Mary, Queen of Scots (84 page)

Ibid.

Moray’s Journal, in Cotton MSS. Caligula

The English version is among the State Papers in the Public Record Office. The only parts omitted here are a few minor irrelevancies. The letter appears here with corrected translations.

The last four words appear only in the Scots, Latin and French versions.

It will be seen that these passages are very similar to Crawford’s Deposition.

The original letter, which was in French, has disappeared, but it is clear from the Scots, French and Latin versions that the English translator has made errors. This has been mistranslated in the English version as “to let blood.”

Another mistranslation: “journée” means “day” in French, not “journey,” which appears in the English version.

The last part of this sentence only appears in the English version.

Labanoff

Probably mistranslated. The word appears as “Devil” in the Scots version and as “yeere” in the English.

Given as “bible” in the English version, which is probably a mistranslation of “billet.”

An obvious mistranslation. It is probably a reference to Darnley’s skin eruptions.

The other versions state that the writer was sitting at the foot of the bed.

This last part of the sentence has next to it in the margin a translation from the original French in Cecil’s own hand, since the English translator has made an error. This sentence does not appear in the Scots version, and may well have caused problems for the Scottish translator also.

In the English version, this word is given as “grief”; all the other versions give “trouble.”

Lang

CSP Scottish

Cited by Mahon:
Lennox Narrative

Papal Negotiations

CSP Scottish

Moray’s Journal, in Cotton MSS. Caligula

CSP Venetian

Maitland to Cecil, 8 February 1567, in
CSP Scottish

CSP Spanish

CSP Scottish

Keith; Teulet

15. “ALL WAS PREPARED FOR THE CRIME”

Lennox Narrative

Drury to Cecil, 26 January 1567, in
CSP Scottish; CSP Venetian
; Buchanan

Book of Articles

Moray’s Journal, in Cotton MSS. Caligula;
Lennox Narrative; CSP Scottish

Nau

Book of Articles

Cotton MSS. Caligula

Lord Scrope to Cecil, 28 January 1567, in
CSP Scottish

Thomson:
Crime of Mary Stuart

Buchanan

Moray’s Journal states 30 January, Birrel 31 January, and the
Diurnal of Occurrents
1 February.

Lennox Narrative

CSP Venetian

Melville

Inventaires

Pitcairn; Goodall; Anderson:
Collections
. Thomas Crawford made a similar deposition (Cambridge University Library).

Lennox Narrative

Ibid.

Mahon:
Lennox Narrative

Pitcairn

Book of Articles

CSP Spanish

CSP Venetian

Inventaires

Nelson’s deposition, in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections

Inventaires
; Leslie

Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, cited by Gore-Browne

The buildings and topography of Kirk o’Field were extensively researched by Mahon for his book
The Tragedy of Kirk o’Field
, a work to which many authors, including myself, are deeply indebted. There is also a contemporary plan of Kirk o’Field, which was drawn up by one of Cecil’s agents hours after Darnley’s murder on 10 February 1567, which is now in the Public Record Office.

The collegiate buildings at Kirk o’Field were later converted into the College of King James and a house for its Principal, and in the late 18th century, the central quadrangle of Edinburgh University and its Hall of the Senate, designed by Robert Adam, were built on the site.

None of the original collegiate buildings remains, but the site of the Prebendaries’ Chamber and the Old Provost’s Lodging lies just inside the right angle created by South Bridge Street and South College Street. Tour guides in the city vaults point out what they say are the remains of the cellars of Darnley’s house and an adjacent close, the cellars being distinguished by Gothic arches, but these are not in the correct location.

Buchanan

Nelson’s deposition in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections

Details of all the furniture and hangings in the Old Provost’s Lodging are in
Inventaires
. Thomas Nelson is the source for the changing of Darnley’s bed (Pitcairn; Goodall; Anderson:
Collections
).

Nelson’s deposition, in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections

Nau

CSP Spanish
; Leslie

Lennox Narrative

Leslie

Ibid.

Knox

Nau

Nelson’s deposition, in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections

Lennox Narrative

Ibid.

William Tytler

Lennox Narrative

Ibid; cf. Buchanan

Buchanan

Nau

Nelson’s deposition, in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections

Buchanan says “three days before the murder.”

Melville

The Indictment of 1568 states Saturday afternoon, the
Book of Articles
and Paris’s deposition Saturday morning.

Melville

CSP Scottish
; Goodall

The English translation appears to be a copy from the original French, and is among the
Cecil Papers
at Hatfield House. Moray’s Journal, in Cotton MSS. Caligula, states that Mary’s confrontation with Lord Robert and Darnley “conform[ed] to her letter written the night before.”

See Armstrong Davison

The original French copy is in the Public Record Office. This English translation is taken from the Scots version in
CSP Scottish.

Inventaires

Papal Negotiations

CSP Spanish

CSP Scottish

Papal Negotiations
; reported by Father Hay to Mondovi.

In the
Detectio
, Buchanan says she had smallpox during pregnancy; in his
History
, he claims she had a miscarriage.

Lennox Narrative; CSP Venetian
. Lennox states that Mary had decided that Darnley should return to Holyrood on 10 February.

In the Register House in Edinburgh.

This house was owned by Mr. John Balfour (
Book of Articles
), not Sir James Balfour, as is sometimes stated.

Inventaires; Book of Articles
; Mondovi to Alessandria, 27 February 1567, in
Papal
Negotiations

Mondovi to Alessandria, 27 February 1567, in
Papal Negotiations

Labanoff. Buchanan says she had a “fairly large” or “a numerous attendance.” Clernault (
Papal Negotiations
) states she was accompanied by “all the principal Lords of her court.”

CSP Scottish

CSP Spanish

CSP Venetian

Clernault’s report, in
Papal Negotiations

Lennox Narrative

Keith

CSP Scottish

CSP Venetian
; Giovanni Correr, the Venetian ambassador in Paris, was informed of this by Moretta.

CSP Venetian
(Moretta to Correr);
Book of Articles; Lennox Narrative
; Nelson’s deposition, in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections
; Crawford’s deposition in Cambridge University Library; Buchanan:
History
; untitled ballad on the death of Darnley by Robert Lekprevik of Edinburgh, in
CSP Scottish; CSP Spanish
—de Silva says Mary gave Darnley “a jewel.”

Lennox Narrative
; Buchanan repeats this in his
History

Nau

Collector of the Queen’s rents.

Thomas Wilson

Nelson’s deposition, in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections

CSP Scottish

Buchanan; Thomas Wilson

Mahon:
Tragedy of Kirk o’Field

Bothwell

Nelson’s deposition, in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections

CSP Scottish

Lennox Narrative

Nelson’s deposition, in Pitcairn, Goodall and Anderson:
Collections

Buchanan

Nau

16. “MOST CRUEL MURDER”

Additional MSS.;
CSP Venetian

Mondovi to Cosimo de’ Medici, in Labanoff; Mondovi to Alessandria, 15/16 March 1567, in
Papal Negotiations.
Mondovi had received this information from Moretta.

The Privy Council to Catherine de’ Medici, 10 February 1567, in the Sloane MSS.

Buchanan

Mary to Archbishop Beaton, 10/11 February 1567, in Keith; cf. the Seigneur de Clernault in State Papers in the Public Record Office,
CSP Scottish
and
Papal Negotiations

State Papers in the Public Record Office;
CSP Scottish; Papal Negotiations

Pitcairn

Sloane MSS.

Ibid.; Keith

Historie of James the Sext

State Papers in the Public Record Office;
CSP Scottish; Papal Negotiations

Additional MSS.

Buchanan

Clernault, in State Papers in the Public Record Office,
CSP Scottish
and
Papal
Negotiations
. According to Buchanan, “the Queen, in great expectation of success, how finely she played her part it is marvellous to tell: for she not once stirred at the noise of the fall of the house, which shook the whole town, nor at the fearful outcries that followed.” Lennox states that, “upon the crack and noise, which the Queen waited for to hear, she went to bed” (
Lennox Narrative
). Buchanan says much the same thing elsewhere, and in the
Book of Articles
claims that the explosion “neither feared nor moved the Queen.”

Clernault, in State Papers in the Public Record Office,
CSP Scottish
and
Papal
Negotiations

Book of Articles

Deposition of William Powrie, in Pitcairn

Bothwell

Pitcairn

CSP Spanish

Clernault, in State Papers in the Public Record Office,
CSP Scottish
and
Papal
Negotiations

Buchanan. See the sketch of the murder scene in the Public Record Office for the positions of the bodies.

Herries; Knox

Buchanan;
CSP Spanish

Knox

Buchanan

Pitcairn

Additional MSS.

The
Book of Articles
states that it was Bothwell, but it is more likely that Mary would have been informed of Darnley’s death before Bothwell was.

Bothwell

Buchanan

Bothwell

Clernault, in State Papers in the Public Record Office,
CSP Scottish
and
Papal
Negotiations

CSP Venetian

Bothwell

Ibid.; Knox

Knox. The
Book of Articles
alleges that Darnley’s body was “left lying in the yard [
sic
] where it was apprehended the space of three hours” before “the rascal[ly] people transported him to a vile house near the room where before he was lodged.” This is obviously a distortion of the truth.

Bothwell

Ibid.

Ibid.

Now in the Public Record Office.

Nau

Crawfurd:
Memoirs

Papal Negotiations

Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer
, 15 February 1567

In his
Detectio
, Buchanan wrote that this was the custom in Scotland also, and de Silva reported that Robert Melville had left Mary “confined to her chamber, with the intention of not leaving it for forty days, as is the custom of widows there” (
CSP Spanish
). However, there is no evidence that either of the two previous widowed Queens, Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV, and Marie de Guise, wife of James V, ever observed this custom.

Melville

In his
Detectio
and
The Book of Articles
, Buchanan states that Mary slept till noon, but in his
History
, he claims that she slept most of the day. This is another example of the inconsistencies in his narratives.

Nau

Mary herself reported this in a letter written on 16 February 1567 to Mondovi, who in turn reported it to Alessandria (
Papal Negotiations)
.

Knox

The
Book of Articles
states that Darnley “remained 48 hours as a gazing stock,” but this cannot be true. His body was laid in state on 12 February, and it would have taken a day or so for the embalming processes to be completed.

Melville

Sloane MSS.

Keith

Keith;
Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer

Book of Articles

Buchanan;
Book of Articles; CSP Scottish

17. “NONE DARE FIND FAULT WITH IT”

Adam Blackwood, a Catholic supporter of Mary whose work was published in 1581 in France, is the only source to mention torture. He states that these deponents “had been extraordinarily racked” and beaten with hammers “to draw some one word against their mistress,” but they refused to say anything to condemn her.

The texts of the depositions quoted in this chapter are to be found in Pitcairn, Anderson:
Collections,
and Goodall. Three modern works that have proved very useful for this chapter are Mahon:
Tragedy of Kirk o’Field
, which is the result of ten years’ research and sets out to show that Darnley was responsible for the explosion, a theory that is now largely discredited; Gore-Browne:
Bothwell,
which reaches the same conclusion; and Thomson:
Crime of Mary Stuart
, which attempts to reconstruct the murder from the depositions.