"It appertaynes to ye duty we owe to our dearest mother that like honour should be done to her body, and like monument be extant to her as ourselves have already performed to our deare sister ye late Queen Elizabeth."—James VI. 28th Sept. 1612.
SIXTEEN years after the ceremony we have described in the last chapter James, now King of England, at last desired to show some mark of respect to his mother's memory, and Sir William Dethick was again intrusted with this mission.
On the 14th of August 1603 he was sent to Peterborough with "a rich pall of velvet, embroidered with the arms of the mighty princess Mary Queene of Scotts." He was also the bearer of letters to the Bishop of Peterborough to ask leave to place it on the coffin, which, being obtained, the pall was "by him caryed and laid uppon and over the corps of the said late Queene, assisted by many knights and gentlemen." A large concourse of people were present at the ceremony. The Bishop preached a sermon suitable to the occasion in the morning, and in the afternoon the Dean "preached of the same." In the interval there was a splendid banquet. "Then the Queene of Scotland," says our authority quaintly, "was most royally and sumptuously (re)enterred by the said gentee on the 14th August."[200]
medallion
Walker & Boutall, Ph. Sc.
Medallion containing
Miniature of Mary Queen of Scots
and Relics
now in the possession of Lady Milford.
Enlarge
Nine years later James, after erecting the well-known monument to Queen Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey, determined to do the same honour to his mother. He therefore addressed the following letter to the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough:[201]—
To the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough.[202]
To our trusty and well-beloved the Dean and Chapter of our Cathedral Church of Peterborough; and in their absence, to the Right Reverend Father in God, the Bishop of Peterborough, and to such of the Prebendaries and other officers of the Church as shall be found there.
James R.
Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well, for that we think it appertains to the duty we owe to our dearest mother that like honour should be done to her body and like monument be extant of her, as others, hers, and our progenitors have been used to be done, and ourselves have already performed to our dear sister the late Queen Elizabeth, we have commanded a memorial of her to be made in our Church of Westminster, the place where the kings and queens of this realm are usually interred: and for that we think it inconvenient that the monument and her body should be in several places; we have ordered that her said body, remaining now interred in that our cathedral church of Peterborough, shall be removed to Westminster, to the Reverend father in God, our right trusty and well-beloved servant the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, bearer therof; to whom we require you (or to such as he shall assign) to deliver the corps of our said dearest mother, the same being taken up in as decent and respectful manner as is fitting. And for that there is a Pall now upon the hearse over her grave which will be requisite to be used to cover her said body in the removing therof, which may perhaps be deemed as a fee that should belong to the Church; we have appointed the said reverend father to pay you a reasonable redemption for the same, which being done by him, we require you that he may have the pall to be used for the purpose aforesaid.[203] Given under our signet at our honour of Hampton Court, the eight and twentieth day of September in the tenth year of our reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the six and fortieth.
Here follows a memorandum to this effect:—
These Letters were delivered to the Right Reverend father in God, the Lord Bishop of Peterborough, and to me, Henry Williamson, one of the Prebends of the said Cathedral Church, in the absence of the Dean and the rest of our Prebends, and the contents therof were executed the fourth day of October, in the year aforesaid,
(signed) W.K.
Although no doubt the removal of the body was effected with great solemnity and state, no detailed record of the ceremony has been discovered. The beautiful tomb in Westminster is too well known to need description. In it we see, as remarks one of Mary's latest historians, if not a memorial of filial piety, at least a mark of James's taste for art.[204] The effigy of the Queen seems to have been taken from a contemporary portrait, possibly from the fine picture still in the possession of the Earl of Morton, but neither this fact nor the name of the sculptor can now be known.
Our task is now concluded. At the foot of Queen Mary's tomb we lay this small tribute to her memory.
