The nobillist Ladie in earth for till aduance,
Off Scotland Quene, and of England also,
Off Ireland als God haith providit so.”
A letter has been discovered in the handwriting of Mary herself which presents the monogram of M. and A. that is upon the ring. This epistle is in French; and the following is a translation:
“Madam, my good sister, the wish that I have to omit nothing that could testify to you how much I desire not to be distant from your good favor, or to give you occasion to suspect me from my actions to be less attached to you than, my good sister, I am, does not permit me to defer longer the sending to you the bearer, Master of my Requests, to inform you further of my good will to embrace all means which are reasonable, not to give you occasion to be to me other than you have been hitherto; and relying on the sufficiency of the bearer, I will kiss your hands, praying God that he will keep you, Madam my good sister, in health and a happy and long life. From St. John’s Town, this 15th of June.
“Your very affectionate and faithful
“Good Sister and Cousin,
“Marie R.”
“To the Queen of England,
“Madam my good Sister
“and Cousin.”
The history of the ring bearing the arms of England, Scotland and Ireland, (and which is said to have been produced in evidence at the trial of the unfortunate Mary as a proof of her pretensions to the crown of England,) is curious. It descended from Mary to her grandson Charles the First, who gave it on the scaffold to Archbishop Juxon for his son Charles the Second, who, in his troubles, pawned it in Holland for three hundred pounds, where it was bought by Governor Yale; and sold at his sale for three hundred and twenty dollars, supposed to the Pretender. Afterwards it came into the possession of the Earl of Ilay, Duke of Argyll. It was ultimately purchased by George the Fourth of England, when he was Prince Regent.[276] This is sometimes called the Juxon ring.
It appears by Andrews’s continuation of Henry’s History of Great Britain,[277] that Mary had three wedding rings on her marriage with Darnley: “She had on her back the great mourning gown of black, with the great mourning hood,” (fit robes for such a wedding!) “The rings, which were three, the middle a rich diamond, were put on her finger. They kneel together and many prayers are said over them,” etc., etc. Rings of Mary of Modena have been mistaken for those of Mary of Scotland.
There is a ring at Bolsover Castle containing a portrait of Mary.[278]