glory! Believe in particular a person who will give you in my name a ruby ring, for I assure you upon my conscience that this person will tell you the truth agreeably to my desire, especially as to what concerns my poor servants and the share of each. I have suffered much for the last two years and upwards, but have not been able to inform you of it for an important reason. God be praised for all things, and may He give you grace to persevere in the service of His Church so long as you live, and may that honour never depart from our race, that all of us may be ready to shed our blood in the defence of the faith regardless of all other worldly interests. For my own part, I think myself born both on the father's and mother's side to offer up my blood for it, and have no intention to degenerate. May Jesus crucified for us and all the holy martyrs render us by their intercession worthy of the free-will offering of our bodies for His glory. Thinking to degrade me, they took down my canopy, and my keeper afterwards came and offered to write to the Queen, saying that this act had not been done by her command but by the advice of some of her council. I showed them on the canopy, in place of my coat of arms, the cross of my Saviour. You will be informed of all that was said; they have since been more indulgent.

”Marie R. of Scotland,
Dowager of France.”