Mary Queen of Scots
The Captive Queen
1568
Dec 16th. Letter from Shrewsbury in London to Bess.
‘If I should so judge of time, methinks time longer since my coming here without you, my only joy, than I did since I married you, such is faithful affection which I never tasted so deeply before. Things fall out very evil against the Scots Queen. What she will do yet is not resolved of’
‘Now it is certain that the Scots Queen comes to Tutbury to my charge. In what order I cannot ascertain’
1569
Feb. Received at Tutbury
Shrews. at Wingfield to Cecil
‘ Since their coming here there is within these 2 days grown in the next chamber to her a very unpleasant and fulsome savour, hurtful to her health, by continual pestering and uncleanly order of her own folks’.
Nicholas White (visitor to Tutbury) reporting to Cecil
‘All the day she wrought with her needle and the diversity of the colours did make the time seem less tedious’.
August 14th. Shrews. taken very ill. Persuaded by Bess to go to Buxton without permission of Elizabeth. Elizabeth furious and sends Sadler.
Cecil to Shrews. ‘ Divers do think it very strange, if it be true, that you have departed to Buxton without making the Queen privy thereof’.
Nov. 21st. Rising of northern Earls. Mary moved to Coventry the back to Tutbury then to Chatsworth.
1570
Summer and autumn. Frequent secret massages through Ridolfi to the King of Spain and the Pope and plans regarding a marriage to Norfolk.
Nov. Moved to Sheffield.
Mary to Leslie, Bishop of Ross. ‘My Lord of Shrewsbury, because he and others have opinion that change of air shall make us convalesce, is deliberate to transport us tomorrow to Sheffield’.
1571
Bitterly cold winter. Anthony Babbington becomes Shrewsbury’s ward.
Ridolfi plot continues.
April 26th. Shrewsbury to Beton, keeper of Mary’s household,
‘To the Master of the Scots Queen’s household;
First, that all your people which appertaineth to the Queen shall depart from the Queen’s chamber to their own lodging at IX of the clock at nightwinter ansd summer and remain there until the next day at VI of the clock.
Item – that noone of the Queen’s people shall at no time wear his sword neither within the house nor when her Grace rydeth of goeth abroade.
Item – that there shall none of the Queen’s people carry any bow or shaftes neither to the fields nor to the butts, unless it be four or five, and no more.
Item – That none of the Queen’s people shall ryde or go at no tyme abroad out of the house or towne without my special license.
Item – That none of the Queen’s people to come forth from their chamber or lodging when any alarum is given daie or night.
And if he or they keepe not their chambers or lodging whatsoever that be, he or they shall stand at their peril for deathe’.
Sept. 18th. Mary to French Ambassador – ‘ The Queen has written that she is informed of a negotiation between the Duke of Norfolk and me with reference to the rebellion, and therefore she has recommended the Earl of Shrewsbury to restrict my liberty, leaving me only 16 attendants, namely 10 men and 6 women, and to dismiss the rest in two hours, the French to France and the Scottish to Scotland. By the carriers I find it is nowise safe to write unless all other means fail, in which event, the best and most secret writing is with alum dissolved in a little clear water 24 hours before you wish to write. To read it, it is necessary only to dip the paper into a basin of clear water. The secret writing appears white, very easily read until the paper dries again.’
Dec. 12th. Shrews. to Cecil-
‘…..but truly I should be very loath that any liberty or exercise should be granted unto her or any of hers out of these gates, for fear of many dangers, needless to be remembered unto your Lordship, I do suffer her to walk upon the leads here, in open air, in my large dining chamber, and also in the courtyard, so as that I myself or my wife be always in her company for avoiding all others’ talk either to herself or any of hers. Sure watch is kept within and without the walls both day and night’.
1572
Jan 16th. Shrews. Presides over trial of Duke of Norfolk.
Sadler covers for him in Sheffield. Norfolk sentenced to death. Shrews. Devastated.
Bess to Shrews. ‘ The Queen who of herself is now become a close prisoner, for she is not come out of her chamber since the Duke’s condemnation but is fallen into great contemplation fasting and prayer. She observes now three days of abstinence in the week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which as they say she never accustomed before this time. She thinketh, I trow, with her fasting and praying, to preserve or prolong the Duke’s life, the rather thereby to work more trouble and mischief. God give her grace to repent and amend her own life, which hitherto hath been very loose and dissolute.’
Feb 5th. Shrews. returned to Sheffield. Very strict confinement somewhat relaxed.
June 2nd. Norfolk executed.
Mary- ‘My head is so full of rheum and my eyes so swelled with such continual sickness and fever that I am compelled to keep entirely in my bed, where I have but little rest and am in a bad condition so that I cannot now write with my hand.’
Dec. Shrews to Cecil. ‘She is within a few days become more melancholy than of long before and complains of her wrongs and imprisonment and for remedy thereof seems not to trust in her majesty but in foreign powers.’
1573
April. Moved to Manor Lodge.
August. To Chatsworth and a visit to Buxton. On one occasion visited Poole’s Cavern and the limestone column named ‘Queen Mary’s Pillar’ still records this excursion.
1574
Turret House built at Manor Lodge.
Sept. 4th. Funeral of Pierre Rollet, secretary to Mary, at Sheffield Parish Church.
M. made a shirt of red satin as a gift and sent it to Queen.
Shrews to Walsingham – ‘Some of my house is infected with the measles and it may be dangerous to the Queen to receive anything hence before it has been well aired.’
M. to Archbishop of Glasgow – ‘ I pray to procure for me some turtle doves, and some barbary fowls, to see if I can rear them in this country. I shall take great pleasure in bringing them up in a cage, as I do all the little birds that I am able to obtain. These are the pastimes for a prisoner. If my uncle has gone to Lyons I feel sure he will send me a couple of pretty little dogs, and you will buy me some also, for besides reading and working I take only pleasure in all the little animals that I can get.’ Later – ‘I am very fond of my little dogs, but I fear they will be rather large. The Earl has given me three spaniels and two others which he has assured me are good ones.’
October. Bess and Lady Lennox meet at Rufford with their children, Elizabeth Cavendish and Charles Stuart. They fall in love, no doubt encouraged by the mothers who have grand intentions for them since Charles is in direct line of succession. They marry at Rufford. When Q.Eliz hears of this she is furious.
Shrews. to Cecil, trying to quell the storm – ‘The young man, her son, fell into liking my wife’s daughter before intended, and such liking was between them, as my wife tells me, she makes no doubt of a match and hath so tied themselves upon their own liking as could not part.’
Shrews. badly shaken by his wife’s rash action and the marriage starts to fail amidst distrust and suspicion.
Dec. 27th. Bess and Lady Lennox summoned to London and lodged in Tower. Charles and Elizabeth under house arrest in Hackney.
1575
April. Bess freed.
Summer. Arabella born to Elizabeth and Charles Stuart.
M. to Archbishop of Glasgow – ‘There are some of my friends in the country who ask for my portrait. I pray you, have four of them made, which must be set in gold, and sent to me secretly, as soon as possible.’
To French Ambassador – ‘We have had here, even in my chamber, a great earthquake on the evening of Saturday; insomuch that my women could not sit steady on their boxes and chairs where they were working around me.’
May. Shrews. absent from Sheffield for three days. Rebuked by Eliz. ‘The keeper of so great a charge ought not to progress far from the care thereof.’
1576
Charles Stuart dies.
1577
Feb. Bess to Shrews. from Hardwick – ‘If you cannot get my timber carried I must do without it, though I greatly want it. I pray you let me know if I shall have the ton of iron. If you cannot spare it I must make shift to get it elsewhere. You promised to send me money afore this time to buy oxen but I see out of sight is out of mind with you.’
1578
1579
1580
July. Shrews. to Cecil complaining that the £50 /week allowance was grossly inadequate- ‘I do not know what account is made of my charges sustained in the keeping of this woman, but assuredly the very charge of victual of my whole household, with the entertainment that I do give to my household servants, is not defrayed with the allowance I have, besides the which I dare be bold to say the wine, spice and the fuel that is spent in this house yearly, being valued, commeth not under one thousand pounds a year. Also the loss of plate, the buying of pewter, and all manner of household stuff, which by them is exceedingly spoiled and wilfully wasted, standeth me in one thousand pounds by the year. I have in these eleven years’ service in this charge not pestered her Majesty with any suits, neither have I lamented the heavy burden that my mind has borne in providing for her safety, and that my body hath sustained (being thereby weakened), only for that I do reckon myself happy and fortunate in living to do her Majesty true and loyal service’.
August. M. injured back getting onto horse to go to Buxton.
Nov. 11th. Peter Beale, Clerk to Council, sent by Queen to enquire into state of things in Sheffield. Spent three weeks interviewing everyone. Reported back on Mary’s illness and George’s complaints. Mary allowed coach and 6 horses to ride in Sheffield Park.
1581
1582
Mary permitted to drive through Park in coach ordered by French Ambassador- ‘provided there is no concourse of people to look on her.’
Shrews. to Queen asking leave to travel to London – ‘…towards your most gracious person, having been these ten years secluded from your most gracious sight and presence.’
Shrews. permitted to travel to London to explain matters to Queen but son Francis died so did not go. Bess returns to Sheffield for an uncomfortable and short lived reconciliation.
Mary to Queen – ‘Redeeming old pledges of your good nature; bind your relations to yourself; let me have the satisfaction, before I die, of seeing all matters happily settled between us. From Sheffield, this 8th day of November. Your very disconsolate and nearest kins-woman and affectionate cousin, Mary R.’
1583
July. Mary ill again. Great concern. Another visit to Buxton to take the waters.
November. Throckmorton Plot uncovered (Vaguely formed plan for a Spanish invasion backed by the French and Scots linked to the assassination of Elizabeth.)
All leaders tortured and executed.
1584
Bess in wishing to forward claims to throne of Arabella now increasingly wishing to be rid of Mary. Put her sons William and Charles up to spreading rumours of a relationship between Mary and the Earl to the point that at court the story grew that she had borne him at least two children.
Mary retaliated with the ‘Scandal Letter’ to the Queen in which she claimed that Bess had slandered Elizabeth in a mocking tone.
‘That which the Countess of Shrewsbury has said of you to me is as nearly as possible as follows- she said that you were so fond of exaggerated adulation, such as the assurance that no one dared look you full in the face since it shone like the sun, that she and the other ladies at court were obliged to make use of similar flattery and that on their last appearance before you she and the Countess of Lennox scarcely dared to exchange glances for fear of bursting out into laughter at the way that they were openly mocking you’.
The letter was intercepted before the Queen saw it.
The Earl hurried to London to clear his name at court and had a two hour private meeting with the Queen.
‘ His Lordship came to Her Majesty in her privy chamber. She made him have a stool and they talked. Amongst other things, my Lord took knowledge how he had been slandered by many bruits and desired that he might justify himself , saying he would defend his honour and loyalty to her Majesty before all the world. Her Majesty was well pleased with his words and told him she did account him for a loyal and faithful servant, and esteemed and trusted him as much as any man in England’.
Mary, on a final visit to Buxton inscribed as verse on the window-
‘Buxton, whose warm waters have made thee famous,
Perchance I shall visit thee no more,-Farewell’.
August. Sir Ralph Sadler came to escort Mary from the care of the Shrewsburys to Wingfield and the Tutbury.
1585
December. Moved to Chartley in Staffordshire under care of Sir Amyas Paulet.
Walsingham uncovers the final plot by Anthony Babbington, the ward of Shrewsbury, between Mary’s catholic supporters in Spain and Philip II.
1586
Babbington and fellow conspirators executed.
Mary’s rooms searched and incriminating evidence of her complicity in the plot uncovered.
Sept. 21st. Taken to Fotheringay
October. tried for treason. Shrewsbury attended on instructions of Eliz.
1587
Feb. 8th. Mary executed.