Queen Mary's Closet by WH Bartlett
Queen Mary's Closet by WH Bartlett
Mary Stuart to the Archbishop of Glasgow. [1]
Upon the 9th day of March, we being at even, about seven hours, in our cabinet, at our supper, sociated with our sister the Countess of Argyll, our brother the Commendator of Holyrood House, the laird of Criech, Arthur Erskine, and certain others our domestic servitors, in quiet manner, especially by reason of our indisposition, being counselled to sustain ourselves with flesh, having then passed almost to the end of seven months in our birth, the King, our husband, came to us in our cabinet, and placed himself beside us at our supper. The Earl of Morton and Lord Lindsay, with their assisters, armed in warlike manner, to the number of eighteen persons, occupied the whole entry of our palace of Holyrood House, so that, as they believed, it was not possible for any person to escape forth of the same. In that mean time, the Lord Ruthven, armed in like manner, with his accomplices, took entry perforce in our cabinet, and there seeing our secretary, David Riccio, among our servants, declared he had to speak with him. In this instant, we required the King our husband if he knew anything of that enterprise, who denied the same. Also, we commanded the Lord Ruthven, under the pain of treason, to avoid him forth of our presence; he then for refuge took safeguard, (having retired him behind our back,) but Ruthven, with his accomplices, cast down our table upon ourself, put violent hands on him, struck him over our shoulder with hangers, one part of them standing before our face with bended daggs, most cruelly took him out of our cabinet, and at the entry of our chamber gave him fifty-six strokes with whinyards and swords. In doing whereof we were not only struck with great dread, but also, by sundry considerations, were most justly induced to take extreme fear of our life. After this deed, immediately, the said Lord Ruthven, coming again into our presence, declared "how they and their accomplices were highly offended with our proceedings and tyranny, which was not to them tolerable; how we were abused by the said David whom they had actually put to death, namely, in taking his counsel for maintenance of the ancient religion, debarring of the Lords who were fugitives, and entertaining of amity with foreign princes and nations with whom we were confederate, putting also upon council of the Lords Bothwell and Huntly, who were traitors, and with whom he associated himself; that the Lords banished in England were that morn to resort to us, and would take plain part with them in our controversy, and that the King was willing to remit them their offences." We all this time took no less care of ourselves than for our counsel and nobility, to wit, the Earls Huntly, Bothwell, Atholl, Lords Fleming and Livingstone, Sir James Balfour, and certain others, our familiar servitors, against whom the enterprize was concerted, as well as for David, and namely to have hanged Sir James: yet by the providence of God, the Earls of Bothwell and Huntly escaped at a back window by some cords; the conspirators took some fear, and thought themselves disappointed in their enterprize. The Earl of Atholl and Sir James Balfour, by some other means, with the Lords Fleming and Livingstone, obtained deliverance.
The provost and town of Edinburgh, having understood this tumult in our palace, caused ring their common bell, came to us in great number, and desired to have seen our presence and communed with us, and to have known our welfare; to whom we were not permitted to give answer, being extremely menaced by their Lords, who in our face declared, "if we desired to have spoken them, they should cut us in collops and cast us over the walls."
Our brother the Earl of Murray, that same day at even, accompanied by the Earl of Rothes, Pitarrow, Grange, and others, came to us, and, seeing our state, was moved with natural affection towards us; upon the morn he assembled the enterprizers of the late crime and such of our rebels as came with him. In their council they thought it most expedient that we should be warded in our castle of Stirling, there to remain till we had approved in parliament all their wicked enterprizes, established their religion, and given to the King the crown matrimonial and the whole government of our realm, or else by all appearance prepared to put us to death, or to detain us in perpetual captivity.
That night we declared our state to the King our husband, certifying him how miserably he would be handled, if he permitted the Lords to prevail, and how unacceptable it would be to other princes our confederates, in case he altered the religion. By this persuasion he was induced to condescend to the purpose taken by us, and to retire in our company to Dunbar. We, being minded to have gotten ourselves relieved of this detention, desired, in quiet manner, the Earls of Bothwell and Huntly to have prepared some way whereby we might have escaped; who not doubting therein, at the least taking no regard to hazard their lives in that behalf, devised that we should have come over the walls of the palace in the night upon chairs, which they had in readiness to that effect soon after.
I beseech you, as soon as this shall come to hand, to communicate the contents to the Court, to prevent false reports from being circulated; and do not fail to impart it to the ambassadors.
Mary Stuart to Charles XI of France and Catherine de Medici. [2]
(extract)Our fear for our personal safety still continuing, we made the King comprehend our position, and how he himself might be reduced to great straits if the conspirators prevailed against us, and how foreign potentates, and particularly our own allies, would be displeased if we made any change as to religion. Upon these considerations the King decided to depart with us and in our company for Dunbar, whither we went the same night, being attended by the Captain of our Guard and by Arthur Erskine our squire, and two other persons only. We had already resolved to liberate ourselves from this captivity, and had secretly communicated with the Earls of Bothwell and Huntly to devise some mode for so doing; and these noblemen, being without fear, and willing to sacrifice their lives to this end, arranged to lower us down at night from the walls of our palace on a chair by ropes and other devices which they had prepared. Immediately after our arrival as Dunbar many of our nobility, desirous of our welfare, such as the Earls of Huntly, Bothwell, Marischal, Atholl, and Caithness, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, with many of their relatives and friends, the Lords of Hume, Yester, Sempill, and an infinity of others, hastened to our assistance, and by their advice we issued proclamations commanding our subjects to arm in our favour; and the conspirators having hears these events, the Earl of Glencairn, as being innocent of the last outrage, came to us by our permission, and received our pardon. The Earl of Rothes did the same. The Earls of Murray and Argyll sent several messengers to seek our favour similarly to these noblemen. For divers reasons, and with the advice of our nobility and Council who were with us, we have granted them our pardon, on condition that they will in no way maintain relations with the last conspirators, and will retire to Argyll for such a period of time as may seem good to us, it appearing to us too dangerous to allow so many persons in arms against us; and knowing the promises which have already passed between the King and them, and being aware of the bodily indisposition of our person, and not being in robust health, and compelled, in order to show resistance to our enemies, not to endanger greatly our affairs, we remained five days at Dunbar, and thence returned to Edinburgh, accompanied numerously by our subjects.
The last conspirators, with their adherents, have retired from Edinburgh, and some of them are now fugitives. We have caused all their possessions to be seized. And we have determined to proceed against them with the utmost vigour. To this end we are satisfied that the King our husband will act in unison with us, because he has declared in the presence of the Lords of our Privy Council hid innocence if the last outrage upon us, and that he never either advised or approved it; and he has excused himself on the ground that he only, at the persuasion and entreaty of the last conspirators, and without our knowledge and opinion, had consented that the Earls of Murray, Glencairn, and other persons, by whom we had been offended, should return to the kingdom. The King’s meaning will be understood by is declaration which, according to his request, will be published in all parts if the kingdom.
References
[1] Strickland A; Letters of Mary Queen of Scots and Documents Connected with her Personal History (London)
[2] Calendar of State Papers Venetian, 1558-1580. Ed. Rawdon Brown and G Cavendish Bentinck (HMSO, 1890)