“Marie R.”
Queen Mary to the Archbishop of Glasgow, Fotheringay, 24th November 1586:—
“After having deferred for a long time on account of the imminent danger of the undertaker, at last I have consented to the proposition which has often been made to me to escape. You will hear what has happened from the doctor and other servants, who till now are left to me, I know not for how long, nor whether I can have leisure to make my will. And having that, I do not know if I shall have power, all my money and papers having been taken away, and having nobody to help me to write, although I have asked to have my almoner, that being more suitable if it could be done; but I have had no answer. If that is refused, will you entreat His Holiness, the most Christian King, the King of Spain, the Duke of Lorraine, and other Christian friends my relations, that my papers and money be restored, also the furniture which has not been distributed to my servants, in order that my conscience may be relieved towards my poor servants and creditors. You will find this language strange if you have not been told by Buckhurst, Amias Paulet, Drew Drury, and Beale, that the Assembly of Estates has condemned me to death, and they have declared it to me on the part of their Queen, exhorting me to confess and acknowledge my offences towards her. And in order to incite me to die well and patiently and to discharge my conscience, she proposed to send me a bishop and Dean, saying that her people have made constant requests for my death, considering that I being still alive and her rival, as it would appear by my having taken the name and arms of her crown, and not willing to give them up except on condition of being declared next heir to the throne, she could not live secure in her kingdom; also being called by the Catholics their Sovereign, her life had been so often attempted for this end, that so long as I live her religion was not secure in her kingdom. I thanked God and them for the honour they had done me in considering me such a necessary instrument for re-establishment of religion in this island, of which, although unworthy, I wished to consider myself a very zealous defender. In witness of which (as I had before protested) I offered voluntarily to shed my blood in the quarrel of the Catholic Church, and if the people thought that my life would help the welfare and peace of this island, I would not refuse to give it as a reward for the twenty years they have kept me prisoner. As to their bishops, I praise God that without them I know well enough my offences towards God and the Church, that I do not approve of their errors, and wish to have no communication with them. If it please them to allow me a Catholic priest, I said I would accept it willingly, even demanding it in the name of Jesus Christ in order to satisfy my conscience and participate in the holy sacraments on leaving this world. They told me I had done well, but do what I would I could not be either saint or martyr, as I was to die for conspiring against their Queen and for having wished to dispossess her. I answered that I was not so presuming as to aspire to these two honours, but whilst they had power over my body by divine permission, not by justice, I was a Sovereign Queen, as I had always protested. Still they had not power over my soul, nor could they prevent me from hoping that by the mercy of God who died for me He will accept from me my blood and my life, which I offer Him for the welfare of His Church. Besides, neither here nor elsewhere would I wish to rule over a worldly kingdom and thereby lose the eternal kingdom. And I shall beg of Him that the grief and other persecutions of mind and body which I suffer may be set against my sins. But to have conspired, counselled, or ordered Elizabeth's death, that I have never done; nor would I permit on my part that even one single blow [one snap of the fingers is the original] should be given her. Oh! said they, you have counselled and permitted the English to name you as their Sovereign, as appears by the letters to Alan, and Doctors Lewis and others, and this you have not contradicted; to which I answered that I had taken nothing upon myself in my letters, but hindering the doctors and ecclesiastics from naming me at their pleasure was not my province, being obedient to the Church, approving what she decreed but not correcting her. And I said the same in regard to His Holiness if, as they declared, he made me be prayed for everywhere under a title of which I was ignorant. In any case, I wished to die and to obey the Church, but not to murder anyone in order to possess his rights. In all this I saw clearly the pursuit of Saul against David, but I cannot escape like him by the window, although from the shedding of my blood protectors may arise for the sufferers in this general quarrel. In short, the day before yesterday Paulet returned with Drury much more modest than gracious, to tell me that, having been warned to prepare myself to confess my fault towards the Queen, I had shown no repentance nor feeling of my fault, and he had therefore commanded that they should take away my daïs in order to signify that I was a woman who had died without any honour or dignity as Queen. I answered that God had called me by His grace to this dignity, and I had been anointed and consecrated justly, and that from Him alone I held it, to Him alone should I render it with my soul; that I did not recognise their Queen as my superior nor her council and heretical assembly as my judges; that I should die Queen in spite of them, and that they had no more power over me than robbers at the corner of a wood had over the most just prince or earthly judge, but I hoped that God would show His justice after my death upon this kingdom. The kings of this country had often been murdered, and it would not be strange for me to be amongst them and those of their blood. King Richard had been treated thus in order to take away his rights. After these proposals, seeing that my servants would not lend a hand, all refusing boldly, even the poor girls crying aloud for vengeance upon him and his company, he called seven or eight satellites and destroyed the daïs, sat down and put on his hat, and informed me there would be no more time for exercise and pastime, and thereupon made them take away a billiard-table. I said thank God I have never used it since it was erected; I had always plenty of other occupations. I assembled yesterday my little troupe to repeat to them my protestation in respect of religion and the things they had laid to my charge, such as having distributed the estates, and other lies. Also I charged them all before God to tell you of all my behaviour and that of the others in this matter. I remit to Messieurs de Lorraine and de Guise, and all our relatives, everything necessary for the safety of my soul, the discharge of my conscience, and reparation of my honour, and that of those to whom I belong, which by my death they will put under their feet, not reproaching me alone but my cousin de Guise and all his relations for having given money for her death. I say, and it is true, that I know nothing of it and believe nothing of it.... I am content, and have always been, to give my life for the safety of the souls of this island. Adieu for the last time, and remember the soul and honour of her who has been your Queen, your mistress, and your friend, and if I have had any offence against you I pardon it, and beg of you and all my servants to pardon what I may have done amiss, just or unjust, protesting that I believe you guiltless in everything towards me, but you specially, as the principal and oldest of my servants. I feel myself obliged to recognise your services if God allowed me to live longer; failing that, I shall pray God to the end of my life to recompense you instead of me. May God be with you and with my servants whom I leave as my children.—Your affectionate and good mistress,
Marie R.”
James Beton, Archbishop of Glasgow, Mary's devoted friend, was resident in France during the greater part of her captivity.
After the communication of the death-sentence Queen Mary employed her time in arranging her worldly affairs and in preparation for her removal. That was a task that was difficult of accomplishment, as she had estates in Scotland and in France, the actual extent of which we have no means of knowing, but we have reason to believe that they were in each case large and not easily handled. On account of the arrogant and obstreperous conduct of the English Queen, we have no assurance that any of Mary's final directions were attended to. An illustration of this conduct will serve our purpose, and this will best be understood by the reproduction of the following letter:—
Queen Mary to Elizabeth, November 1586:
“I thank God with all my heart that it has pleased Him through you to put an end to the troublesome pilgrimage of my life. I do not ask that it may be prolonged, for I have only had too much time to experience its bitterness. I only ask your Majesty, for I cannot expect any favour from those zealous ministers who hold the highest rank in England. It is only from you, and not from any other, that I expect the following favour:—First, I beg of you, as I cannot hope for a burial in England according to the Catholic rites practised by the ancient kings your ancestors and mine, and as in Scotland they have desecrated the ashes of my forefathers where my enemies wish to tarnish my innocent blood, that my body may be carried by my servants to be buried in some holy ground, preferably in France, where the bones of my honoured mother the Queen repose; so that this poor body, which has never had any peace since it was joined to my soul, may find it at last when the two are separated. Second, I beg your Majesty, because of the fear that I have of the tyranny of those to whom you have abandoned me, that I may not be executed in a secret place, but in the sight of my servants and others, who can witness my faith and obedience towards the true Church, and defend the end of my life and my last moments against the false reports that my enemies would circulate. Third, I require that my servants that have served me with so much grief and so much fidelity may freely retire where they will and enjoy the pittance that my poverty has left them in my will. I entreat of you, madam, by the blood of Jesus Christ, by our relationship, by the memory of Henry VII., our common father, and by the title of Queen which I bear to my death, that you will not refuse such reasonable demands, and that you will assure me by card from your own hand. Thereupon I die as I have lived, your affectionate sister and prisoner,