| 1. | Connecting Note. | | 2. | Contemporary Verses on the Babington Conspiracy. | | 3. | Queen Mary's Letter to Queen Elizabeth on hearing the announcement of her sentence. | | 4. | Clauses from Queen Mary's Will. | | 5. | Appeal for Spiritual Faculties. | | 6. | "O Domine Deus, speravi in te." | | 7. | Contemporary Official Report of the Execution. | CONNECTING NOTE Queen Mary's life, after the conclusion of the conference at Westminster, was occupied with plots and negotiations for her escape from captivity. The proposal for her marriage with the Duke of Norfolk was opposed both in Scotland and in England; and an insurrection was raised by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, which was speedily suppressed (November, 1569). In January of the following year the Earl of Moray was assassinated at Linlithgow, and the Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, succeeded him as Regent. Maitland of Lethington finally seceded from the "King's party," and allied himself with Kirkaldy of Grange, who held Edinburgh Castle for Mary. The Norfolk conspiracy continued to raise the expectations of the Marians till the capture, in the spring of 1571, of Charles Baillie, who was carrying letters from the papal agent, Rudolfi, for Queen Mary, Norfolk, the Spanish ambassador, and the Bishop of Ross. On the strength of Baillie's disclosures, Norfolk was put to death in June 1572. Elizabeth declined to gratify the English Parliament by executing her prisoner, but attempted to arrange for her delivery to the Earl of Morton, now Regent of Scotland, with a view to his accepting the responsibility for Mary's death. Morton broke off the negotiations as Elizabeth refused to give her open sanction to the deed. Edinburgh Castle surrendered in June 1573, and its fall, and the loss of Lethington and Grange, gave the death-blow to the hopes of the Queen of Scots. She maintained, however, a constant correspondence with Elizabeth and with Spain and Rome, clutching eagerly at any hope of release, however vague. In 1586 she became involved, to what extent is disputed, in what is known as the Babington Conspiracy, which had for its object the assassination of Elizabeth and her ministers, and the restoration of Catholicism throughout Great Britain. Walsingham received information as to the plot, and obtained possession of letters alleged to be written by Mary to Babington. The conspirators were put to death, and Mary was tried by a Commission of Peers in the end of 1586. The following verses, addressed to the conspirators, indicate the common feeling in England at the time. They are quoted from a poem by William Kempe, published in 1587, and entitled "A Dutiful Invective against the moste haynous Treasons of Ballard and Babington ... together with the horrible attempts and actions of the Queen of Scottes.... For a New Yeares gift to all loyall English subjects." The author of the verses is not Kemp the player, but a writer of some treatises on Education. Cf. "Dict. Nat. Biog."
A DUTIFUL INVECTIVE The Scottish Queen, with mischief fraught, for to perform the will
Of him whose pupil she hath been hath usËd all her skill;
By words most fair, and loving terms, and gifts of value great:
For to persuade your hollow hearts, your duties to forget,
And for to be assistant still, her treacheries to further,
Wherein she reckons it no sinne though you commit great murther.
Such is her heinous hateful mind, who long hath lived in hope,
By such her subtle lawless means (and help of cursËd Pope)
Both to deprive our sovereign Queen of her imperial crown,
And true religion to repel, God's Gospel to put down.
Wherein you fully did conclude that it could never be,
Except you first conspired her death, by secret treachery.
And thereupon consulted oft, and sundry ways did seek
For to perform this devilish act, which you so well did like.
Next unto this your promise was to lend your help and aid,
With all the force and power you could, to foes that should invade.
And thereby for to set at large that Queen whom I did name,
Who always in her treacherous mind, doth nought but mischief frame.
THE CAUSE OF ALL OUR TROUBLES For plainly hath it fallen out, by sundry proofs most true,
She was the only maintainer of all this treacherous crew:
For trial whereof we may see, how that our gracious Queen,
Both having care the very truth most plainly might be seen,
And she with honour might be tried, in that she was a Prince,
Did cause the chiefest peers her faults by justice to convince:
Who did assemble at her place, by name called Fotheringay,
There to examine out the truth, and hear what she could say;
And to that end did then direct to them a large commission
For to examine every one in whom they found suspicion.
Who meeting at that place, it plainly did appear,
How that she was the chiefest cause of all our troubles here.
And that she by persuasions did seek for to withdraw
The subjects' hearts from this our Queen, who erst had lived in awe;
And that the treasons named before were all by her consent,
And that she author was thereof, and did the same invent,
Whereto her answer was so light, and to so small effect,
As that the weakness of the same her treasons did detect.
And thereupon these peers of State, having a due regard
To what she could object thereto, and likewise nothing spared
By circumstance to search out truth, did forthwith then pronounce
That she was guilty of these crimes, and could not them renounce.
Which sentence so by them declared, was by our Queen's consent,
Plainly revealed to all estates in court of Parliament;
And was by them considered of, who then did all agree
To join in suit unto her Grace, the same to ratify.
MARY'S LETTER TO ELIZABETH
|
  |
