Mary Queen of Scots (Tie-In) by John Guy

Author:John Guy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

A more stinging or vehement rebuke of one reigning queen by another could scarcely have been imagined. Mary reeled from this latest blow, offended not least by the remark that she would look through her fingers, coincidentally the very phrase that Maitland had applied to Moray during the conversations at Craigmillar, when she had answered: “I will that ye do nothing whereto any spot may be laid to my honor or conscience.” Was the use of this phrase deliberate?

Worse still, Elizabeth advised Mary to arraign Bothwell (“him whom you have nearest to you”) if the Lennoxes were to accuse him of the murder. And then, most crushingly of all, she dictated her revised terms for the political settlement that Mary so eagerly desired. There would be no more talk of reconciliation, of a “new treaty of perpetual amity” to replace the offending clauses of the treaty of Edinburgh, or of Mary’s claim to the English succession. All that was now forgotten. Instead, Elizabeth insisted Mary ratify the original version of the treaty. This matter, said Elizabeth caustically, “has gone undone for six or seven years.” It was time to end it once and for all.

If Killigrew expected to have an answer within two days, he was sadly disappointed. Mary found Elizabeth’s letter so insulting, she refused to reply at all. Killigrew left Edinburgh a week later, empty-handed.

What must have especially rankled was Elizabeth’s references to Bothwell. How had she learned that he “whom you have nearest to you” had already been accused of the crime? It was easy enough. Cecil had obtained full transcripts of the placards posted on the walls of Edinburgh. He had even gotten hold of the “sayings” of the prowler who called nightly for vengeance on the murderers. He was corresponding with Lennox, who was furiously rebuilding his bridges.

When Killigrew returned to London, he may not have brought a letter from Mary to Elizabeth, but he brought one from Lennox to Cecil, offering to collaborate with him in avenging the murder of his son.

Suddenly, history was to be rewritten. On the last occasion that Darnley had spoken to an English diplomat, he had repudiated his allegiance to the English queen. Now, as Lennox reassured Cecil, his son had all along been her most loyal subject and his own particular “acquaintance” and good friend.

Morton also looked to England. This most villainous of the Scottish lords, who had written to Cecil in obsequious terms as he had crossed the border on his way to rendezvous with his allies at Whittingham Castle, now sought Cecil’s protection against the reprisals he knew would be sought by Lennox. He called himself “your assured friend” and wrote to reiterate his offer to do “anything in my power to gratify you.”

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