Chapter 18 of 19 · 3975 words · ~20 min read

Part 18

The Queen also begs that Catholic men, twenty-five in number, nominated by her, in order that they may serve her more conveniently and safely, may without scruple and without danger or fear of censures and of sin, be present at such prayers and communions of the heretics, it being understood that they shall not communicate with them or give even verbal consent to their nefarious acts.

Let His Holiness grant also to the Queen herself a plenary indulgence and remission of all her sins, in the form of a jubilee, as often as, having confessed her sins, she may pray on bended knees before the Holy Eucharist, or receive it, and as often as she patiently endures injuries inflicted on her by heretics. May she obtain also the same indulgence at the moment of death by invoking with her lips, Jesu, Maria, or at least meditating on them in her heart.

Finally the Queen begs His Holiness with many prayers, that whomsoever she shall choose as a priest, she may be by him, in sacramental confession, absolved from all censures, even from those reserved to the Holy Apostolic See, and contained in the Bull "Coena Domini."

Illustration: SILVER-GILT HAND-BELL. Height 4-1/2 inches. (_Used by Queen Mary in Captivity._)

_"IN THEE HAVE I TRUSTED"_

Poem composed by Queen Mary in view of her Approaching Death.

O Domine Deus, speravi in te! O care mi Jesu, nunc libera me! In dura catena, in misera poena, Languendo, gemendo, et genu flectendo, Adoro, imploro ut liberes me.

_Tr. Mr. Swinburne, Mary Stuart_, Act V.

O Lord my God, I have trusted in thee; O Jesu my dearest one, Now set me free. In prison's oppression, In sorrow's obsession, I weary for thee. With sighing and crying, Bowed down as dying, I adore thee, I implore thee, set me free!

_PARTING WITH ROBERT MELVILLE_

1587.--February 8. Narrative of the Execution, sent to the Court.

_Ellis's Letters_, Ser. ii. vol. iii. p. 113, from the Lansdowne MS. 51, Art. 46.

First, the said Scottish Queen, being carried by two of Sir Amias Paulett's gentlemen, and the Sheriff going before her, came most willingly out of her chamber into an entry next the Hall, at which place the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Earl of Kent, commissioners for the execution, with the two governors of her person, and divers knights and gentlemen did meet her, where they found one of the Scottish Queen's servants, named Melvin, kneeling on his knees, who uttered these words with tears to the Queen of Scots, his mistress, "Madam, it will be the sorrowfullest message that ever I carried, when I shall report that my Queen and dear mistress is dead." Then the Queen of Scots, shedding tears, answered him, "You ought to rejoice rather than weep for that the end of Mary Stuart's troubles is now come. Thou knowest, Melvin, that all this world is but vanity, and full of troubles and sorrows; carry this message from me, and tell my friends that I die a true woman to my religion, and like a true Scottish woman and a true Frenchwoman. But God forgive them that have long desired my end; and He that is the true Judge of all secret thoughts knoweth my mind, how that it ever hath been my desire to have Scotland and England united together. Commend me to my son, and tell him that I have not done anything that may prejudice his kingdom of Scotland; and so, good Melvin, farewell;" and kissing him, she bade him pray for her.

_AN ENGLISH NOBLEMAN_

Then she turned to the Lords and told them that she had certain requests to make unto them. One was for a sum of money, which she said Sir Amyas Paulet knew of, to be paid to one Curle her servant; next, that all her poor servants might enjoy that quietly which by her Will and Testament she had given unto them; and lastly, that they might be all well entreated, and sent home safely and honestly into their countries. "And this I do conjure you, my Lords, to do."

Answer was made by Sir Amyas Paulet, "I do well remember the money your Grace speaketh of, and your Grace need not to make any doubt of the not performance of your requests, for I do surely think they shall be granted."

"I have," said she, "one other request to make unto you, my Lords, that you will suffer my poor servants to be present about me, at my death, that they may report when they come into their countries how I died a true woman to my religion."

Then the Earl of Kent, one of the commissioners, answered, "Madam, it cannot well be granted, for that it is feared lest some of them would with speeches both trouble and grieve your Grace, and disquiet the company, of which we have had already some experience, or seek to wipe their napkins in some of your blood, which were not convenient." "My Lord," said the Queen of Scots, "I will give my word and promise for them that they shall not do any such thing as your Lordship has named. Alas! poor souls, it would do them good to bid me farewell. And I hope your Mistress, being a maiden Queen, in regard of womanhood, will suffer me to have some of my own people about me at my death. And I know she hath not given you so straight a commission, but that you may grant me more than this, if I were a far meaner woman than I am." And then (seeming to be grieved) with some tears uttered these words: "You know that I am cousin to your Queen, and descended from the blood of Henry the Seventh, a married Queen of France, and the anointed Queen of Scotland."

"_BESIDE THE BLOCK--ALONE_"

Whereupon, after some consultation, they granted that she might have some of her servants according to her Grace's request, and therefore desired her to make choice of half-a-dozen of her men and women: who presently said that of her men she would have Melvin, her apothecary, her surgeon, and one other old man beside; and of her women, those two that did use to lie in her chamber.

After this, she being supported by Sir Amias's two gentlemen aforesaid, and Melvin carrying up her train, and also accompanied with the Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen aforenamed, the Sheriff going before her, she passed out of the entry into the Great Hall, with her countenance careless, importing thereby rather mirth than mournful cheer, and so she willingly stepped up to the scaffold which was prepared for her in the Hall, being two feet high and twelve feet broad, with rails round about, hung and covered with black, with a low stool, long cushion, and block, covered with black also. Then, having the stool brought her, she sat her down; by her, on the right hand, sat the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Earl of Kent, and on the left hand stood the Sheriff, and before her the two executioners; round about the rails stood Knights, Gentlemen, and others.

Then, silence being made, the Queen's Majesty's Commission for the execution of the Queen of Scots was openly read by Mr. Beale, clerk of the Council; and these words pronounced by the Assembly, "God save the Queen." During the reading of which Commission the Queen of Scots was silent, listening unto it with as small regard as if it had not concerned her at all; and with as cheerful a countenance as if it had been a pardon from her Majesty for her life; using as much strangeness in word and deed as if she had never known any of the Assembly, or had been ignorant of the English language.

_A THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY_

Then one Doctor Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough, standing directly before her, without the rail, bending his body with great reverence, began to utter this exhortation following: "Madam, the Queen's most excellent Majesty," &c, and iterating these words three or four times, she told him, "Mr. Dean, I am settled in the ancient Catholic Roman religion, and mind to spend my blood in defence of it." Then Mr. Dean said: "Madam, change your opinion, and repent you of your former wickedness, and settle your faith only in Jesus Christ, by Him to be saved." Then she answered again and again, "Mr. Dean, trouble not yourself any more, for I am settled and resolved in this my religion, and am purposed therein to die." Then the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Earl of Kent, perceiving her so obstinate, told her that since she would not hear the exhortation begun by Mr. Dean, "We will pray for your Grace, that it stand with God's will you may have your heart lightened, even at the last hour, with the true knowledge of God, and so die therein." Then she answered, "If you will pray for me, my Lords, I will thank you; but to join in prayer with you I will not, for that you and I are not of one religion."

_THE EARL OF KENT_

Then the Lords called for Mr. Dean, who, kneeling on the scaffold stairs, began this prayer, "O most gracious God and merciful Father," &c, all the Assembly, saving the Queen of Scots and her servants, saying after him. During the saying of which prayer, the Queen of Scots, sitting upon a stool, having about her neck an _Agnus Dei_, in her hand a crucifix, at her girdle a pair of beads with a golden cross at the end of them, a Latin book in her hand, began with tears and with loud and fast voice to pray in Latin; and in the midst of her prayers she slided off from her stool, and kneeling, said divers Latin prayers; and after the end of Mr. Dean's prayer, she kneeling, prayed in English to this effect: "For Christ His afflicted Church, and for an end of their troubles; for her son; and for the Queen's Majesty, that she might prosper and serve God aright." She confessed that she hoped to be saved "by and in the blood of Christ, at the foot of whose Crucifix she would shed her blood." Then said the Earl of Kent, "Madam, settle Christ Jesus in your heart, and leave those trumperies." Then she little regarding, or nothing at all, his good counsel, went forward with her prayers, desiring that "God would avert His wrath from this Island, and that He would give her grief and forgiveness for her sins." These, with other prayers she made in English, saying she forgave her enemies with all her heart that had long sought her blood, and desired God to convert them to the truth; and in the end of the prayer she desired all saints to make intercession for her to Jesus Christ, and so kissing the crucifix, and crossing of her also, said these words: "Even as Thy arms, O Jesus, were spread here upon the Cross, so receive me into Thy arms of mercy, and forgive me all my sins."

_SMILING CHEER_

Her prayer being ended, the executioners, kneeling, desired her Grace to forgive them her death; who answered, "I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles." Then they, with her two women, helping of her up, began to disrobe her of her apparel; she never changed her countenance, but with smiling cheer she uttered these words, "that she never had such grooms to make her unready, and that she never put off her clothes before such a company."

Then she, being stripped of all her apparel saving her petticoat and kirtle, her two women beholding her made great lamentation, and crying and crossing themselves prayed in Latin; she, turning herself to them, embracing them, said these words in French, "Ne criez vous; j'ay promis pour vous;" and so crossing and kissing them, bade them pray for her, and rejoice and not weep, for that now they should see an end of all their mistress's troubles. Then she, with a smiling countenance, turning to her men servants, as Melvin and the rest, standing upon a bench nigh the scaffold, who sometime weeping, sometime crying out aloud, and continually crossing themselves, prayed in Latin, crossing them with her hand bade them farewell; and wishing them to pray for her even until the last hour.

"_INTO THY HANDS_"

This done, one of the women having a Corpus Christi cloth lapped up three-corner ways, kissing it, put it over the Queen of Scots' face, and pinned it fast to the caul of her head. Then the two women departed from her, and she kneeling down upon the cushion most resolutely, and without any token or fear of death, she spake aloud this Psalm in Latin, "In te, Domine, confido, non confundar in eternum," &c. {Ps. xxv.}. Then, groping for the block, she laid down her head, putting her chin over the block with both her hands, which holding there, still had been cut off, had they not been espied. Then lying upon the block most quietly, and stretching out her arms, cried, "In manus tuas, Domine," &c, three or four times. Then she lying very still on the block, one of the executioners holding of her slightly with one of his hands, she endured two strokes of the other executioner with an axe, she making very small noise or none at all, and not stirring any part of her from the place where she lay; and so the executioner cut off her head, saving one little grisle, which being cut asunder, he lifted up her head to the view of all the assembly, and bade "God save the Queen." Then her dressing of lawn falling off from her head, it appeared as grey as one of threescore and ten years old, polled very short, her face in a moment being so much altered from the form she had when she was alive, as few could remember her by her dead face. Her lips stirred up and down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off.

Then Mr. Dean said with a loud voice, "So perish all the Queen's enemies;" and afterwards the Earl of Kent came to the dead body, and standing over it, with a loud voice said, "Such end of all the Queen's and the Gospel's enemies."

Illustration: EFFIGY AT WESTMINSTER.

_THE LAST COURTIER_

Then one of the executioners pulling off her garters, espied her little dog which was crept under her clothes, which could not be gotten forth but by force, yet afterward would not depart from the dead corpse, but came and lay between her head and her shoulders, which being imbrued with her blood, was carried away and washed, as all things else were that had any blood was either burned or clean washed; and the executioners sent away with money for their fees, not having any one thing that belonged unto her. And so, every man being commanded out of the Hall, except the Sheriff and his men, she was carried by them up into a great chamber lying ready for the surgeons to embalm her.

A full account of Queen Mary's last days will be found in "The Tragedy of Fotheringay," by the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott. In August 1587, the Queen was buried, with great ceremony, in Peterborough Cathedral, and, in 1612, was reinterred in Westminster Abbey by her son James VI. and I.

APPENDICES

_CONTENTS_

(A.) Genealogical Tables.

(B.) Lord Darnley.

(C.) Contemporary Writers.

(D.) Authorities.

(E.) Controversial Books.

_APPENDIX A._

(A.) TABLE SHOWING THE RELATIONSHIP OF MARY TO LORD DARNLEY AND TO THE DUKE OF CHATELHERAULT.

TABLE SHOWING THE POSITION OF MARY AND DARNLEY WITH REGARD TO THE CROWN OF ENGLAND.

_APPENDIX B._

(B.) LORD DARNLEY.

It may be of some interest to collect a few contemporary opinions regarding the unfortunate Lord Darnley. The extracts from Sir James Melville and Randolph (pp. 46-53, 54-56) sufficiently illustrate the personality of Mary, and we need only add Knolly's description of the Queen of Scots on her arrival in England (Wright's "Elizabeth," vol. i. pp. 280-1). He wrote to Cecil: "This ladie and princess is a notable woman. She semeth to regard no ceremonious honour beside the acknowledging of her estate regalle. She sheweth a disposition to speake much, to be bold, to be pleasant, and to be very famylyar. She sheweth a great desire to be avenged of her enemies: she sheweth a readiness to expose herself to all perylls in hope of victorie; she delyteth much to hear of hardiness and valiancye, commending by name all approved hardy men of her cuntrye, altho' they be her enemies: and she commendeth no cowardice even in her friends. The thing that most she thirsteth after is victory, and it semeth to be indifferent to her to have her enemies diminish, either by the sword of her friends, or by the liberall promises and rewards of her purse, or by division and quarrells raised among themselves; so that for victorie's sake, payne and perrylls semeth pleasant unto her, and in respect of victorie, welthe and all thyngs semeth to her contemptuous and vile."

Our best picture of Darnley comes from the pen of the continuator of Knox. "He was of a comely stature, and none was like unto him within this island; he died under the age of one and twenty years; prompt and ready for all games and sports; much given to hawking and hunting, and running of horses, and likewise to playing on the lute; and also to Venus chamber he was liberal enough; he could write and dictate well; but he was somewhat given to wine, and much feeding, and likewise to inconstancy; and proud beyond measure, and therefore contemned all others; he had learned to dissemble well enough, being from his youth misled up in Popery" (Laing's "Knox," vol. ii. p. 551). Incidental references to Darnley's character will be found on pp. 47-8, 64-5, 87-8, &c. The author of the "Histoire of James the Sext" wrote of him, "He was a comelie Prince, of a fayre and large stature of bodie, pleasant in countenance, and affable to all men, and devote, weill exercised in martiall pastymes upoun horseback as ony Prince of that age, but was sa facile as he could conceal no secret, although it might tend to his own weill." Of Darnley's literary abilities we possess two indications--a letter written to Mary Tudor, and the following ballad, both printed in Maidment's "Scottish Songs and Ballads," vol. ii. It may be noted that the figure of the turtle-dove or wood-pigeon occurs in the ballad and in one of the "Casket Letters."

Gife langour makis men licht, Or dolour thame decoir, In earth there is no wicht,[98] May me compair in gloir. Gif cairfuill thoftis restoir My havy heart from sorrow I am for evir moir In joy, both evin and morrow.

Gif plesour be to pance,[99] I playne me nocht opprest, Or absence micht avance, My heart is haill possesst, Gif want of quiet rest From cairis micht me convoy, My mynd is nocht mollest, Bot evir moir in joy.

Thocht that I pance in paine, In passing to and fro, I laubor all in vane, For so hes mony mo, That hes nocht servit so, In suting of thair sueit,[100] The nar the fyre I go The grittar is my heit.

The turtour for hir maik, Mair dule may nocht indure Nor I do for hir saik, Evin hir quha hes in cure My hairt, quhilk salbe sure, And service to the deid, Unto that lady pure, The well of woman heid.

Schaw shedfull to that sueit My pairt so permanent That no mirth quhill[101] we meit, Sall cause me be content; But still my hairt lament, In sorrowfull siching soir, Till tyme sho be present, Fairweill, I say no moir.

_Finis quod King Hary Stewart._

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [98] Man.

[99] Think.

[100] Sweet.

[101] Till. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This lament for Darnley (also printed by Maidment) was doubtless used as a political weapon against Queen Mary:--

To Edinburgh about six hours at morn, As I was passing pansand out the way; Ane bonny boy was sore making his moan, His sorry song was Oche, and Wallaway! That ever I should lyve to see that day, Ane king at eve, with sceptre, sword and crown; At morn but a deformed lump of clay, With traitors strong so cruelly put down!

Then drew I near some tidings for to speir, And said, My friend, what makis thee sa way. Bloody Bothwell hath brought our king to beir, And flatter and fraud with double Dalilay. At ten houris on Sunday late at een, When Dalila and Bothwell bade good night, Off her finger false she threw ane ring, And said, My Lord, ane token you I plight.

She did depart then with an untrue train, And then in haste and culverin they let craik, To teach their feiris to know the appoint time, About the kinge's lodging for to clap. To dance that night they said she should not slack, With leggis lycht to hald the wedow walkan; And baid fra bed until she heard the crack, Whilk was a sign that her good lord was slain.

O ye that to our kirk have done subscryve, These Achans try alsweill traist I may, If ye do not, the time will come, belyve, That God to you will raise some Iosuay; Whilk shall your bairnis gar sing Wallaway, And ye your selvis be put down with shame; Remember on the awesome latter day, When ye reward shall receive for your blame.

I ken right well ye knaw your duty, Gif ye do not purge you ane and all, Then shall I write in pretty poetry, In Latin laid in style rhetorical; Which through all Europe shall ring like ane bell, In the contempt of your malignity. Fye, flee fra Clynemnestra fell, For she was never like Penelope.

With Clynemnestra I do not fain to fletch, Who slew her spouse, the great Agamemnon; Or with any that Ninus' wife doth match, Semiramis quha brought her gude lord down. Quha do abstain fra litigation, Or from his paper hald aback the pen? Except he hate our Scottish nation, Or then stand up and traitors deeds commend?