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While Mary refused to ratify the treaty, it marked the end of the first stand-off between the
young queens: Elizabeth was triumphant, Mary was humiliated and incensed. Her eclipse
was confirmed when in December 1560 her husband died, leaving her a childless dowager
queen with no rule or status. When her mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici, made it clear
there was no home for her in France, Mary chose to return to Scotland and claim her throne.
1561-62: The moment is lost
With Elizabeth and Mary now neighbouring queens, relations began with a show of amity.
Mary declared that they were “both in one isle, both of one language, the nearest kinswoman
that each other hand, and both queens”. Yet within days of her arrival in Scotland she sent a
representative to England to ask Elizabeth to acknowledge her as her heir. Elizabeth
refused, explaining that she did not intend to nominate a successor, believing it would inspire
disaffection against her.
In early 1562, arrangements were made for the two queens to meet in Nottingham in the
autumn, but this was cancelled in March after the massacre of French Protestants at Wassy
under the orders of Mary’s uncle, the Duke of Guise.
Elizabeth urged Mary to distance herself from the scandal in order to protect her reputation:
“I treat you as my daughter, and assure you that if I had one, I could wish for her nothing
better than I desire for you."
Elizabeth was outraged. She instinctively aligned herself with her fellow monarch, cousin
and close kinswoman. She believed what the lords had done was abhorrent and maintained
an uncompromising defence of Mary’s sovereignty. They had imprisoned and deposed an
anointed queen, a crime against God that was even greater than Darnley’s assassination
months earlier. Nothing justified the action against Mary.
In 1568 Mary escaped from Lochleven Castle where she had been imprisoned, fleeing south
to England to seek refuge and her cousin’s support in order to regain the Scottish throne.
1568-69: A show of solidarity
When Mary landed at Workington (in modern-day Cumbria) on 16 May 1568, Elizabeth was
placed in a quandary. She acknowledged the legitimacy of Mary’s position as a fellow
monarch and found it hard to countenance the actions of those who would keep Mary from
her rightful throne. However, she was also aware that the Earl of Moray was supportive of
English Protestant interests, and that Mary’s restoration would mean his destruction.
Elizabeth resolved that an inquiry would be held into the conduct of the confederate lords
and the question of whether Mary was guilty of Darnley’s murder. As evidence against Mary,
Moray presented the so-called casket letters – eight unsigned missives purportedly from
Mary to Bothwell – which, he claimed, proved her adultery and her complicity in Darnley’s
murder.
While the majority of the commissioners did accept the letters as genuine, Elizabeth believed
they represented not just a devastating attempt to destroy Mary’s reputation but also an
attack on every woman in an “unnatural” position of authority. She refused to be moved by
the evidence suggested by the letters and resolved that the inquiry would reach the verdict
that nothing had been proven against either side. Moray returned to Scotland as regent and
Mary remained in custody in England.
When evidence emerged that Mary was implicated in the Ridolfi Plot that sought to depose
Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne, Elizabeth was forced to acknowledge Mary as a
significant threat and placed her in stricter custody. The unravelling of the Throckmorton Plot
in 1583, a scheme for the Duke of Guise to invade England and place Mary on the throne,
was proof to spymaster Francis Walsingham and William Cecil that the time had come for
action. By the Bond of Association and the Act for the Security of the Queen’s Person in
1584, Mary, though not specifically named, was made responsible for future plots instigated
in her name. When Walsingham uncovered a third plot that involved Antony Babington, a
Catholic gentleman, he was ready to act.
1586: Walsingham’s trap is sprung
The Babington Plot planned a Catholic rising, the assassination of Elizabeth and the
accession of Mary as queen of England. With Mary’s correspondence under surveillance, a
letter addressed to Babington, which apparently endorsed the plot, gave Walsingham the
evidence he needed. In September Mary was moved to Fotheringhay Castle in
Northamptonshire where she would be tried for treason: the stage was set for the final act of
struggle between the two queens.
Elizabeth was determined that Mary should admit her wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness,
clinging to the possibility of pardoning her cousin and saving her life. Yet Mary was
uncompromising: she refused the right of the commissioners to try her, argued against the
legality of the trial, and maintained that, as a foreign anointed queen, she had never been an
English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason.
The outcome was inevitable. Mary was found guilty, having “compassed and imagined the
hurt, death and destruction of the royal person”.
On 1 February 1587 she finally signed the death warrant. However, without her knowledge,
her councillors resolved to carry out the sentence immediately and a week later, on 8
February, Mary was executed, her head severed in three blows.
Elizabeth was furious when she was told that the sentence had been carried out, and
William Davison, to whom she had entrusted the death warrant, was sent to the Tower. The
council pleaded for clemency, claiming they had wanted to spare Elizabeth the pain of
having to order Mary’s death. Elizabeth claimed her advisors had betrayed her wishes.
It was a convenient fiction. Doubtless Elizabeth was genuinely distraught by the execution
but when Mary was sentenced to death the die had been irrevocably cast.