“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.”