their Neece the Queen of Scots that he openly own'd the claim thereof so that thenceforwards his Son and Daughter in Law used the stile in all their Acts of State Francis and Mary of Scotland England and Ireland King and Queen and caused the Arms of England to be Engraven and Painted on their Palaces Housholdstuff and Heralds-Coats And the said King Henry dying shortly after this Francis who succeeded him by the name of Francis the Second and Mary Queen of Scots by the Council of the said Guises who bore great sway in France publickly assumed to themselves the Soveraignty of England and Scotland as well as that of France and Scotland pretending to Queen Elizabeths Ambassador who complained thereof sometime that the Queen of Scots bore the Arms of England only to shew the nearness of her Blood to that Royal Line and sometimes that she did it only to cause the Queen of England to forbear bearing those of France Much dispute there was about this matter which Queen Elizabeth as she had reason resented very grievously But at last in the Year 1560. upon a Treaty at Edenborough It was amongst other matters agreed that the French King and his Wife Queen Mary should henceforwards relinquish the Title and Arms of England and Ireland But when the same came to be confirm'd in France they sought Evasions and delay'd so long that in the interim King Francis the Second not being Eighteen years old dyed and left the Queen of Scots a Widow of Nineteen who thereupon resolv'd to leave France and to return to her own Kingdom of Scotland But Throgmorton Queen Elizabeths Ambassador before she went earnestly press'd her to confirm the said Treaty of Edenborough which she refused alledging she must first consult with the Nobility of Scotland This refusal so nettled Queen Elizabeth that she refused to grant her a safe Conduct for her passage However taking the opportunity of a Fog she set Sail from Callice and passing the Channel arrived safely in Scotland From thence she sent Letters to Queen Elizabeth promising all care to make and conserve Amity with her and requesting that a lasting Peace might be made between the two Crowns And in order thereunto desired that Queen Elizabeth would in Parliament declare her her next Heir if she her self should have no issue This proposition startled Queen Elizabeth who rather look't for the confirmation of the Treaty of Edenborough which she had so often promised and therefore return'd Answer in these words That as concerning the Succssion she hoped the Queen of Scotland would not by violence take away her Crown from her and her Children if she had any She promised not to derogate any thing of her right unto the Crown of England although she had claimed the Title and Arms of England thorough the too much hasty ambition of other men for which injury it was meet that she made satisfaction By setting down her Successor she feared lest their friendship should be rather dissevered than consolidated for that unto men established in Government their Successors are alwaies suspected and hated the people such is their inconstancy upon a dislike of present things do look after the rising Sun and forsake the Sun setting and the Successors designed cannot keepwithin the bounds of Justice and Truth their own hopes and other mens lewd desires Moreover if she should confirm the Succession unto her she should thereby cut off the hope of her own security and being alive hang her Winding-sheet before her own eyes yea make her own Funeral-feast alive and see the same But this Remonstrance took but little effect and therefore sometime afterwards an Interview was projected to be had between the two Queens but after a long Treaty relinquisht the Scottish Queen refusing it unless Queen Elizabeth would adopt her her Daughter or declare her her Heir apparent by Authority of Parliament This Queen Elizabeth would not consent to but advised her to a Marriage with Robert Dudely who thereupon was made Earl of Leicester which Alliance the French rail'd upon as dishonourable and as for her matching with any Forrein Prince the Earl of Murray natural Brother to the Scots Queen diverted her from it and proposed to her Henry Lord Darnly Son to the Earl of Lenox whereunto both Love and Policy seem'd to give their suffrages for as he was one of the most proper and goodly young Gentlemen in the world so likewise was he next Heir after her to the Imperial Crown of England so that she might at once gratifie her Fancy and sortifie her Title This Noble-man was born and at this time resided in England the Earl his Father having upon the troubles in Scotland retreated thither in King Henry the Eighth's time And upon the first return of Queen Mary into Scotland Queen Elizabeth had confin'd both Father and Son for holding correspondence with her But after some time first the Father and afterwards the Son on several specious pretences got leave to go into Scotland promising to return within such a Term. Being there a Marriage was quickly concluded and solemnized between the Queen and this young Lord at which Queen Elizabeth appear'd much dissatisfied nor did their Nuptial Joys remain long un-eclips'd but discontents which as easily climb to the glorious beds of Princes as to the homely pallets of Peasants arose between them whether it were that he thought he had not enough or took upon him too much share in the Government or on some more private disgust I determine not being unwilling to follow the reports of those prejudic'd Authors who have sullied this great Princesses Fame when the respect due to the Honour of Ladies especially the Majesty of a Crowned Head ought to have taught them more modesty From what ever ground these animosities sprung they soon grew to such an unhappy height that one Evening the King attended with several others rush't into the Queens Apartment as she was at Supper and seizing upon one David Rizius a Native of Piemont by profession a Musitian but for his Wit and Dexterity receiv'd into great favour with the Queen and made a kind of Secretary they assaulted him with their naked Swords and dragging him to the door gave him several mortal wounds whereof he instantly died The Queen was then great with Child of him who was afterwards James the 1st Monarch of Great Brittain And though Providence was pleased to prevent her Miscarriage yet the sight of so dismal a Tragedy could not but surprize her with wonderful astonishment insomuch that some Philosophers will needs have it that King James retain'd an aversion to the sight of naked Weapons and attribute the same to the impressions of this unparellel'd violence Of which the King 't is said soon repented and craved the Queens pardon charging Murray and Morton as the persons that instigated him thereunto But the King himself did not long survive this Assassination for within a month or two after he himself in a tempestuous night
well concerning the disallowing excluding or disabling any person that may or shall pretend any Title to come to the Crown of this Realm as also for the pursuing and taking revenge of any such wicked act or attempt as is mentioned in the same Association shall and ought to be in all things expounded and adjudged according to the true intent and meaning of this Act and not otherwise nor against any other person or persons The Scottish Queen was too quick sighted not to perceive that this Association was an Arrow level'd principally against her yet whether push't on by the greatness of her spirit or the blindness of her Fate or rather seduc'd by affording an ear as well to the treacherous counsel of her enemies as unto the pernicious devices of her friends she was still busy in Intrigues for procuring her Liberty and particularly Queen Elizabeth had private informations from one Hart a Romish Priest that Dr. Allen a Popish Fugitive advanc'd by the Pope to the Cardinalate for the Popish Ecclesiasticks of England and Sir Francis Inglefeild for the Laity and the Bishop of Rosse for the Queen of Scotland had unanimously undertaken and with the authority of the Pope and consent of the King of Spain decreed that Q. Elizabeth should be deposed and the King of Scotland disinherited of the Kingdom of England as being both manifest and notorious Hereticks and the Queen of Scots to be married to some Catholick Nobleman who should be chosen King of England by the English Catholicks and the Election ratified by the Pope and the lawful issue of this man by the Queen of Scotland to be declared Successors to the Crown c. But these were only remote and vnfledg'd projects there was another dangerous Conspiracy somewhat of the same complexion nearer hand and almost ripen'd for execution which in the year 1586. happily for Queen Elizabeth but as to the Queen of Scots fatally discovered which in short was thus One Gifford a Dr. of Popish Divinity had perswaded one John Savage a man of great courage and blind zeal that it was a meritorious work to take away the lives of Princes excommunicated who thereupon made a solemn Vow to kill Queen Elizabeth To render his attempt more feasible and to rock the Queen and her Council into security that the danger might so much the more certainly overwhelm them by how much it was less apprehended the Jesuits and Seminary Priests publish't a Book exhorting the Roman Catholicks in England to attempt nothing against their Prince and to use only the Christian weapons prayers and tears c. In the mean time Savage waiting his opportunity one Ballard a Priest that had been contriving in France with Mendoza Paget and others about invading of England came over as a Soldier by the name of Captain Foscu and being not unacquainted with Savage's design communicated the same to Mr. Anthony Babington a Derby-shire Gentleman of an ancient Family Rich very handsom of an excellent Wit Learned above his years and a zealous Papist who having lately been abroad the Archbishop of Glasgow the Scottish Queens Ambassador had engag'd him with continual applauses of that Queens Vertue and Beauty and of promises of honours and preferments from her obscurely intimating no less than hopes of Marriage whereby the ambitious young man resolv'd to run all adventures to render himself capable of her good Graces nor was that Queen wanting to give encouragement by holding a correspondence with him by Letters in Cipher which though for some time interrupted by her removal from the Charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury to the Custody of Amias Paulet and Sir Drew Drury was yet renewed again some time after as by the Letters in the following Sheets appears Babington being thus inform'd of Savage's Vow resolving to have the murder of Queen Elizabeth effectually perform'd would needs associate Five more with him for that attempt and also drew in divers other Popish Gentlemen no less fiery zealous than himself into the Conspiracy as Edward Windsor Brother to the Lord Windsor Thomas Salisbury of a good Family in Denbyshire Charles Tilney of an ancient worshipful House the only hope of his Family and one of the Gentlemen-Pensioners to Queen Elizabeth the last Two being lately reconciled to the Church of Rome by the said Ballard Chidiock Tichburn of Hampshire Edward Abington whose Father had been Cofferer to the Queen Robert Gage of Surry John Travers and John Charnock of Lancashire John Jones whose Father had been Tailor to Queen Mary one Barnwell of an honourable Family in Ireland Henry Dun a Clerk in the First-Fruits-Office and several others but those that were to assassinate Queen Elizabeth were the before-named Savage Abington Barnwell Tilney and Tichburn the Conspirators were all Sworn to Secrecy and had several Consults as in Pauls-Church St. Giles in the Fields and in divers Taverns and proceeded to that vanity that they had also their Pictures drawn to the Life all in one Table with Babington in the midst thus Circumscrib'd Hi mihi sunt Comites quos ipsa pericula jungunt But that Verse being thought too plain they removed it and instead thereof inserted this Motto Quorsum haec alió properantibus The Plot being thus laid to murder Queen Elizabeth and at the same instant to free the Queen of Scots Forrein Forces to land Rebels at home ready to joyn with them and all things in so forward a posture it will be convenient to observe how this desperate Contrivance was brought to nought The before-mentioned Gifford the Priest born in Stafford-shire not far from Chartley where the Queen of Scotland was kept was sent over about this time by the Fugitives into England under the counterfeit name of Luson to remember Savage of his Oath and secrerly to convey Letters to and fro between the Queen and her Correspondents which for some time he performed for by corrupting a Brewer belonging to Amias Paulet at a hole in a Wall into which a stone was put so that it might be taken out he secretly sent in and receiv'd back Letters but the said Gifford whether troubled in conscience or corrupted with bribes or terrified through fear or which I esteem more probable appointed so to do that he might precipitate the Queen to destruction disclosed the whole Intrigue to Secretary Walsingham and communicated to him all the Letters that either way he receiv'd who unseal'd and Copied them and then by the rare skill of one Phillips found out a Key to the Ciphers and by the dexterity of one Gregory sealed them up again so that they could not be perceiv'd to have been open'd and then dispatch't them away as directed Queen Elizabeth by this means having notice of the storm that hung over her head thought fit to prevent it in time and when Walsingham would have suffered them to have proceeded further the Queen refused lest as she said in not taking heed of danger when she might she should seem more to
of her Letters do write thus Per le expresse Secretaries Nave Curle Comaundement de la Royen ma Matresse By the special Commandment of the Queen my Mistress Nave and Curle being asked whether it were their Hands she confessed that she knew it to be their Hands and that Curle Queen of Scots Confession was an honest Man but she would not be judged by him and that Nave was the King's Secretary of France and that he had been Secretary to the Cardinal of Guyse But when she said she knew not Babington nor Ballard my Lord Treasurer Lord Treasurer said Madam I will tell you whom you know You know Morgain who hired Parry to kill the Queen and after you knew it you gave him a Pension Madam you give Pensions to Murtherers Then she said He hath lost all for my sake but you give Pentions in Scotland against me to my Son Queen of Scots The Lord Treasurer said The Queen because the Revenues of the Lord Treasurer Crown are diminished giveth the King a Benevolence being her Kinsman The Second Day at her first coming she renewed her Protestation Second Day Queen of Scots saying I am A Sacred and Anointed Queen and ought not to be judged by the Law I am A Free Prince and owe no more to any Prince than they owe to me I come hither for the Justification of my Honour and that which is laid to my charge that I should do against my Sister Her Oration was very long and of many things I like not said she to take this Course though I desire the Catholicks should be delivered out of their Persecution I had rather play the part of Hester than of Judith to pray for my people than to take any other way to deliver my People God forbid that I should deserve to be denied of Jesus Christ before his Father They gave it out that I was of no Religion for there was a time when I tender'd my self but they cared not for my Soul But my Lords when you have done all that you can and put me from that I should have yet you shall not obtain your Cause of Mary Steward And here she wept and blubbered that they could not conceive her speech I desire said she that another Assembly may be called where She wept I may have my Council I appeal to God first who is the Just Judge and She desireth another Assembly to Princes my Allies Here my Lord Treasurer said Madam We have set down your Protestations under a Notaries Hand and we have protested that your Protestation Lord Treasurer be not prejudicial to the Crown of England The Queen said Indeed My Lord you take no Commission but that Queen of Scots may serve your own turn you have done the worst you can I have often offered if I might be at liberty that I would do all duty and labour to quench the Troubles that are made but I could not be heard I was made believe that I should be at liberty and I promised Hostages for my Security my own Son and my Cousin Guise his Son The Lord Treasurer answered it is true the Queen was contented and so was the Council you offered Hostages as you say But it is as true that Lord Treasurer the Lords of Scotland would not consent that the King should come The Queen said But I told you that if I might be at liberty I would Queen of Scots effect it Madam said the Lord Treasurer the Queen shall set you at liberty and you shall seek her destruction for all this practice of your Enlargement Lord Treasurer was nothing else but a Plot against the Queen for even then when it was adoing your Man Morgan hired Parry to kill the Queen Morgan a Traitor hired Parry to kill the Queen Qu. of Scots Ld. Treasurer Qu. of Scots My Lord quoth she you are my Enemy No said my Lord Treasurer I am Enemy to the Queen's Enemies Was it not reported said the Queen of Scots that the Queen of England should never be free from Practices until I were set at liberty and I therefore desired that the occasion might be taken away Then was read a Letter to Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador wherein Mendoza she promised to give the King of Spain the Kingdoms of England and Scotland if her Son would not be reclaimed from that Heresie wherein she said he was misled There was also sent a Letter to Doctor Allin wherein she calleth him Dr. Allin Reverend Father in God and dealeth with him about the Invasion and his Letter to her also There was read her Letters to the Lord Paget Charles Paget and Lord Paget Charles Paget Sir Francis Englefield Sir Francis Englefield In every of which Letters she saith she hath given direction to the Catholicks on this side for a Dispatch Here she being pressed with Truths of the Conspiracy and because her own Man had sworn it she said she thought he made no Conscience of an Qu. of Scots Oath given him Hereat the whole House murmured concerning the giving away the Murmuring of the Lords Kingdom of England to the King of Spain Writing to Mendoza she adviseth him thus Let not this be known for if it should it would be in France the Loss of my Dowry in Scotland the Breach with my Son and in England my total Destruction Here Mr. Sollicitor remembred the Lords that if a Forein Prince had Mr. Sollicitor the Kingdom as she would assign it what should become of their Dignities and Estates Madam said my Lord Treasurer The Succession of the Crown who soever hath it cannot give it to a Forein Prince it must go by the Laws Lo. Treasurer of the Realm to a natural English Man born Your Enemies in Scotland threatned to kill you and Her Majesty said she would then revenge it and so your Life was assured At her first rising up she talked long with the Lord Treasurer coming to She talketh with the Lord Treasurer Mr. Vice-Chamberlain Mr. Secretary and the Earl of Warwick him to his Seat after to Mr. Vice-chamberlain and Mr. Secretary excusing her self to them and used great Insinuations to persuade them She said to the Earl of Warwick that she had heard that he was an Honourable Gentleman desiring him not to believe all things he heard of her and also she desired him to commend her to my Lord of Leicester saying that she wished him good Success in his Affairs To the Judges and Lawyers she To the Judges and Lawyers said I pray God bless me from you you have sore Hands over them that be under you And to Mr. Phillips Thou never readest any good for me and so Mr. Phillips the Lords brake up their sitting on Saturday October 15. 1586. at One of Lds. break up the Clock in the Afternoon and adjourned the Commission to the Star-Chamber The
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF Mary Queen of Scots AND The Occasions that brought Her and Thomas Duke of Norfolk to their Tragical Ends. Shewing the hopes the Papists then had of a Popish Successor in England and their Plots to accomplish them With a full ACCOUNT of the TRYALS Of that QUEEN and of the said DUKE As also the TRIAL of PHILIP HOWARD Earl of Arundel From the Papers of a Secretary of Sir Francis Walsingham Now Published by a Person of Quality LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Sign of the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market 1681. A Preface to the following Tryals giving a brief Hystorical Account of the Life of Mary Queen of Scots and the occasions that brought both Her and the Duke of Norfolk to their Tragical Ends and the Earl of Arundel to his Trial c. IT may seem strange or unseasonable while the Press labours daily with the present Popish Plot to trouble the world with that which concerns only Those that so long ago are past and gone But as there are too many amongst us that question the Reality of the present Conspiracy so there are not a few that deny the Truth of those heretofore Or if they acknowledge any thing either of the Powder-Treason or Babingtons Conspiracy they extenuate the same almost to nothing by alledging that they were attempted by a few Private High-Spirited Gentlemen extreamly provoked with great Injuries and bitter usage which were the only causes of their desperate Resolutions for which they themselves sufficiently suffered and that therefore their Treasons are no more to be filed to the Account of their Church c. But by the following papers I conceive these Evasions will be silenced for thereby it will appear 1. That there was during a great part of Queen Elizabeths Reign a continued Series of Popish Treasons successively though God be blessed unsuccessfully carried on and that not by a few Desperado's but by a great number of persons of the most considerable Fortunes and Abilities of the Roman Catholick Religion 2ly That the main intentive and scope of the said Conspirators as every where they declare was to root out Protestantism and set up Popery unto which Attempts they were chiefly animated by the prospect of an immediate Popish Successor viz. the said Mary Queen of Scots 3ly That the Papists then were to make use of the same Vmbrage as now they do viz. to raise Lyes and Slanders of the Puritans and prerend that they designed Rebellion only to colour their own real Treasons as appears by the Queen of Scots Letter to Babington 4ly That these fatal Councils of the Guises and Popish Priests brought that great Princess who had the misfortune to be led by them to Ruine so that by endeavouring to anticipate the Succession she not only lost it but also her Life These and several other Remarkables which no doubt the Judicious Reader will observe in the perusal occasioned the publication of the ensuing papers at this time 'T is confessed the same are not so exactly taken as the Tryals of the present Age The Ingenious Skill of Speedy and short writing being much improved since those times yet it is evident by the Manuscript that there was no little care and diligence used therein so that nothing material seems to have escaped nor do any Historians give so punctual an Account of the Transactions as these papers which before never saw the Light concerning the Authentickness and Truth of which the Antientness of the hand-writing of the Original might be a sufficient Testimony had we not another more probable Argument which is That they were lately found amongst some Ancient papers that heretofore belonged to a Secretary of Sir Francis Walsingham an eminent Minister of State at that juncture For whose use 't is very credible the same were so curiously collected Besides If any shall be be at the pains to examine them they will find them to agree in the main with the Histories of those times not only with the Learned Cambden and the rest of our own Writers but with the Great Thaunus nay with the Jesuit Strada too But for the satisfaction of those Readers that are not so conversant in History that they may the better understand what they meet with in these Tryals we conceive it will not be unwelcome to prefix a brief Account of the Life and unhappy Fortunes of the Illustrious Mary of Scotland on whose Adventures all these prosecutions did depend wherein we shall impartially state matter of Fact without the Reflections of Buchanan or intollerable flatteries of Causin the Jesuit Mary Queen of Scots was the daughter and sole Legitimate Issue of James the fifth King of Scotland and of Mary his Queen a daughter of the house of Lorrain born in December 1541. she was scarce eight dayes old when the King her Father dyed and the Scottish Nobility being divided into Factions whereof the Family of the Hamiltons and the Earl of Lenox were the respective Heads The one side supported by King Henry the eighth of England and the other by the French King Henry the second she was by her Mother who being a French-woman inclined unto that Kings Interest sent into France about five or six years of Age to learn the Accomplishments of that Court. There she was educated under the French King and the house of Guise her Uncles who being desperate Enemies to the Reformation seasoned her with violent principles against the Protestant Religion she was a Lady very proper and beautiful of a great Wit and Courage beyond her Sex These Advantages and much more several important Reasons of State induced the French King to conclude her a fit Match for his Son the Dauphin For hereby they thought themselves not only sure to unite the Kingdoms of France and Scotland she being Sovereign Queen of the latter as he was Heir apparent to the former but also had a prospect of the Crown of England looking upon this Mary of Scotland as Great Grand-child to King Henry the seventh to be the next Heiress thereunto after Mary who had by this time mounted the English Throne For as for her sister Elizabeth they not only knew her to be one they called an Heretick but also gave out she was Illegitimate and so on both Accounts represented her as uncapable to succeed Hereupon a Marriage was solemnized between the Dauphin and this Princess Apr. 24th 1588. in Nostredam Church at Paris On the 27th of November following Queen Mary of England after a short Reign rendred infamous to all Posterity by the Butcheries committed on Protestants departed this Life And though Elizabeth according to her undoubted Right was with the general consent and applause of the Lords Commons and all the people proclaimed Queen and most happily succeeded her in the Throne yet had the Guises inveigled the French-King into such strong hopes of adjoyning England to the Crown of France by the aforesaid Title of
Duke being found by intercepted Letters notwithstanding his aforesaid promises still to continue his affection to and correspondence with the Scottish Queen was brought to his Trial here printed and for the Crimes therein specified condemned and beheaded Some few days after his Execution William Lord de la Ware and others were sent to the Queen of Scots who was then full of grief and sorrow for his death owning that a contract of Marriage had passed between him and her to expostulate with her and charge her with divers matters as that she had usurp'd the Title and Arms of the Realm of England and had not renounced the same as she ought to have done by the Treaty of Edenbourgh that she had sought to Marry with the Duke of Norfolk a Subject of England without the Queens privity and to effect the same Marriage had tried all means by her Agents and Ministers to rescue the said Duke out of Prison by force that she had raised the Rebellion in the North and relieved the Rebles after they were put to flight in Scotland and the Low-Countries that she had by Ridolph the Italian importun'd both the Pope and the King of Spain and others for Forrein Forces to invade England that she had conspired with several English Subjects to take her out of Prison by force and proclaim her Queen of England that she had received Letters from the Pope wherein to use his own words he promised to cherish her as the Hen doth her Chickins and to account those that stood for her the true Children of the Church Lastly that she had procured the Popes Bull against the Queen and had suffered her self publickly to be stiled Queen of England by her Ministers in Forrein Courts Whereunto protesting First That she was a free absolute Queen and subject to none she with a settled countenance and courage answered 1. That she had not usurped the Title and Arms of England but that the King of France and her Husband had imposed them upon her being very young and under the direction of her Husband and therefore not to be laid upon her for a fault and that as she did not after her Husband's death so neither would she claim them as long as Queen Elizabeth or any Children she might have should live 2. That she never imagined any detriment or hurt to the Queen by her Marriage with the Duke of Norfolk being perswaded it would be for the good of the Common-wealth and that she did not renounce it because she had given her Faith and Troth unto him 3. That she willed the Duke by some means to get out of danger and Prison which she did out of the duty she owed to him as her Husband 4. That she had not raised rebellion nor was privy to the same but was always ready to reveal all attempts against the Queens life 5. That she never relieved the English Rebels only that in her Letters she recommended the Countess of Northumberland to the Duke of Alva 6. That she used Ridolph whom she knew to be highly in the Popes favour in many matters yet receiv'd no Letters from him 7. That she never moved any to attempt her deliverance yet that she willingly gave ear unto them that offered their labour therein and for that purpose that she communicated to Rolston and Hall a private Character 8. That she had receiv'd sometimes Letters from the Pope very pious and consolatory wherein were no such Expressions or Phrases 9. That she procured not the Bull that she only saw the Printed Copy thereof and when she had read it she threw it into the fire 10. That if any in Forrein parts writ or nam'd her otherwise than they ought they and not she were to answer it 11. That she never by Letters required aid of the Pope or the King of Spain to invade England but only to be restored into her Kingdom by their means and not without the Queens privity 12 But if any question or doubt be made of those Letters of effecting the Marriage by force of Arms she requested since she was born of the Royal Blood of England that she might answer Personally in the next Parliament How far these specious Allegations were credited by Queen Elizabeth we find not 't is certain they produc'd little effect towards her delivery But on the contrary it being about the same time discovered that she held Correspondence with Spain and that the Lord Seton who landed in Essex disguised like a Mariner had brought a promise of Aid to her from the Duke of Alva she was confined more strictly and with greater Guard Likewise in Scotland to prevent the Duke of Guises design which was to make use of the Duke of Lenox's favour with the King to withdraw his affection from the English the Earl of Gowry and others resolve by all means to remove Lenox and the Earl of Arran from the King To accomplish which while Lenox was gone from Perth where the King then lay to Edenburgh and Arran also was absent the said Earl of Gowry with the Earls of Mar and Lindsey and others take an opportunity to invite the King to the Castle of Rewthen and there detained him not permitting him to walk abroad and removing all his trusty Servants cast Arran into Prison enforc'd the King to call home the Earl of Angus and send away Lenox into France As also by his Letters to Queen Elizabeth to own and approve of all these proceedings Which were much regretted by the Queen his Mother who on this occasion wrote a long Letter to Queen Elizabeth lamenting her own and her Sons deplorable fortune and did it so Pathetically that Queen Elizabeth was much affected with it and a serious debate was moved in her Council thereupon and most of them inclin'd to set her at liberty on these Terms and Conditions 1. That she and her Son should promise to practise nothing hurtful to Q. Elizabeth and the Realm of England 2. That she would voluntarily confess that whatsoever was done by Francis the Second the French King her Husband against Q. Elizabeth was done against her will and that she should utterly disallow the same as unjust by confirming the Treaty of Edenburgh 3. That she should condemn all the practises ever since that time and ingenuously renounce them 4. She should bind her self not to practise any thing directly or indirectly against the Government of the Realm of England in Ecclesiastical or Civil affairs but by all manner of means oppose her self and resist such practisers as publick enemies 5. That she shall challenge or claim no right unto her self in the Kingdom of England during the Life of Queen Elizabeth and that afterward she will submit her right of Succession unto the Estates of England 6. And to the end that she may not hereafter use any cavil and say That she condescended to these Conditions being a Prisoner and by coaction she her self should not only swear unto them but also
procure the Estates of Scotland to confirm them by publick Authority 7. The King himself also should ratifie them by Oath and by writing 8. And that Hostages should be given But these Consultations proved Abortive the Scots rejecting them and besides Queen Elizabeth had notice that Holt an English Jesuit was sesecretly sent into Scotland not without the Scottish Queens privity as was suggested to use means there for an Invasion of England And indeed the Queen of Scots was too much addicted to and influenced by the Jesuites and their Councils who as they made use of her name to colour their traiterous designs against Queen Elizabeth and therefore gave out as if they had acted out of pure zeal to the Family of the Stuarts as many of them will boast to this very day yet 't is plain that in all these stirs they really minded nothing but their own Interest for when they met with so many disappointments in their Plots to bring the said Scottish Queen before her time to the English Crown and withal despaired of turning her Son King James to their Religion they presently began to start variety of new Titles witness Parsons alias Doleman's Book of Succession and other Pamphlets by them flung abroad about those times Nay 't is more than suspected that as they egg'd on the Scottish Queen to ill practises against Queen Elizabeth so when they had done imitating their Father the Devil who first tempts and then accuses they betray'd her too by making a secret discovery of those very Conspiracies in which they themselves had engag'd her and so were treacherously instrumental to hasten her death hoping to take off Queen Elizabeth and put by King James and play a new Game more for their advantage with some other Pretender as will more fully appear by and by But to return in the mean time to our History King James being as you heard in little better Condition than that of a Prisoner to Earl Gowry and his Confederates or at least esteeming himself as such on a sudden with a small Company conveyed himself to the Castle of St. Andrews being then about 18 years of Age to whom several of the Nobility with armed Troops repaired and then he began to exercise his Royal Authority of himself and declared in a great Assembly of the States the Force before upon him to have been traiterously imposed yet thought it most safe not to proceed with Rigour against his Surprizers only advising them to depart the Court and promised them pardon if they would ask it within a time limited which they declining fled some into England and others into other parts only Gowry attempting a new Conspiracy soon after lost his life It was now the year 1584. And in England divers lewd Books were spread by the Jesuits and other Popish Factors asserting that Princes Excommunicated as Queen Elizabeth for sometime before had been by the Pope were not to have any Allegiance paid unto them but ought to be deposed c. These Seeds soon ripen'd into rank fruits of Treason and Rebellion and had so far intoxicated one Sommervile a Popish Gentleman that coming privately to Court and full of rage against all Protestants he with his drawn Sword assaulted several persons and being apprehended declared like a stout Roman Champion that he would murder the Queen with his own hands whereupon he and one Arden an ancient Warwick-shire Gentleman his Father in Law were executed but Hall a Priest that excited them to this madness got a Reprieve Likewise one Throgmorton eldest Son of John Throgmorton Chief Justice of Chester was discovered by intercepted Letters directed to the Queen of Scots to have entertain'd Treasonable correspondencies with Popish Princes beyond the Seas and chiefly with the Guises who had resolv'd to invade England and free the Queen of Scots And for raising of money to carry on the work here one Paget under the counterfeit name of Mope was sent into Sussex where the Forreiners were first to Land and to facilitate their purposes he had prepar'd two Catalogues found in his Chests one of the names and descriptions of all the Ports of England the other of the Nobilitry and Gentry that favoured the Romish Religion and that he had communicated all this to Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador then in England whereupon he was condemned and though he had twice confess'd the fact yet like our Modern Popish Traitors at the Gallows he stoutly deny'd all and would needs be thought to dye as innocent as the child unborn However Mendoza having thus violated and forfeited the Priviledg of an Ambassador was commanded forthwith to depart with shame at which the Spanish Court being dissatisfied the Queen sent over Sir William Wade to justify the Action But the King of Spain not admitting him into his presence but slightingly putting him off to his Ministers he in disdain refus'd to communicate it at all and so returned home unheard whereby a greater animosity arose between the two Crowns Nor were the Popish party less busy in fomenting disturbances in Ireland where Dr. Saunders that had wrote several Pestilent Books having drawn in the Earl of Desmond to Rebellion and finding him defeated and his Head sent into England died miserably of famine as he roamed up and down the Mountains guilty and desperate as Cain fearing each man he met would deservedly slay him Likewise about the same time Providence was pleas'd in a wonderful manner to make a discovery of some other practises in agitation against Queen Elizabeth for one Creighton a Scottish Jesuit sailing in a small Vessel from the Low-Countries to Scotland certain Sea-rovers of Holland which then was revolted and at enmity with the rest of the Subjects of the Spanish King happening to come up with them took the said Ship and though the Jesuit to conceal his Instructions and mischievous errand tore several of his Papers to pieces and flung them over-board yet the wind miraculously as he himself confest afterwards drove them back again and cast them upon the Deck which the Hollanders perceiving and imagining that they might be of consequence gather'd them up carefully and sent them to England where by the great skill and industry of Sir William Wade they were so join'd together again that the Contents were legible and the Conspiracies on foot detected The good Subjects of England finding their Country in this danger from abroad and the life of their Queen whereon the safety of their Religion and Liberties did seem at that juncture wholly under God to depend daily attempted by various Plots and Machinations at home all carried on by Papists out of a prospect of a Popish Successor did think fit of their own accord solemnly to oblige themselves each to other for her safety and to revenge her death on any that should occasion it which agreement they call'd an Association and was entred into by abundance of persons of all ranks and conditions throughout the Nation The Tenor whereof was
tempt God than to hope in him Hereupon Babington and the rest were sought after and having in vain endeavour'd to abscond were apprehended and upon a fair Tryal and their own Confessions condemned and executed Hereupon Queen Elizabeth being much exasperated against the Queen of Scots caused her Cabinets and Papers to be seized wherein many Letters were found and Copies of Letters both to and from Strangers and also from divers Noblemen of England which Queen Elizabeth prudently dissembled and buried in silence As for Gifford who made the discovery he was soon after sent into France under the notion of Banishment Now that this Gifford might be set on work by the Jesuits is very suspitious for 't is very unlikely that he who first labour'd to perswade Savage of the lawfulness and merit of murdering of Queen Elizabeth and came over on purpose to remind him of that Vow should all on a sudden have so tender a Conscience or so much love forsooth to his Prince and Country as of his own accord to discover the Intrigue had he not a secret design to manage thereby which is more probable because 't is plain they were now grown out of hope of restoring their Religion either by the Queen of Scots or her Son and therefore began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain and imploy'd one of their Society into England as is affirmed by Pasquier a French Author to draw off the Gentry from her to the Spaniard and to thrust her headlong into these dangerous counsels which brought her to her end and at the same time lest the Guises her kindred should give her any assistance stirred them up to new enterprises against the King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde Nay the Queen of Scots her self was not unacquainted with their designs to set up the Spaniard for amongst other things we find she one time used these words When I being in Prison and languished with care without hope of Liberty and there was not any more hope left for ever bringing to pass these things which very many expected of me in my sickness and declining age many thought it fit that the Succession of the Realm of England should be established in the Spaniard or in a Catholick English man and a Book was brought to prove the Right of the Spaniard which being not admitted by me I offended many History of the Life and Death of Mary Steuart Queen of Scotland dedicated to her Son King James p. 400. But leaving this Conjecture to the Judicious Reader however it was design'd the event proved Funerous to the Scottish Queen for her Secretaries being examined about the Papers found in her Closet of their own accord acknowledged that these in her Name were of their hand-writings but Indited by her in French that she receiv'd Letters from Babington and that they wrote back by her commandment the Answers there found Hereupon the English Queen after some debate resolved to proceed against her upon the before recited Act of 26th of Eliz. But when it was said That according to the Formalities of Law she ought to be Tried at the Assizes by a Country Jury and to hold up her hand at the Bar Queen Elizabeth would by no means hear thereof judging it very unbecoming her Royal Quality and therefore chose rather to issue forth a Commission to divers Noblemen and chief Personages of the Realm together with the Judges c. who met at Fodringhay-Castle in Northamptonshire where she was then kept on the 11th of October 1586. and proceeded as in the subsequent Papers is related And afterwards viz. the 25th of the same Month in the Star-Chamber at Westminster to which time and place the Commissioners had adjourn'd themselves the sentence against her was pronounc'd and confirm'd with the Seals and Subscriptions of the Commissioners Whereupon both the King of Scots and the French King speedily sent their Ambassadors to intercede on her behalf with Queen Elizabeth using all perswasive Arguments that natural affection in the one and likeness of Condition and ancient friendship in the other could suggest But when the loud voice of necessity of State seem'd to drown all their Reasons the French Ambassador l' Aubespine resolves to prevent Blood with Blood and to save the Queen of Scots life contrives to take away Queen Elizabeths and deals with one Mr. Stafford whose Mother was of the Bed-Chamber to Queen Elizabeth about it who having not an heart to act such a Villany himself recommended one Moody a desperate Russian taken out of the Common Goal who for money undertook it But then they could not agree in the manner Moody propounded Poyson or to lay a Bag of Gunpowder under the Queens Bed and suddenly fire it so that the Treason of that kind against King James was not altogether a new invention but the Devil had long before inspired some bloody Papists with the notion but Trap the French Ambassadors Secretary liked neither of there Expedients but would have her kill'd as the Prince of Orange was late before who was shot into the Body with three Bullets by one Balthazar Gerard a Burgundian instigated thereunto by the Jesuits But whilst they were thâ—â— consulting Stafford discovers all whereupon Moody and Trap were apprehended and confest the whole Contrivance This fresh and dangerous Plot much startled Queen Elizabeth who perceiv'd that her own Life could not be safe if she did not proceed to execute the Sentence upon the Scottish Queen For from the prospect of her succeeding to the Crown the Popish Conspirators laid the foundation of all their Trayterous practises Yet never did Clemency and good nature more bravely resist the charms of Interest and dread of danger than in the noble breast of our Queen for how extreamly loth she was to consent to the death of the Queen of Scots appears by the several Applications made by the Parliament to move her thereunto As first at Richmond on the 12th of Nov. Serjeant Puckering Speaker of the House of Commons did in the name of that House represent unto her Majesty the divers apparent and imminent dangers that might grow to her Royal person and to her Realm from the Scottish Queen and her Adherents if remedy were not provided which he delivered as follows First touching the danger of her Majesties Person Both this Scotish Queen and her Favourers do think her to have Right not only to succeed but to enjoy your Crown in possession and therefore as she is a most Impatient Competitor so will she not spare any means whatsoever that may bereave us of your Majesty the only impediment that she enjoyeth not her desire 2. She is obdurate in malice against your Royal Person notwithstanding you have shewed her all favour and mercy as well in preserving her Kingdom as saving her life and salving her honour And therefore there is no place for mercy since there is no hope she will desist from most wicked attempts the rather
person and conservation of my life done I protest to God before I heard it or ever thought of such a matter until a great number of hands with many obligations were shewed me which as I do acknowledg as a perfect argument of your true hearts and great zeal to my safety so shall my bond be stronger tied to greater care for all your good But forasmuch as this matter is rare weighty and of great consequence I think you do not look for any present resolution the rather for that as it is not my manner in matters of farless moment to give speedy answer without due consideration so in this of such importance I think it very requisite with earnest prayers to beseech the Divine Majesty so to illuminate my understanding and inspire me with his grace as I may determine that which shall serve to the establishment of his Church preservation of your Estates and the prosperity of this Commonwealth under my charge wherein for that I know delay is dangerous you shall have with all conveniency our resolution delivered by our Message Soon after this her Majesty sent to both Houses earnestly charging them to consider of some expedients whereby she might spare the Scottish Queen and yet preserve her own Life and State who having severally in their respective Houses and jointly at several Conferences debated the same concluded Nemine contra dicente That there was no other effectual means or expedient could be sound out for continuance of the Christian Religion I use herein their own words quiet of the Realm and safety of her Majesties Person than that which was contained in their former Petition Which was back't by another Speech of the Speaker of the Commons assigning by the direction of the House these Reasons for such their resolution viz. That if her Majesty should be safe without taking away the life of the Scottish Queen the same were most probably by one of these means following viz. 1. That happily she might be reclaimed and become a Repentant-Convert assigning her Majesties great mercy and favours in remitting her heinous offences and by her Loyalty hereafter perform the fruits of such Conversion 2. Or else by a more streight Guard be so kept as there should be no fear of the like attempts hereafter 3. Or that good assurance might be given by Oath Bonds or Hostages as cautions for her good and loyal demeanour from henceforth 4. Or lastly by Banishment the Realm might be voided of her Person and thereby the perils further removed that grow to her Majesty by her Presence All which being duly pondered did yet appear so light in all their Judgments that they durst not advise any security to rest in any no not in all of them For 1. Touching her Conversion it was considered That if Piety or Duty could have restrained her from such heinous Attempts there was cause enough ministred to her on her Majesties behalf when she not only protected her against the violence of her own Subjects who pursued her to death by Justice but covered her Honour when the same by publick Fame was touched and the very Heinous and Capital Crimes objected against her before certain Commissary Delegates assigned to examine the same and spared her Life when for her former Conspiracies and Confederacies with the Northern Rebels Her Highness was with great Instance pressed by both Houses in the 14th year of her Majesties Reign to do like justice upon her as is now desired and as her Treasonable practises then had most justly deserved And whereas the Penalty of this Act sufficiently notified unto her should have terrified her from so wicked attempts she hath nevertheless insisted in her former practises as a person obdurate in Malice against her Majesty and irrecoverable so as there was no probable hope of any Conversion but rather great doubt and fear of Relapse forasmuch as she stood obstinately in the denial of matter most evidently proved and now most justly sentenced against her and was not entred into the first part of Repentance the Recognition of her offence and so much the farther off from the true fruits that should accompany the same 2. As for a surer Guard and more strait Imprisonment it was resolved That there was no security therein nor yet in the two other means propounded of Bonds and Hostages For asmuch as the same means that should be practised to take her Majesties Life away which God forbid would aptly serve both for the Delivery of her Person and Release of the Bonds and Hostages that should be given for Cautions in that behalf which being unhappily atchieved and to our irrepairable loss who should sue the Bonds or detain the Hostages or being detained what proportion was there in Bonds or Hostages whatsoever to countervail the value of so precious and inestimable a Jewel as her Majesty is to this Realm 3. But she will solemnly vow and take an Oath that she will not attempt any thing to the hurt of her Majesties Person She hath already sundry times falsified her Word her Writing and her Oath and holdeth it for an Article of Religion That Faith is not to be holden with Hereticks of which sort she accounteth your Majesty and all the professers of the Gospel to be and therefore have we little reason to trust her in that whereof she maketh so small a conscience 4. As for Banishment that were a stop à malo in pejus to set her at liberty a thing so greatly desired and thirsted for by her Adherents and by some Princes her Allies who sought her Enlargement chiefly to make her a Head to set up against her Majesty in time of Invasion And therefore her Majesties Death being so earnestly sought for Advancement of this Competitor Her Highness could not remain in quietness or security if the Scottish Queen should longer continue her Life Yet notwithstanding all these Applications and Reasons the Queen suspended her Resolution and Answered this second Address with a Reserv'd Speech which at once express'd her Love and Tenderness to her Kinswoman and her Regards to the safety of her People protesting That she was so far from Cruelty that for her own Life she would not touch Hers and that her Care had not been so much how to preserve her self as both which she was sorry was become so hard or rather impossible and therefore concluded That as she conceived their Consultations Wise Honourable and Consciencious so she desired for the present to suspend her positive Answer c. So far was this Pious Queen perplext in this Affair that she abandon'd the Comforts of Society and would oft sit solitary without speaking a word to any But at last delivered to Davison one of her Secretaries a Warrant signed with her own hand for the Issuing a Commission under the Great Seal of England for the Queen of Scots Execution that it might be ready upon any Imminent danger yet charging him not to acquaint any therewith And the very next
Act to be made that is to have such her Protest Registred by Publick Notaries and required her own Servants to bear her witness of it The Lord Chancellour again protested against that Protestation Lord Chancellour That it should in no wise be prejudicial to the Queens Majesty nor to the Crown of England and that they all on the behalf of her Majesty required the same to be likewise enacted or Registred Then Mr. Powel Clerk of the Crown read the Commission grounded Mr. Powel upon the Statute 27 Eliz. The Commission being read the Queen said I protest that this Law is insufficient and therefore I cannot submit my self unto it Then the Lord Treasurer avouched and justified the Law to be sufficient to Lord Treasurer named Sir William Cecil Queen of Scots proceed against her To whom she replyed that the Law was not made against her The Lord Treasurer said we have Commission to proceed and if Lo. Treasurer you will not hear we will proceed against you herein Then she said I will both hear and Answer Qu. of Scots Then arose Serjeant Gawdy and declared the Statute and then inferred that the Queen of Scots there present had offended against both Serjeant Gawdy the Branches thereof viz. That she had been both privy to the Conspiracy of killing the Queens Majesty and also had her self practised to compass the same and so ript up the whole Complot from Ballard's first coming into this Ballard a Traytor Qu. of Scots Mr. Puckering Babington a Traytor Qu. of Scots Realm When the Serjeant said the Queen present was both a mover and a compasser she bowed her Body and smiled Then Serjeant Puckering pursued the rest of Babington's Letters to her and her answer again The Queen answered She never had seen Babington nor ever had Speech with him nor ever received Letters from him and that she could stop no man to go beyond the Seas But let any man said she in England come and say that I ever did any thing against the Queens Life Then Sands the Clerk of the Crown read Babinton's Confession and Sands Babington's Confession Serjeant Puckering opened the points The Queen said That being kept from all Intelligence of her Friends Qu. of Scots and of her Son it may be she might desire Intelligence but if any other man hath done or practised any thing it is no matter to that purpose There be some that send me Letters and I know them not nor from whence they come The Clerk of the Crown read again Babington's Confession Clerk of the Crown Qu. of Scots The Queen said again I never wot of any such Letter Then was read the Letter of Anthony Babington To which she said If Anthony Babington and all the world say it they lye but I would see my own Hand writing And to Babington's Letters to her she said I never saw that Letter nor never heard of it The Lord Treasurer proved the receipt of Babington's Letter and the Serjeant shewed an answer to Babington's Letter from her in the same Lo. Treasurer Serjeant Puckering Cypher sent by a Serving man in a blew Coat and so opened all the points of her answer to Babington When mention was made of the Earl of Arundel she wept and blubber'd Qu. of Scots out saying Wo is me that your House hath suffered so much for my sake and after having blubber'd a time she said if ever I made any such device against the Queen my Sister then I pray God I may never see his Face I have written I confess about my deliverance as any Prince kept Captive as I am might do but never against the Queen I confess for the Catholicks delivery from Persecution I will work and if I could with my Blood save them from destruction I would and if it may be so I pray you lay it upon me and therewith wept according to her guise The Lord Treasurer answered saying Madam the Queen puts no man to Death for his Conscience but they might enjoy the Liberty of Lo. Treasurer their Conscience if they would live as dutiful Subjects and therefore Madam reform your opinion therein The Queen said she had read it so in a Book The Lord Treasurer said they that did write so Madam did write Qu. of Scots Lo. Treasurer that the Queen of England is no Queen Then she picked a quarrel against Mr. Secretary that he had been Qu. of Scots her sore Enemy and her Son 's and had practised with certain persons against her but said she Mr. Walsingham I think you are an honest man and I pray you say in the word of an honest man whether you have been so unto me Mr. Secretary rose up and came to the end of the Table standing Mr. Secretary Walsingham in the midst before his seat saying Madam I stand charged by you to have practised something against you I call God and the World to Witness I have done nothing as a private man unworthy of an honest man nor as a publick person unworthy of my calling I protest before God that as a Man careful of my Mistresses safety I have been curious and if Ballard had offered me his Service I would have rewarded him but if he were practised with by me why did he not plead it for his Life Here again she wept and protested that she would not make Ship wreck Queen of Scots of her Soul in conspiring against her good Sister and that those whom Mr. Secretary had set over her as Spies were Spies for her against him and had likewise told her things of him Then the Queen's Attorney proved that the Queen of Scots was privy to Queen's Attorney the Conspiracy and gave Instructions to her Secretary to write by him confessed upon Oath without Constraint some in Cyphers and some translated according to her direction into English by Jaques Nave and Gilbert Curle The Queen's Sollicitor proved both the Points of the Statute agreeing to Queen's Sollicitor the Points of the Commission First That she was privy to the Conspiracy in that she received Babington's Letters wherein the Conspiracy was contained to kill the Queen To which she gave Answer as hath been deposed by her Secretaries who besides their Oaths and voluntary Confession did set down according to their Memory the Minutes and Points of Babington's Letters to the Queen and her Answer to Babington Wherein especially they remember the Points of the Conspiracy particularly confessed also by Babington before he was apprehended and at large when he thought to have executed it and been advanced by it He also shewed her Letters and Answers to Ballard Savadge and Tuchborne and they confessed it Secondly He proved that she her self did conspire and compass the Queens Death for besides the approving of Babington's Plot she addeth in her own Letters the Manner and Order of the Execution of this Designment The Secretaries at the view
Ireland c. To our trusty and well-beloved Cousins George Earl of Sbrewsbury Earl Marshal of England Henry Earl of Kent Henry Earl of Darby George Earl of Comberland and Henry Earl of Pembrook greeting c. Whereas sithence the Sentence given by you and others of our Council Nobility and Judges against the Queen of Scots by the name of Mary the Daughter of James the 5th late King of Scots commonly called the Queen of Scots and Dowager of France as to you is well known All the States in the last Parliament assembled did not only deliberately by great advice allow and approve the same Sentence as just and honourable but also with all humbleness and earnestness possible at sundry times require solicit and press us to direct such further execution against her Person as they did adjudg her to have daily deserved adding thereunto that the forbearing thereof was and would be daily certain and undoubted danger not only unto our own life but also unto themselves their posterity and the publick estate of this Realm as well for the Cause of the Gospel and true Religion of Christ as for the Peace of the whole Realm whereupon we did although the same were with some delay of time publish the same sentence by our Proclamation yet hitherto have forborn to give direction for the further satisfaction of the aforesaid most earnest requests made by our said States of our Parliament whereby we do daily understand by all sorts of our loving subjects both of our Nobility and Councel and also of the wisest greatest and best devoted of all Subjects of inferiour degrees how greatly and deeply from the bottom of their hearts they are grieved and afflicted with daily yea hourly fears of our life and thereby consequently with a dreadful doubt and expectation of the ruin of the present happy and godly estate of this Realm if we should forbear the further final execution as it is deserved and neglect their general and continual requests prayers counsels and advices and thereupon contrary to our natural disposition in such case being overcome with the evident weight of their counsels and their daily intercessions importing such a necessity as appeareth directly tending to the safety not only of our self but also to the weal of our whole Realm We have condescended to suffer Justice to take place and for the execution thereof upon the special trusty experience and confidence which we have of your loyalties faithfulness and love both toward our Person and the safety thereof and also to your native Countries whereof you are most noble and principal members we do will and by Warrant hereof do Authorize you as soon as you shall have time convenient to repair to our Castle of Fotheringhay where the said Queen of Scots is in custody of our right trusty and faithful servant and Councellor Sir Amias Paulet Knight and then taking her into your charge to cause by your Commandment execution to be done upon her Person in the presence of your selves and the aforesaid Sir Amias Paulet and of such other Officers of Justice as you shall command to attend upon you for that purpose and the same to be done in such manner and form and at such time and place and by such persons as to five four or three of you shall be thought by your discretions convenient notwithstanding any Law Statute or Ordinance to the contrary And these our Letters Patents sealed with our great Seal of England shall be to you and every of you and to all persons that shall be present or that shall be by you commanded to do any thing appertaining to the aforesaid execution a full sufficient Warrant and discharge for ever And further we are also pleased and contented and hereby we do will command and authorise our Chancellor of England at the requests of you all and every of you the duplicate of our Letters Patents to be to all purposes made dated and sealed with our great Seal of England as these presents now are In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patents Yeoven at our Mannor of Greenwich the 1st day of February in the 29th year of our Reign First After she was brought down by the Sheriff to the place prepared in the Hall for that purpose by the commandment of the Earls of Shrewsbury Octavo die Feb. 1586. and Kent her Majesties Commission aforesaid was openly read Then according to a direction given to Dr. Fletcher Dean of Peterborough he was willed to use some short and pithy Speech which might tend to admonish her of the nearness of her end and the only means of salvation in Christ Jesus As soon as he began to speak she interrupted him saying she was a Catholick and that it was but a folly being so resolutely determined as she was to move her otherwise and that our prayers could do her little good On Wednesday the 8th of February 1586. there assembled at the Castle of Fotheringhay the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent with divers Knights The Assembly of the Lords at the death of the Queen of Scots and Gentlemen Justices of Peace in the Counties there and about Eight of the Clock the Earls and the Sheriff of the Shire went up to the Scottish Queen whom they found praying on her knees with her Gentlewomen and men and the Sheriff remembring her the time was at hand she rose up and said she was ready then was she led by the arms from her Chamber unto the Chamber of Presence where with many exhortations to fear God and live in obedience kissing her women and giving her hand to her men to kiss praying them all not to sorrow but to rejoice and pray for her she was brought down the Stairs by two Souldiers and being below and looking back she said she was evil attended and besought the Lords that she might for womanhood sake have two of her women to wait upon her they said they were only withheld for that it was feared by their passionate crying they would much disquiet her spirit and disturb the execution then she said I will promise for them they will do neither so two whom she willed were brought in to her Then she spake much to Melin her man and charged him as he would answer before God to deliver her Speeches and Messages to her Son in such sort as she did deliver them All which tended to will him to govern wisely and in the fear of God to take heed to whom he betook his chiefest trust and not to give occasions to be evil thought on by the Queen of England her good Sister And to certifie him she died a true Scot true French and true Catholick And about 10 of the Clock she was brought into the great Hall where in the midst of the Hall and against the Chimney in which was a great fire was a Scaffold set up of two Foot high and Twelve Foot broad having two Steps to come up
Martins laid about with Gold Lace and buttoned with Gold Buttons a Black Satten Doublet a pair of Velvet Hose and a long high Black Hat on his head a very tall man looking somewhat Swarth-coloured His Apparel Then was the Earl brought to the Bar with the Axe carryed before him by Mr. Shelton Gent. Porter of the Tower being accompanied with Prisoner brought to the Barr. Sir Owin Hopton Knight Lieftenant of the Tower Sir Drew Drewry Constable of the Tower for the time Mr. Henry Bronkard and others At my Lord of Arundel his coming to the Bar he made two Obeysances to the State and to the Nobles and others there present Then did Mr. Sands Clerk of the Crown say he was Indicted of several Treasons and said unto him Philip Howard Earl of Arundel late of Arundel in the County of Sussex hold up thy hand He held up his hand very high saying Here is as true a mans heart and hand as ever came into this Hall Mr. Sands then read the Indictment THat whereas divers traiterous persons in the parts beyond the Seas being Indictment natural English men viz. Dr. Allen Parsons Champion Mote and divers others have heretofore divers and sundry times with sundry persons as well English men as of other Countries practised to accomplish and bring to pass several dangerous and unnatural Treasons against the Queens Majesty her Royal Person Crown and Dignity viz. to subvert the State invade the Realm to set up Catholick Religion to raise Insurrections c. Amongst which number of unnatural Traitors the Earl of Arundel was well acquainted with that notorious Traitor Dr. Allen by means of Bridges Weston Ithell and other Popish Priests with whom divers times sithence the 20th year of her Majesties Reign he hath had private and secret conference and communication of several Treasons insomuch that the Earl of Arundel did presently dispatch his several Letters by Bridges aforesaid to Dr. Allen to wish him at any hand to do something concerning the Cause Catholick wherein he promised to perform any thing that Dr. Allen should think fit for him to do And whereas the 24th day of April in the 27th year of the Queens Reign he was flying by Sea to Dr. Allen that Arch-Traitor and that the Bishop of Rome and the King of Spain were thereupon solicited by Allen aforesaid to raise war against this Realm And whereas also the Earl of Arundel had understanding of a Bull that Sixtus the fifth Pope of that name had sent into England for the excommunication of her Majesty and for the invading of the Realm c. And that at the Tower the 21st of July in the 30th year of her Majesties Reign he did imagine with other traiterous persons that the Queen was an Heretick and not worthy to govern the Realm and that he did move and procure one William Bennet a Seminary Priest to say Mass for the happy success of the Spanish Fleet whereupon he had Mass and did help to say Mass himself to that purpose And having news of the conflict at Sea betwixt the Spanish Fleet and the English he procured Sir Thomas Gerrard and divers others then Prisoners in the Tower to say Mass with him for the fortunate success of Spain and that he made a prayer specially for that purpose to be daily used and exercised amongst them HEreupon Mr. Sands asked the Earl of Arundel if he were guilty or not guilty of the several Treasons comprised in the said Indictment Sands To this the Earl answered he would fain know whether the several points in the Indictment contained were but one Indictment yea or no. Earl The Judges satisfied him it was but one Indictment and a matter he need not stand upon Judges My Lord vouched a Case in Edw. 3. and in the end said not guilty and was well content to be tryed by his Peers and liked the Tryal well that Earl he should be tryed by such good Noble-men there present that knew his Life He said he had been Prisoner four years and 25 weeks close Prisoner and that he had been sick and weak whereby his memory might fail him and therefore humbly desired my Lord Steward's Grace making Three several Obeysances on both knees that he might be heard to make answer to every particular point My Lord Steward answered that there was no other meaning nor intent Lo. Steward and that he should be heard deliberately Then did Mr. Serjeant Puckering deliver to the Lords of the Jury the Puckering effect of the Indictment and other Evidence at large as followeth First that my Lord had private and secret Conference with Bridges aforesaid Conference with Traytors and divers other Traitors and Seminary Priests and that he had written his Letters to Dr. Allen to find which way he might further the Cause Catholick That he did Fast twenty-four hours and prayed for the happy success of Fasting and Prayer Traitors that should kill the Queen the Spanish Fleet. That Allen and others being arrant Traitors had taken order that in the 22d year of her Majesties Reign there should be 50 men in privy Coats and pocket daggers to kill the Queen and that one Pain and one Elliot were put in trust to perform the same That my Lord was a Catholick and favoured their proceedings My Lord answered he was no Catholick in the 22th year of the Queens Earl Reign That he secretly was flying out of the Realm to Dr. Allen being an His flying out of the Realm Throckmortons Opinion Arch-Traitor which doth argue my Lord to be no good Subject That Throckmorton practising his Treasons by sounding the Ports he did set down in his Catalogue that a South-west wind would serve from Spain to Arundel Castle in Sussex and an Easterly wind from the Low-Countries That in Throckmortons Catalogue of all the names of all the Noblemen and Gentlemen of every Shire that affecteth the Catholicks he began in Sussex and set down the Earl of Arundels Name the first That further one Mott a Priest informed Throckmorton that he was come Mott a Priest over to sound the intents of the Earls of Arundel and Northumberland and others My Lord answered when Mott was in Sussex he never came there but alwayes attended at Court Earl Mr. Puckering said the Traitors have a good Conceit of my Lord of Puckering Arundel in knowing him to be affected to the Catholick Cause It was defined that the Catholick Cause was meer Treason Petro Paulo Rossetto came over to sound Noblemen and Gentlemen in England Then said my Lord how prove you me to be a Traitor in these points Earl Because said Mr. Popham you have confederated with Traitors by desiring Popham Dr. Allen in your Letters to employ you any way that concerned the Cause Catholick because you have been reconciled to the Pope and there was a Law made in the 22d year of this Queen that
whosoever was Reconciled to the Pope from the obedience of the Queens Majesty was in case of Treason My Lord confessed that Bridges did confess him but not reconcile him in Earl any such sort but only for absolution of his sins Mr. Popham charged him that he did once submit himself but Sithence Popham fell from his submission and therefore practised new Treasons He confessed he was acquainted with the Priests and by two of them had been absolved and confessed Earl Sithence which time said Mr. Popham he came to the Church and fell to Popham the Catholick Cause again which he cannot do by their Order unless he be Reconciled My Lord denyed that ever he came to the Church after that time There was a Letter sent to the Queen of Scots by Morgan of France in Commendation of two Priests wherein he saith one of them had reconciled Morgan of France the Earl of Arundel Edmonds a Priest upon Examination said that Reconciliation was odious Edmonds a Priest Earl My Lord said these be but Allegations and Circumstances and that they ought to be proved by two Witnesses It was justified he said once in the Star-Chamber amongst the Lords there assembled concerning a Libel there in Question that whosoever was a Priest or Papist was an arrant Traytor Mr. Popham said it was a discontentment made my Lord a Catholick and Popham not Religion and that he did disguise himself in shadow of Religion There was a Picture shewed that was found in my Lords Trunk wherein Picture was painted a Hand bitten with a Serpent shaking the Serpent into the fire about which was written this Poesie quis contra nos on the other side was painted a Lyon Rampant with his Forces all bloody with this Poesie tamen Leo my Lord said one Wilgrave his man gave him the same with a pair of Hangers for a New years gift One Jonas Meridith being examined c. by way of Communication with a Towns-man who commended my Lord of Arundel for his forwardness Meridith in that he had often observed my Lord at Pauls Cross This Jonas answered that he knew he had often been at Pauls-Cross in the Fore-noon and hath heard a Mass with him at the Charter-house in the afternoon To this my Lord said nothing but seemed to deny it My Lord being examined in the Tower of his sudden going away to Sea Earl he answered to serve the Prince of Parma or whither Dr. Allen should direct him for the Cause Catholick My Lord said also he was going away for fear of some Statute should be made in the 22d of this Queens Reign against the Catholicks in that Parliament and that Dr. Allen advised him that he should not come over if he could tarry here in any safety because he might be the better able to make a Party in England when they came Before my Lords going to Sea he writ a Letter to be given the Queen after he was gone wherein he found fault with her hard dealing in giving countenance to his Adversaries and in disgracing him and that he was discontented with the Injustice of the Realm towards his great Grand-Father his Grand-Father and his Father My Lord said Hollinshead was faulty for setting forth in his Chronicle that his Grand-Father was attainted by Act of Parliament but shewed no Hollinshead cause wherefore He said in his Letter his Grand-Father was condemned for such trifies that the people standing by were amazed at it he found fault also with the proceedings against his Father Whereby 't is apparent said Mr Popham 't was discontentment moved my Lord and not Religion and fearing lest his friends should think amiss of him Popham he left a Copy of his Letter with Bridges a Traytor to be dispersed to make the Catholicks to think well of him for said Mr. Popham being discontented he became a Catholick and being so great a man he became a Captain of the Catholicks which is as much as to be a Captain over Traytors A Counterfeit Letter was made 22 dayes before his going to Sea directed to one Baker at Linne there being no such man abiding wherein was signified A Counterfe it Letter that my Lord was very hardly dealt withal by some of the Council and that he was gone into Sussex and a farther Voyage and that he would come home by Norfolk This was a Counterfeit Letter said Mr. Attorney appointed by my Lord Mr. Attorney to be dispersed to make it known he was discontented Also Allen sent a Letter to the Queen of Scots in Ciphers shewing a great party in England Allen sent my Lord word if he did come over he must take a greater Title than that of Earl upon him and therefore my Lord in this stile To Philip Duke of Norfolk Earl of Arundel Babington in his examination said the Queen of Scots sent him word that the Earl of Arundel was a fit man to be a chief Head for the Catholicks Babington Allen sent word to Rome that the Bull which was last sent over into England Allen. was at the Intercession of a great man in England My Lord said Mr. Popham was one of the principallest and acquainted Popham thus far with Allen Ergo my Lord of Arundel that great man Dr. Allen made a most villanous and slanderous Book which was very hard to be got in which was contained that the Earl of Arundel was a procurer of the last Bull and the procurer of the Invasion also the Bull it self was some part read and the Book was part read also My Lord being charged on his confession being examined why he would be ruled thus by Dr. Allen he excused it by saying that he said he would Earl be ruled by Allen in all things saving in that did concern her Majesty and the State and thereupon appealed to my Lord Chancellor and Sir Walter Mildmay who were not present Sir Christopher Hatton Lord Chancellour The Book aforesaid intended that my Lord was a practiser with Allen about the Invasion Then said my Lord he would serve the Queen against all Princes Pope Earl or Potentates whatsoever The Queens Sollicitor stood upon these points and because it was proved Mr. Sollicitor that the Earl of Arundel would be ruled by Allen in any thing that should concern the Catholick Cause And for that Dr. Allen hath since that time practised divers monstrous Treasons and continually hath built upon the help of some chief man in England there is none yet known of his degree that hath any thing to do with Allen and therefore my Lord must needs be culpable of all the Treasons Allen hath practised and procured in flying to Allen to serve the Prince of Parma ut antea My Lord was charged with relieving of divers Traytors as Priests and that he did converse and was confederate with divers and sundry Traytors attainted indicted and suspected being Prisoners in
the Tower and that he had Mass in the Tower and that if the Spaniards should surprize the Tower Sir Owen Hopton should be put to the Rackhouse Proved He was also charged that divers Papists Seminaries and such like being Prisoners in New gate and other Prisons reported that they hoped to see the Earl of Arundel King of England and that Cardinal Allen should direct the Crown of England Proved Before the coming of the Spaniards Fleet when our Commissioners were in the Low-Countries news was brought to the Tower that we should have peace betwixt Spain and England then would my Lord of Arundel be pensive When the Spanish Fleet was upon our Coast and Newes was brought to the Tower that the Spaniards sped well then the Earl would be merry Then when News came the English Fleet sped well the Earl would be Proved sorry When News came the Spanish Fleet was come upon the Coast of Kent Proved my Lord said it is a great Wood and a puissant Fleet we shall have lusty play shortly I hope we shall plague them that have plagued us My Lord said he would not fight against any that came to fight for the Proved Catholick Faith He said when the Spanish Fleet was at Sea he would have Three Masses a a day for the happy success of Spain 3 Masses a day Proved Continual Prayer for Spain He said also he would have continual Prayer without ceasing for a time for the good success of Spain viz. he would have every 24 hours 5 Priests to pray two hours a piece for the defect of Lay-men and 14 Lay-men to pray every one an hour a piece for the happy and fortunate success of Spain Proved He made himself a special Prayer for that purpose and caused Copies thereof in haste to be made Proved Mr. Shelley then Prisoner in the Tower told my Lord that to exercise that Prayer were dangerous and wished my Lord to let it alone Therefore Shelley my Lord called for the Copy of the Prayer again and would not have it Copied He was charged that he did conjure Sir Thomas Gerrard Knight to keep Proved Sir Thomas Gerrard Proved Counsel in all these matters before set down who promised him he would Bennet also promised to keep his Councel and divers others Then were Sir Thomas Gerrard Mr. Shelly Bennet the Priest and divers Proved Bennet Prisoners removid others removed from the Tower to several other Prisons and upon Examination confessed all as aforesaid My Lord hearing all these matters laid hard against him by Mr. Sollicitor grew into some Agony and called for his Accusers face to face which the Learned Counsel did not yet yield unto Earl He was likewise charged that he came once meerly to Bennet the Priest in the Tower saying Come Mr. Bennet let us go pray that the Spaniards may beat down London-Bridge and promised to give him a Damask Gown shortly and that he hoped to make him Dean of Pauls ere it were long that the time of their delivery was at hand and willed them in any wise to be secret for if he should reveal these things he would deny them to his face When News came to the Tower that the Spanish Fleet was driven away my Lord said We are all undone there is no hope for us this year and the King of Spain cannot provide such a power again this five or six years The Earl is sorry for this News some of us may be dead and rotten ere that time There were then brought into the Court vivâ voce upon their several Oaths Anthony Hall and Richard Young a Justice of the Peace who aimed something by hearsay to the proof of the former matters Witnesses Also Sir Thomas Gerrard William Bennet Tuchnon Snoden and Ithel and divers others were closely kept in a place over the Kings Bench closed in Prisoners to witness with Arras and were thereupon severally called into the Court vivâ voce upon their several Oaths to affirm that which is specified before Sithence Mr. Sollicitor began to speak at this Marke Bennet the Priest was charged with a Letter written to my Lord wherein he should be sorry for the opening of these matters as aforesaid against my Lord. One Randal had writ this Letter in Bennets name by advice of my Lord of Arundel to blind his practises Bennet openly denyed the writing of Lord Gray that Letter whereupon my Lord Gray and my Lord Nroris asked Bennet Lord Norris if he knew of the Letter yea or no for their better evidence Bennet confessed he had been moved to such a matter but he did it not Against Sir Thomas Gerrard my Lord stood very stoutly in denyal of what he witnessed willing him to look him in the face and charging him as he would answer before God in whose presence he spoke to tell nothing of him but Truth In Answer whereof Sir Thomas referred himself to his Depositions before read to which he said he was sworn yea twice sworn There were called into the Court two Witnesses more viz. one Walton and one Church who justified Letters were brought from England to Walton Church and Hill Rehnes where they both were which Letters were sent by one Hill one of my Lords Faction that the Earl of Arundel should be General of the Catholicks when the Tower should be surprized To Walton my Lord took exception affirming that he was a naughty leud Fellow who had sold that little Land he had to three several men and of the other Witnesses he said that some were attainted some Indicted bad men and Prisoners and that their words were worth little credit Then said Mr. Popham they were never tortured but confessed all this Popham willingly and they are such as you have accompanied Here ended every man his Speech and the Noble-men and Peers of the Jury The Jury went together My Lord humbly having submitted himself to the consideration of his Peers with protestation of Loyalty the Lieutenant brought him from the Bar unto a Seat near unto the Court of Common Pleas where the Warders attended upon him My Lord Steward likewise withdrew himself a little while as it seemed Lord Steward to take some Refection having all the day for the time of this business forborn to eat any thing and presently returned to his Seat of State Within one hour after the Noble-men of the Jury came every one back and were again placed by Garter King of Heraulds Then Mr. Sands asked every man of the Jury severally beginning at my Lord Norris the youngest Baron and proceeding to my Lord Treasure the Fore-man whether the Prisoner were guilty yea or no. Which every one of them laying their hands upon their hearts did protest Verdict in their Consciences and upon their honours that he was guilty Then was the Lieutenant called to bring his Prisoner to the Bar who was brought accordingly attended as before Then said Mr. Sands unto him that he had been indicted of several Treasons Mr. Sands and that he had put himself upon the Tryal of his Peers who had found him guilty and therefore asked why Judgment should not be given against him Whereupon my Lord making three very low Obeysances upon his knees Earl did humbly submit himself to my Lord Steward his Grace and the favours of the rest of the Nobles and Peers there present and besought them to be Mediators for him that he might obtain at her Majesties hands to have order taken for his debts and to have Conference with his Officers and to talk with his wife and to see his Infant born after his Imprisonment whom he had never seen Then my Lords Grace pronounced judgment viz. that he should be conveyed to the place from whence he came and from thence to the place of Judgment Execution and there to be hanged until he were half dead his members to be cut off his bowels to be cast into the Fire his head to be cut off his quarters to be divided into four several parts and to be bestowed in four several places and so said my Lord Steward the Lord have mercy on thy Soul To this the Earl of Arundel said as it were softly to himself Fiat voluntas Dei And so having made a low Obeysance to the State the Lieutenant took him away Mr. Shelton going before him with the Edge of the Axe towards him Then was there an O Yes made by the Serjeant at Arms and the Court together with my Lord Stewards Commission dissolved which done my Lord of Darby took the whitewand out of Mr. Winckfields hand and broke the same in pieces and every man cryed God save the Queen FINIS