One of the most shocking executions of the Tudor period, saw an anointed Queen lay her
head on the block whilst the executioner blundered her execution with his axe.
Mary Queen of Scots lived a rather troubled last few decades of her life, in which her
marriages led to her downfall as the Queen of Scotland, but also as she became a prisoner
of her cousin Elizabeth I. To flee Scotland she arrived in England and was then held under
house arrest for almost 2 decades, and during this time she agreed to take part in a number
of plots.
These were treasonous and Catholics across England wanted the Protestant Elizabeth off
the throne, and the Catholic Mary who did have a claim to the throne placed on it.
The Babington Plot was the final nail in Mary’s coffin, as Elizabeth I under pressure from
her privy council would place Mary on trial and then sentence her to death.
However Elizabeth was apprehensive to order her execution, but on the monring of the 8th
February 1587 inside of Fotheringhay Castle, Mary Queen of Scots lost her life.
But accompanying Mary to her execution were two women, her servants Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth
Curle.
But who were the forgotten ladies that sent Mary Queen of Scots to her execution?
Inside of Fotheringhay Castle’s great hall, Mary Queen of Scots would be executed in brutal
fashion.
Her final moments were described as, ‘Mary’s prayers being ended, the executioners, kneeling,
desired her Grace to forgive them her death: who answered, ‘I forgive you with all my
heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles.’
Then they, with her two women, helping her up, began to disrobe her of her apparel: then
she, laying her crucifix upon the stool, one of the executioners took from her neck the
Agnus Dei, which she, laying hands off it, gave to one of her women, and told the executioner
he should be answered money for it.
Then she suffered them, with her two women, to disrobe her of her chain of pomander beads
and all other her apparel most willingly, and with joy rather than sorrow, helped to
make unready herself, putting on a pair of sleeves with her own hands which they had
pulled off, and that with some haste, as if she had longed to be gone.
All this time they were pulling off her apparel, she never changed her countenance, but with
smiling cheer she uttered these words, ‘that she never had such grooms to make her unready,
and that she never put off her clothes before such a company.’
Then she, being stripped of all her apparel saving her petticoat and kirtle, her two women
beholding her made great lamentation, and crying and crossing themselves prayed in Latin.
She, turning herself to them, embracing them, said these words in French, ‘Ne crie vous,
j’ay prome pour vous’, and so crossing and kissing them, bade them pray for her and
rejoice and not weep, for that now they should see an end of all their mistress’s troubles.
Then she, with a smiling countenance, turning to her men servants, as Melvin and the rest,
standing upon a bench nigh the scaffold, who sometime weeping, sometime crying out aloud,
and continually crossing themselves, prayed in Latin, crossing them with her hand bade
them farewell, and wishing them to pray for her even until the last hour.
This done, one of the women having a Corpus Christi cloth lapped up three-corner-ways,
kissing it, put it over the Queen of Scots’ face, and pinned it fast to the caule of her
head.
Then the two women departed from her, and she kneeling down upon the cushion most resolutely,
and without any token or fear of death, she spake aloud this Psalm in Latin, In Te Domine
confido, non confundar in eternam, etc.
Then, groping for the block, she laid down her head, putting her chin over the block
with both her hands, which, holding there still, had been cut off had they not been
espied.
Then lying upon the block most quietly, and stretching out her arms cried, In manus tuas,
Domine, etc., three or four times.
Then she, lying very still upon the block, one of the executioners holding her slightly
with one of his hands, she endured two strokes of the other executioner with an axe, she
making very small noise or none at all, and not stirring any part of her from the place
where she lay: and so the executioner cut off her head, saving one little gristle, which
being cut asunder, he lift up her head to the view of all the assembly and bade God
save the Queen.
Then, her dress of lawn falling from off her head, it appeared as grey as one of threescore
and ten years old, polled very short, her face in a moment being so much altered from
the form she had when she was alive, as few could remember her by her dead face.
Her lips stirred up and down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off.
Then Mr Dean said with a loud voice, ‘So perish all the Queen’s enemies,’ and afterwards
the Earl of Kent came to the dead body, and standing over it, with a loud voice said,
‘Such end of all the Queen’s and the Gospel’s enemies.’
Then one of the executioners, pulling off her garters, espied her little dog which was
crept under her clothes, which could not be gotten forth but by force, yet afterward would
not depart from the dead corpse, but came and lay between her head and her shoulders,
which being imbrued with her blood was carried away and washed, as all things else were that
had any blood was either burned or washed clean, and the executioners sent away with
money for their fees, not having any one thing that belonged unto her.
And so, every man being commanded out of the hall, except the sheriff and his men, she
was carried by them up into a great chamber lying ready for the surgeons to embalm her.’
But as mentioned it was said that she was accompanied by two women on the scaffold.
But these women’s story has been relatively lost to time.
But one of these women was Jane Kennedy, who was a close companion of Mary Queen of Scots
during her captivity.
Jane was it’s possible the daughter of the 3rd Earl of Cassilis, and she had waited on
Mary for a long time ever since she signed abdication papers.
It was said that she even may have jumped from a window to practice the Queen’s escape,
or that she jumped from a window to join the Queen as she fled her island where she was
imprisoned at Lochleven Castle.
When she came to England, Jane was listed as being a maid at Tutbury Castle, and she
continued to serve Mary in the many different castle she was held in.
At Sheffield she was described as ‘a maid of the chamber,’ and William Cecil would
later write that he suspected that a servant was forming a romantic relationship with Jane,
the Scottish Queen’s woman.
It’s believed that Jane was very close to Mary and she was a true friend to her.
The English were concerned about the relationship Jane was having with this young man, and he
was banned from speaking to her, as the English sought to control every part of Mary’s imprisonment.
In 1586, Jane was described as a ‘Gentlewoman of the Queen’s chamber, who was also responsible
for the Queen’s jewels.
This shows how well respected Jane was and how she was incredibly close to the former
Scottish monarch.
She was trusted to keep Mary’s jewels safe, and an inventory of them was made.
But at Fotheringhay Castle, the final place where Mary would be held before she was executed
in the great hall there, Joe Kennedy would remain with her.
Jane helped her to remove her outer garments on the scaffold, and she helped Mary to disrobe
and prepare for her final moments.
It was Jane Kennedy who was the one who provided a blindfold for the Queen, and tied a white
veil embroiled in gold around her eyes before she knelt at the block and stretched out her
arms.
But who was the other woman who accompanied Mary to the scaffold.
Described as another Servant was Elizabeth Curle, who was the sister of Gilbert Curle
who was a Scottish secretary who served Mary Queen of Scots during her captivity.
Gilbert would with his sister get close to the King, and he was considered a well liked
member of the Queen’s entourage.
He would be taken to different places to assess them to see if they were suitable for Mary’s
imprisonment and moving, and he even got married at Tutbury Castle where Mary was being imprisoned.
But his sister Elizabeth also remained close to the queen, and she was also its assumed
a woman of the privy chamber, or the bed chamber.
She would have helped to dress the Queen daily, and especially on the day of her execution.
She would have helped the Queen decide on her final outfit, but Elizabeth Curle was
also considered someone who was given gifts from the Queen.
She had several lengths of silk, linen and other items gifted to her.
During the execution, she also helped Jane Kennedy to remove her other garments and prepare
for her final moments.
She did not tie a blindfold, but wept greatly like Jane Kennedy as she saw Mary being hacked
to pieces by the executioner.
However what is interesting is that following Mary’s execution, and inventory was made
of her jewels, and many items were listed as being in the custody of Elizabeth Curle.
This included a chain of coral and gold musk, or pomander bead Sts with pearls, and a chain
of small pearls.
She also had possession of a gold book and the portraits of Mary Darnley and James VI,
along with a gold ring set with a ruby, a diamond ring, a ring of mother pearl set with
a blue sapphire, a gold enamelled spear, a gold tree with a queen on top and a boy pulling
the branches, and 12 billiards and an ivory ball.
With this, it shows us that following her death Elizabeth maintained custody of the
Queen’s valuables and jewellery and presumably now owned these.
She was given instruction to pass on certain items following her death, and she had custody
of Mary’s chaser plate and more silver items.
She also had 200 French Crowns for one of her sisters, and many items from the Queen’s
wardrobe including a silk gown, a black petticoat edged with sheepskin and many more items.
There are many paintings that show Mary Queen of Scots in her final moments at Fotheringhay
as the executioner stands in the background armed with his axe.
But present are also two women, and we now know that these are Elizabeth Curle and Jane
Kennedy, who were incredibly loyal to the former Scottish monarch.
What is shocking is that Mary’s execution dealt with the threat she posed to Elizabeth
forever, however the English queen its believed did regret signing her death warrant and that
this caused a significant amount of upset for the English Queen, as she was now also
seen as a Queen killer.
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