Did Mary queen of Scots get poised?

Answer 1

In October of 1586, Mary was put on trial at Fotheringhay for plotting to kill Elizabeth and claim the English throne.

Mary defended herself admirably though she had no friends or supporters at the trial and, essentially, the verdict had been decided before the proceedings had begun. Mary admitted her desire to escape but stated, 'I have not procured or encouraged any hurt against Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.' And she appealed for mercy, mentioning her own reputation for tolerance and kindness: 'My subjects now complain they were never so well off as under my government.' But she also accepted the inevitable, telling the assembled nobles, 'May God keep me from having to do with you all again.' When the verdict was read to her, she said, 'I do not fear to die in a good cause.'

The trial lasted just two days and was over on 16 October 1586 but it was not until 7 February 1587 that she was told she would be executed the next morning. She asked for her chaplain but was refused this last comfort. The Earl of Kent said: 'Your life would be the death of our religion, your death would be its life.' In fact, Mary had been a tolerant ruler in Scottish religious matters. But such was the extreme religious upheaval of the time, tolerance itself was a sign of weakness. The death-sentence was signed by Elizabeth who later argued that her secretary Davison had deceived her as to its contents; she said she would not have signed it otherwise. A year later, the Catholic Philip V of Spain invaded England with his Armada, perhaps - to some degree - urged on by Mary's execution.

Mary did not retire until two in the morning on the last day of her life. She spent her final hours making a will and generously providing to those who had served her faithfully. Early on the morning of 8 February 1587, dressed in black satin and velvet, she entered the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle. She commanded her servant, Melville, to go to her son and tell him that she had never done anything to compromise their kingdom of Scotland. Mary was calm and composed before the several hundred spectators present; she listened while the execution warrant was read and then prayed aloud in English for the Church and her son. She also mentioned Queen Elizabeth and prayed for her to continue to serve God in the years to come.

Mary comforted her weeping servants, her friends and supporters to the last. They helped her undress; beneath her all-black gown, she wore a red petticoat and bodice. Her women helped her attach the long red sleeves. Mary thus died wearing the liturgical color of Catholic martyrdom. She gave them her golden rosary and Agnus Dei, asking them to remember her in their prayers. Her eyes were covered with a white cloth. While her servants wept and called out prayers in a medley of languages, she laid her neck upon the block, commended herself to God and received the death-stroke. But the executioner was unsteady and the first blow cut the back of her head; Mary whispered, 'Sweet Jesus', and the second blow descended.

When the executioner lifted her head and cried out, 'God save the Queen,' a macabre surprise occurred. Mary, queen of Scots had worn an auburn wig to her execution. It was left in the executioner's hand as her head, with its short, grey hair, fell to the floor.

Mary had always loved animals and her little Skye terrier had brought her great comfort during the years in prison. It had curled itself around her feet while she knelt at the block and died just days after the queen. As queen of Scots, Mary's motto had been 'In my end is my beginning'. And certainly the end of her life marked the beginning of her legend. The Catholic nations which had condemned her behavior during Darnley's murder and the marriage to Bothwell now celebrated her as a martyr. Her former brother-in-law, Henri III of France, held a funeral mass at Notre-Dame, where Mary had wed Francis almost thirty years before. Accounts of her execution, illustrated by crude woodcuts, were sold throughout Europe. She was now the sympathetic heroine; the past could be forgotten.

Sixteen years later, Mary's son became King of England and Scotland. In 1612, he moved her body to Westminster Abbey, London, constructing a magnificent tomb which rivaled Elizabeth I's. In her Essay on Adversity, written in 1580 while she was imprisoned, Mary had written of rulers: 'Tribulation has been to them as a furnace to fine gold - a means of proving their virtue.' It was a fitting epitaph for her own infamous life...

SHE WAS EXECUTED!