One of the most captivating and interesting figures of the Tudor Period is Mary Queen
of Scots.
She served as a formidable and constant threat to the reign of Elizabeth I, even despite
being kept in prison by the Queen of England.
Elizabeth suffered with many threats to her throne from within England and also abroad,
for example she even managed to see off the Spanish Armada.
One of the greatest problems she had to death with was in regards to religion, as previous
Tudor Kings and Queens had caused a great degree of turbulence.
There was a divide in England between Protestants and Catholics, and this chaos was brought
about by Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I.
Henry began the Reformation and switch to Protestantism, Edward VI continued the reformation
and Mary I to confuse people further ordered a drastic change to Catholicism and her religion.
People didn’t know where to stand, but under her religious settlement, Elizabeth sought
to try to solve things.
As she was a Protestant, many protestants backed Elizabeth however Catholics did not
and they turned towards Mary Queen of Scots, a prominent Catholic who they believed should
have rightfully been the Queen of England.
Today we look at the Botched Execution and Death of Mary Queen of Scots.
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Henry VIII in his last will and testament excluded the stuarts from succeeding to the
English throne, but in the eyes of many Catholics, Elizabeth I who came onto the throne following
Mary I was illegitimate.
Her mother was Anne Boleyn and when she married Henry, this caused chaos and forced through
the English Reformation as the Pope would not get grant the King his annulment or divorce
from his first wife.
Anne was later beheaded inside the Tower of London on the King’s orders, and as Elizabeth
was the daughter of her, it was believed she was illegitimate and barred from the throne
for this.
Catholics believed that Mary Stuart, the Scottish Queen was also the rightful Queen of Scotland,
being the most senior legitimate descendent of Henry VII through her grandmother Margaret
Tudor.
Mary through a turbulent and tragic love life was eventually driven out of Scotland, as
there was much treachery and plotting against her.
She had ruled for a number of years, but her Second Husband Lord Darnley was a man who
wished to take power himself.
He was deemed as weak and with no authority, but he became jealous of Mary’s closeness
with her secretary David rizzio, and then had his murdered infront of the 6 month pregnant
Mary in bloody scenes.
Darnley was later killed, but she then married the man whom it’s believed was responsible
for the death of her second husband, and for this she was forced off the throne, and her
son James became the King of Scotland.
Mary was imprisoned in a castle in Scotland, but in May 1568 she later managed to escape
and flee to England.
She was placed under guard by Elizabeth I when she came to England, and throughout the
next 18 years of her life, she was held as a prized prisoner of the English Queen, and
was moved to a number of locations and castles around the country.
This was done to protect her as it was believed Catholics would break her out of prison.
Mary’s presence in England gave Elizabeth a headache, as the catholics were already
unhappy with her approach to religion, and there was a genuine worry that there would
be an uprising and that Mary would be freed and would be the figurehead of a Catholic
rebellion to oust or even assassinate the Protestant Queen Elizabeth.
Many Catholics genuinely believed Mary should be the Queen, and Elizabeth and her court
became very suspicious of her.
Elizabeth was aware that she was the target of a number of assassination plots, and there
were three significant ones involving Mary Queen of Scots and the death of Elizabeth.
In 1571 the Ridolfi Plot planned this, as did the Throckmorton Plot in 1583, and then
3 years later the most significant plot to kill Elizabeth involving Mary would come.
The Babington Plot led by Anthony Babington planned to break Mary out of prison and then
put her on the throne of England by also assassinating Elizabeth I. Mary and Babington wrote letters
discussing the plan and subsequently giving her permission for the to go ahead.
However these were intercepted by Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster and Mary’s
involvement in the plan could not be disputed.
Because of this she was technically guilty of treason, however Elizabeth was very hesitant
to order the execution of her cousin and an anointed Queen, especially the one who’s
country borders England.
The problem was that Elizabeth didn’t really have a choice, as having Mary alive was too
dangerous even as she was held captive for almost 20 years.
She could not exile her or return her back to Scotland either, but eventually was convinced
to sign her death warrant.
Mary in the meantime was moved to Fotheringhay Castle where she was held as the Queens prisoner.
She had been placed on trial there, and on the 1st February 1587 finally the death warrant
was signed.
On the 7th February, a number of representatives from Queenn Elizabeth arrived at Fotheringhay,
where Mary was held prisoner and they then informed her of her impending execution, that
would take place on the next morning at between 7 and 8 o’clock.
Her jailer was ordered to prepare everything for Mary’s death, and Mary hearing this
its believed was relieved that her years in prison and with reduced freedom would come
to an end.
She said she’d been prepared for death ever since she arrived in England and was taken
prisoner.
She had enough fo her treatment, but did ask the men for some more time to get her affairs
in order, but then she was cut down, and this was refused.
It was said that the execution could not be delayed a moment beyond that time.’
In her final hours, Mary Queen of Scots wrote to her friends and family, saying goodbye
to her ladies and also spent time in prayer.
On the morning of the 8th February 1587, she was summoned from her room for her execution.
Inside the great hall of the castle, a scaffold had been created that was covered in black
cloth.
It was reached by a couple of small steps and on the scaffold was the block, and a cushion
for Mary to kneel on as she lay her head on the block.
There were also 3 stools, one for her and the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent who were
sent to watch the execution.
Mary when she entered Fortheringhay’s great hall entered full of majesty and grace as
if she was attending a ball or dance and not her own death.
As she got close to the scaffold she asked for help climbing up the steps, and then she
asked the officers to allow her priest to remain with her, but this was refused.
She was offered a Protestant minister, but this was seen by Mary as a final insult to
her wishes and faith.
She was advised to carry the cross of christ in her heart rather than in her hand, and
she prayed that England and Scotland would be converted to the Catholic Church once more.
Mary then summoned her ladies in waiting to help her prepare for her final moments.
She had her ladies remove her black veil, her headdress and other jewellery.
The executioner tried to help, but Mary raged forcing the man back and saying he should
not touch her.
When Mary’s ladies helped her, they revealed that she was wearing a velvet petticoat and
sleeves of crimson brown, the colour that symbolised she would become a catholic martyr.
Her executioner, a man named Bull and his assistant as was customary then begged for
Mary’s forgiveness, and the Queen granted him this and she hoped that any sins she had
would be forgiven by god.
She wore a golden crucifix which was allegedly made from wood from the true cross, and she
wished to give this to one of her ladies, but the executioner prevented this.
She then told her ladies to go, and made the sign of the cross to them.
They were all distressed, and one in particular burst into tears but Mary reassured her and
then they were told to pray for Mary’s soul.
Jane Kennedy, one of her ladies then gave the Queen of Scots a white handkerchief, and
blindfolded Mary.
She then briskly knelt down at the block, and said ‘Into thy hands O lord I commend
my spirit, in latin, and then Mary stretched out her arms giving the executioner that she
was ready to die.
Mary’s execution did not go as planned however.
Inside the Great Hall of the Castle, the executioner made a mess of Mary’s death.
Mary was not beheaded with one strike of the axe.
The first blow came crushing down from the axe, and missed her neck and instead struck
the back of her head causing a terrible wound to her skull.
The second strike from the axe almost severed her neck completely apart from a small piece
of sinew that held her head still to her body.
Following this the executioner then cut through this sinew like a saw with his axe, and he
held Mary Queen of Scot’s head to the crowd.
As he held it up, the said ‘God save the Queen,’ but Mary’s auburn hair he was
holding onto was infact a wig.
With this, Mary’s head fell from the air onto the floor, with the executioner holding
the wig.
It was said that Mary actually had very short grey hair, and it rolled towards the edge
of the scaffold.
It was noted that, ‘her lips stirred up and down for a quarter of an hour after her
head was cut off.’
After the beheading of Mary, anything that belonged to the Queen or was touched by her
was burned inside the fireplace of the Great Hall to prevent any relics being collected
from the Queen.
After hearing that the execution had gone ahead, Elizabeth I was raging and furious,
and she greatly regretted the death of Mary until the day she died.
Mary’s body was embalmed and left in a lead coffin before being buried in a Protestant
Service, and was buried inside Peterborough Cathedral.
The Protestant service would have been against Mary’s wishes, however later her body was
exhumed and reinterred during the reign of her son as King of England and Scotland, and
was placed in Westminster Abbey opposite the tomb of Elizabeth I.
The execution of Mary Queen of Scots was a botched one, in which the executioner performed
his office poorly.
The event was very shocking as one Queen had ordered the death and signed off on the execution
of another anointed Queen.
In a time in which many people believed that monarchs were sent by god to rule, this was
seen as Elizabeth executing someone sent by God to rule over people.
But what was clear was that Mary did infact comply with plots to break her out of prison,
and to agree to plots to overthrow Elizabeth.
Yes this is treason, but it’s because of the desperation and frustration she had being
imprisoned for almost 2 decades that its believed she did this.
Mary Queen of Scots was most probably desperate to secure her freedom, something of which
Elizabeth I would never grant her.
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