One of the most captivating women of the 16th century was Mary Queen of Scots.
She had a very tumultuous love life, and she was married to the King of France that died
young, and she also married a man who was blown up.
Her third husband was the man suspected of killing her second, but inside the walls of
a modest castle in England, Mary Queen of Scots would be executed in brutal fashion.
A headsman took her head off in a number of swings of his axe, following her death sentence
for treason.
Mary had been involved in a number of plots against the life of Queen Elizabeth I, and
following the Babington Plot, the Queen of England had enough and finally signed her
death warrant.
But following her execution, Mary’s body was not treated well and was originally buried
nearby at Peterborough Cathedral, however this was then dug up and moved to Westminster
Abbey.
But on a number of occasions, Mary’s executed resting body was disinterred and was even
broken into when it was placed in it’s final resting place.
Mary Queen of Scots was not executed in one single strike of the axe.
The first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head, and the second blow
severed the neck except a small bit of sinew which was then cut through using the executioner’s
axe.
Her head was held aloft inside the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle, and the executioner
declared ‘God Save the Queen.’
Following this her wig came loose and her head then fell onto the floor, but after her
execution everything which was touched by her blood including her clothing, and even
the executioner’s block was thrown into the fireplace of the Great Hall, to stop relic
hunters obtaining relics from the dead Queen of Scotland.
Mary’s execution greatly distressed Queen Elisabeth I, and she even had one of her councillors
thrown inside of the Tower of London.
But Mary Queen of Scots before her death had given strict instruction that after her death,
she wanted to be buried in France, alongside her first husband.
This was refused by Elizabeth I, and her body was then embalmed and was left inside a secure
lead coffin inside the walls of Fotheringhay Castle.
Mary’s body was left unburied and in a coffin which was sealed for a number of months as
a suitable location to bury her was found.
Eventually the authorities settled on Peterborough Cathedral, which was the closest Cathedral
to the execution site.
Her entrails and heart were buried within Fotheringhay Castle’s grounds, and then
after 6 months Elizabeth I ordered her burial.
Mary’s request was denied, and the brutal register for Peterborough Cathedral for 1587
said, ‘The Queen of Scots was most sumptuously buried in ye Cathedral Church of Peterborough
the first day of August 1587, who was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle, the eight of February
before.’
Queen Elizabeth’s household officers and heralds arrived in Peterborough in later July
to choose the burial place and they selected a site directly opposite Katherine of Aragon,
the first wife of Henry VIII.
A rich hearse was erected near the first steps of the Quire, and the whole of the cathedral
was decorated with black hangings.
On the 30th July between 1 am and 2am, the body was brought from Fotheringhay by torchlight
in a chariot hung with black velvet, adorned with Mary Queen of Scot’s symbols.
It was attended on by the Bishop and Dean of Peterborough, and many other officials
along with members of Mary’s household.
The body was taken into the Cathedral, and then it was laid into the vault.
On the Monday afternoon a group of lords and ladies arrived at the Bishop’s palace which
was hung in black, and then the following morning, members of the clergy and lords and
ladies gathered in the Cathedral for a sermon by the Bishop of Lincoln, who said that he
hoped Mary was saved despite having died a Catholic.
Her officials and servants then broke their staves of office and placed them in Mary’s
grave, and then mourners had another huge feast and everyone went home.
A helmet, sword and shield were then installed to hang above the tomb.
But this was not what Mary wanted, but her tomb and grave would be broken into.
In 1603, following the death of Elizabeth I, Mary’s son James succeeded onto the throne,
and became known as King James I. He was already the Scottish King, and he unionised the crowns.
But three years after coming onto the throne, he began to plan for the reburial of his mother
inside of Westminster Abbey.
Plans took years to be drawn up, and Mary Queen of Scots would be reburied in 1612 with
an extravagant tomb taking 6 years to complete.
Her remains were then dug up from Peterborough Cathedral, and they were taken on the journey
to Westminster Abbey in London.
A royal warrant granted the burial, and this took place on the 11th October.
The King James I had erected a magnificent marble tomb for her on the south aisle of
the Lady Chapel, under a fine white marble effigy, under a canopy.
Her effigy shows her wearing a close fitting coif, a laced ruff and a long mantle.
A crowned Scottish Lion stands by her feet.
She was buried in a chapel opposite Elizabeth I, but her tomb was slight grander than Elizabeth’s
a small dig that James I had against the Queen who ordered his mother’s execution.
But Mary Queen of Scots remains would be broken into yet again, and in 1867 Arthur P Stanley
the Dean of Westminster would oversee and order a search of her vault.
The Dean of Westminster at the time was searching for the lost tomb of King James I, which was
later found in the vault of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
But at the time they believed that the remains could have been found within the same vault
of his mother Mary Queen of Scots.
After the exhumation and lifting of the tomb, Stanley found that Mary’s lead coffin was
along the north wall of the vault, but she was not alone.
Shockingly, the vault contained a number of other burials too, meaning that over the years,
Mary Queen of Scots’ vault had been opened a number of times, with other members of the
royal family being interred near to her.
Mary was found beneath that of Lady Arbella Stuart’s coffin, and inside the vault was
also Henry the Prince of Wales, Anne Hyde the Duchess of York, and the mother of two
Stuart Queens, Mary II and Anne, Elizabeth the Winter Queen of Bomeia.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, and also many children of James II were also held here.
Interestingly, many of those inside this vault were descendants of the stuarts, the very
dynasty that Mary was the head of.
Queen Anne and her surviving child the Duke of Gloucester were also found there.
But throughout the centuries, Mary Queen of Scots following her death was disturbed a
number of times.
Following her brutal execution, she was disembowelled and her remains were then buried inside the
grounds of Fotheringhay Castle.
Then her body was taken to the nearby Cathedral of Peterborough, before it was buried in a
huge ceremony there with a lot of respect.
But around 25 years later, she was disinterred and dug up again at the request of her son,
the then King of England and Scotland.
She was then taken to Westminster Abbey, and the heart of religion in England, and was
buried in a huge and ornate tomb befitting her status.
Then 200 years after this, her vault was disturbed as the officials inside of Westminster Abbey
were searching for the remains of her son.
Despite living a very captivating life, her final moments were chaotic, botched and still
today she is laid to rest in a place nowhere near where she wanted to be.
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