“The rest of the day passed in these agitated conversations until night, when Hatton spoke saying they debated many things which did not belong to their commission, and that they had only come because the Queen their mistress was warned that Her Majesty had consented to what had been undertaken against her person, her State, and the public peace. It was a question whether she was guilty or not. It seemed to him that Her Majesty ought not to refuse to be examined; answering would make evident her innocence, which would be an honour to her and a comfort to the Queen and all the lords, whether present or absent. It was the last speech Her Majesty made to him, with tears; that nothing had ever touched his heart or grieved him so much as to come here to undertake such a case against her. Her Majesty asked what recompense she would have when she had proved her innocence, and what reparation would be made to her for having been in prison so long and accused. They replied that no harm would happen, and she would be honoured, and it would satisfy their mistress.
“She remained all night in perplexity, and at last resolved to intimate to the commissioners that she wished to speak to them before they assembled.
“14th October 1586.—This day they came with other Lords, including Walsingham, who had not attended the previous day. She thus addressed them:—'Sirs, consider my rank, having been born a Queen, a foreigner, a near relation to your Queen. It cannot surprise you that I should be offended at the manner in which you proceed against me, nor that I refuse to recognise your assembly and your mode of procedure as not being obligatory; nor am I subject to your laws nor to your Queen. I cannot answer without prejudicing my state, mine and the other kings and princes of my rank. And at all times I am careful of my honour, to defend which I would not spare my life. Rather than do wrong to the other princes and to my son I am ready to die, if so be that the Queen has a bad opinion of me. She has been wrongly informed if she thinks I have plotted against her person. To show the goodwill I bear her I have demonstrated many times in the offers I have submitted to her, and by my behaviour. In order that you should not think I refuse to answer because I am guilty, and that ambition has induced me to do a reproachable act unworthy of my sacred person, I offer to answer upon this point alone—the life of the Queen—of which I swear to you I am entirely innocent. In making this protestation I demand a deed in writing.' They were very glad to have brought her to this point, and said that they would not trouble her with anything else. In order to satisfy her and prove whether she was guilty or not, they would receive her protestation and hoped she would prepare herself to come into the Council. She promised to do so immediately after she had dined, with a little wine, feeling herself feeble and ill.
They had erected at the east of the hall the daïs of the Queen, and on the two sides along the partition below were seated the Lords named in the commission; and in the middle along tables and benches were seated the commissioners and Chief Justice in their order. Below they had erected a barrier, one part of which could be raised in order to pass out and in. Her Majesty entered with a veil, a mantle, with a long train held by one of her ladies. Beauregard was seated in one of the chairs of crimson velvet at the side of the daïs, under her feet a square of the same material; assisted by Melville, Bourgoyne, Jervis, Mowbray, and Beauregard, with Jane Kennedy and Alice Curle, maids, behind her. None of the other servants were allowed to be present. Paulet and Stallenge were seated behind her as guards. Bromley, the Chancellor, opened the proceedings, and began to say that the Queen of England had been informed, to her great regret, that the destruction of her person and the overthrow of her kingdom had almost been accomplished by the Queen of Scots. Notwithstanding her tolerance and patience, the Queen of Scots continued these evil practices and had become the disturber of religion and the public peace in her kingdom and also in countries beyond the sea. The Queen of England because of this had ordered this assembly to investigate the same without malice. If the Queen of Scots were guilty of this deed, and if the Queen of England were careless or so ill-advised as not to have it investigated, she would have committed a great offence against God and would carry the sword in vain. Therefore she had sent this commission, upon the reading of which and hearing the things proposed by Council, the Queen of Scots would be able to say what seemed good for her defence and the declaring of her innocence.
“Addressing the Queen of Scots, Bromley said: 'Madam, you have heard the reason why we are here; you have heard the indictment, and you will be able to say what pleases you.' She then commenced boldly to make a speech, the substance of which was that she had come into England in the hope of succour and under the promise of aid against her enemies; she protested that she was a sovereign and free princess, not recognising any superior but God; that whatever she did in answering the commissioners, who she believed were wrong and falsely informed against her, she might do prejudice to herself, the princes her allies, the King her son, or anyone who might succeed her. Which protestation she made not in regard to her life or to prevent anything becoming known, but for the preservation of her prerogative and honour and dignity, not wishing because she appeared before the commissioners to be compromised or declared a subject of the Queen of England; but that she might show by her answers that she was not guilty of the crime against the person of Elizabeth with which she was charged. And this point alone and no other she would answer. She desired that each of them would keep this in remembrance, and that her protest would be put into a public act, and that all the Lords present and the nobility might testify to it, all of whom she called to bear witness if some day there should be need of it. And she protested before the living God that she loved the Queen her dear friend and sister, and that she had always borne goodwill to the kingdom.
“The Chancellor in name of the commissioners not at all approving of Mary's entering England under the promise of Elizabeth, but disavowing it, said that these protests were of no importance inasmuch as the Queen of Scots was in the kingdom and charged with such a crime whatever rank or state she wears. She had become subject to the laws notwithstanding the commissioners were content without any approval or deliverance by them. In the name of all present he protested that the protestation of the Queen of Scots was nothing and of no effect in law, and was in no way prejudicial to the dignity and supreme power of their Sovereign, the majesty of her kingdom, or the prerogative of her crown. Which protestation he required to be registered and all present to bear witness to it. In the meantime they were required to read the commission, which was in Latin and contained the above.
“The Queen answered that she did not approve this commission nor its constitution, being based on new laws or articles newly made expressly against her. Hearing the reading of a point she gave her answer without their asking whether it was true or not. Their manner was only to keep reading or speaking in order to persuade the lords that the Queen was guilty. Addressing always their speech to the lords was confusing and without any order, nobody answering them a word, so that the Queen told us when she returned to her chamber that it put her in mind of the passion of Jesus Christ, and that it seemed to her, without making any comparison, that they did to her in her place as the Jews did to Christ who cried, 'Away with Him, crucify Him,' and that she was certain there were those in the company who had pity on her and did not say what they thought.
“Notwithstanding all this the Queen never lost heart, and the more they warmed up to hinder her the firmer she grew; her heart, her strength, her reason rose to the occasion. She remonstrated on the wrong Elizabeth had done her in keeping her a prisoner. She had been kept eighteen years in affliction, treated as the meanest subject would not have been, having no reason for doing this and still less a right; and because of these trials she had lost her health and the use of her limbs, as they could see; that she could neither walk nor use her arms, and almost always was in bed; had become aged and overwhelmed with misery, and had lost the little gift of esprit that God had given her; also her memory to remember things she had seen and read, which would have helped her in this place when she was all alone; also the knowledge of business which she had learned for the management of her affairs, the exercise of the state to which God had called her and of which they had unjustly and traitorously deprived her, and so hindered her from recovering her rights. Besides, not content with this, her enemies by their ill-will had tried to ruin her. She appealed to Almighty God, her Church, and all Christian princes, and to the Estates of this kingdom lawfully assembled. She was ready and prepared to sustain and defend her honour as an innocent person provided they would give her a public trial and in presence of some princes or foreign judges, even her own proper judges, and all without prejudice to their mother Church, to the Kings, sovereign princes, and her son; specially taking into consideration the right which the English claimed, and pretended that it appeared in their chronicles, that they were above the predecessors of Her Majesty, the kings of Scotland. This right she denied and would not admit or strengthen by any act which she could now do, being forced to maintain the honour of these princes, and for want of this she would declare them traitors or rebels, and rather than approve she was ready to die for God and her right. And in this cause being innocent she would offer her life and give herself up to their judgment, and thereby show that she was not ambitious and would not undertake anything against the Queen of England, nor did she desire to reign; she had left all that, and no longer cared for anything for herself but simply to pass the rest of her life in peace and tranquillity of mind; that her age and strength were not enough for the burden of reigning, and she had no desire for any government or public duty, seeing she was in such poor health and possibly having only two or three years to live. Also considering how difficult it was to conduct herself and do justice, and acquit herself with the dignity of a Queen in these evil times filled with wickedness, the whole earth being filled thereby.”
