Mary Queen of Scots tried to argue that she could not be tried by anyone but God
WHEN a group of peers and Privy Councillors met at Fotheringay Castle 432 years ago this week, they were there to put a queen on trial.
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A GROUP of around 40 peers and Privy Councillors had taken their places at benches in a hall at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, before the defendant was led in. She was
a tall woman, in her 40s, and dressed simply in a black velvet dress and a white cambric cap.
Flanked by men armed with halberds (a weapon with a long shaft topped by an axe head and a spear tip), she was supported by her personal physician and a servant named Melvin because she suffered from severe rheumatism.
It was October 14, 1586, and the defendant Mary Stuart — Mary Queen of Scots — was accused of being part of a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth I. She had resisted appearing before the court but relented when told the trial would go on with or without her.
She decided it was best to defend herself against the accusations, even challenging the court’s authority. As a queen she was technically not a subject of the Queen of England, from whom the commissioners derived their authority, but answerable only to God.
But the commissioners argued that the 1584 Act for the Queen’s Safety permitted them to look into matters relating to any heir to the throne plotting against the monarch. As a cousin of Elizabeth, Mary was close enough in the line of succession to claim the throne if the childless Elizabeth died.
Mary proclaimed her innocence and demanded to see the evidence the commissioners had against her.
They said they had a confession from the chief conspirator Anthony Babington as well as letters implicating her. Mary denied everything, saying the evidence was fabricated.
She was later found guilty and executed. Since then Mary has fascinated historians and inspired hundreds of books, films, TV series and plays. She is now the subject of a major new film opening in December, starring Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth.
Born in Linlithgow, Scotland, in 1542, Mary was the daughter of King James V of Scotland (son of Margaret Tudor who was sister of Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII). Elizabeth (born in 1533) and Mary shared a common ancestor in Henry VII — Mary’s great-grandfather and Elizabeth’s grandfather.
Mary was born on December 8 and her father died on December 12, leaving her as queen of Scotland.
Henry VIII wanted Mary to marry his son Edward and in 1543 the Treaty of Greenwich was signed laying out terms. Scottish parliament rejected the treaty, partly because it was a ploy by Henry to gain control of the Scottish throne.
Henry sent troops to enforce the treaty but Mary’s mother held on to power as regent with French help. At the age of five Mary was sent to France and in 1558 married Prince Francis, heir to the French throne. In 1559 he became King Francis II but died of an ear infection in 1560.
Mary prepared to return to Scotland where her crown was under threat from protestant lords. Denied a passport by Elizabeth, who was now queen, Mary secretly returned to Scotland in 1561. As Elizabeth’s closest relation, Mary was considered by many to be heir to the English throne, but Elizabeth refused to acknowledge her as heir.
In 1563 Elizabeth proposed that if Mary would marry one of Elizabeth’s favourite courtiers, Robert Dudley, she would name her as heir. When Mary refused on the grounds that he was a commoner, Elizabeth elevated Dudley to the peerage.
She continued to resist the offer and in 1565 Mary married her cousin Henry Stuart, Earl of Darnley, also a great grandchild of Henry VII and grandson of Margaret Tudor. They had a son, James, in 1566.
The marriage angered Elizabeth as it strengthened Mary’s claim to the throne. However, the marriage ran into trouble when Darnley murdered Mary’s private secretary in front of her in 1566. He was accused of plotting to take the Scottish throne and was killed in a mysterious explosion in 1567. Mary married again, to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, the man accused of Darnley’s murder.
Many of her nobles opposed the marriage and raised troops to depose her. She was defeated at the Battle of Carberry Hill in 1567. Mary was deposed, Bothwell fled into exile and James was named her heir.
Mary was imprisoned on an island in Loch Leven but escaped and fled to England, where she was imprisoned and, in October 1568, subjected to a commission of inquiry. Mary remained in captivity, spending her time pleading for freedom.
In the end, frustrated with being locked away, she made the fatal error of giving consent to a plot by Babington and other Catholic conspirators to kill Elizabeth. Spymaster Francis Walsingham had been monitoring Mary’s correspondence and deciphered the damning letter.
After 18 years in custody, Mary was found guilty on October 25, 1586.
Elizabeth reluctantly signed the death warrant on February 1, 1587, and Mary was executed on February 8. It took three blows with an axe to sever her head.
Originally published as Mary Queen of Scots tried to argue that she could not be tried by anyone but God
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