Tudor Drama-documentary revealing the intimate and ultimately deadly relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, using the words of the two queens and their courtiers.
Of all the dangers Elizabeth I had to survive - the Spanish Armada, a Catholic continent plotting against her incessantly, restless nobles uneasy at serving a queen who refused to marry - none was so personally intense as her rivalry with another woman - her cousin and fellow queen, Mary, Queen of Scots. This was her longest, most gruelling battle - lasting over two decades, it threatened to tear apart both Elizabeth and her kingdom. In the end, it would force her to make the hardest decision of her life.
The two queens stared across the ultimate divides of their time: Protestant and Catholic, Tudor and Stuart, English and Scottish. Their fascination with one another grew into the greatest queenly face-off in our entire history. And yet, in 26 years of mutual obsession, they never actually met. Their confrontation was carried out through letters - a war of words so heartfelt and revealing that the two queens' passions can still be felt.
For the first time on television, this chronicle of love turned to hatred, of trust betrayed by plot and bloodshed, is dramatised purely from the original words of the two queens and their courtiers. Expert historians examine, interpret, and argue over the monarchs' motives for their 'duel to the death' - for in the end, only one queen could survive such emotional combat.
Of all the dangers Elizabeth I had to survive - the Spanish Armada, a Catholic continent plotting against her incessantly, restless nobles uneasy at serving a queen who refused to marry - none was so personally intense as her rivalry with another woman - her cousin and fellow queen, Mary, Queen of Scots. This was her longest, most gruelling battle - lasting over two decades, it threatened to tear apart both Elizabeth and her kingdom. In the end, it would force her to make the hardest decision of her life.
The two queens stared across the ultimate divides of their time: Protestant and Catholic, Tudor and Stuart, English and Scottish. Their fascination with one another grew into the greatest queenly face-off in our entire history. And yet, in 26 years of mutual obsession, they never actually met. Their confrontation was carried out through letters - a war of words so heartfelt and revealing that the two queens' passions can still be felt.
For the first time on television, this chronicle of love turned to hatred, of trust betrayed by plot and bloodshed, is dramatised purely from the original words of the two queens and their courtiers. Expert historians examine, interpret, and argue over the monarchs' motives for their 'duel to the death' - for in the end, only one queen could survive such emotional combat.
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TVTranscript
00:00Queen Elizabeth I, conqueror of the Spanish Armada,
00:06Tudor defender of the Protestant faith, the headstrong Virgin Queen who refuses to marry.
00:14But of all her challenges, her most gruelling battle is with another woman,
00:20her own cousin, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.
00:24I am a free princess in that I am not responsible to you or any other.
00:30Elizabeth will not face a more relentless threat to her crown or her life.
00:37With black ingratitude, she tries to kill me, who so often saved her life.
00:43Elizabeth never forgives Mary for the fact that she has laid claim to her throne.
00:47She never forgets it.
00:49So long as I live, there shall be no other queen in England but I.
00:55There is no other queen of England but I.
01:01Both claim the English throne, two queens on opposite sides of the greatest conflicts of their time,
01:08Protestant and Catholic, Tudor and Stuart, and that most ancient of rivalries, English and Scottish.
01:17When rude Scotland vomits up a poison, must fine England lick it up for a restorative.
01:27Their combat will last from 1561 to 1587, ending in one final fatal decision.
01:43And yet, in nearly three decades of obsession with each other, they will never actually meet.
01:52That explosive relationship is played out entirely through letters,
01:57written with an intimacy and passion that still burns through the paper.
02:03Beneath those elegant phrases swirls this dark, deadly current, which is going to drag one of the writers down.
02:13Here, for the first time on television, dramatized purely from the words of the two queens and their courtiers,
02:20is the fatal story of Elizabeth and Mary.
02:26No more tears. I will think upon revenge.
02:44Would that we, being two queens so near of kin,
02:48neighbours living in one isle, should be friends and live together like sisters,
02:54than by some strange means divide ourselves to the hurt of us both.
02:59I assure you, I be fully resolved to live with you in the knot of friendship, as we are in that of nature and blood.
03:06I am glad to hear of your goodwill towards us and good inclination to peace and friendship.
03:14God could not have blessed these two kingdoms with greater felicity than if one of us had been a king and married the other.
03:231561. Mary Stuart's arrival in Scotland has the two queens brimming over with goodwill.
03:32She is 18, Elizabeth 27.
03:36The fact that with Mary and Elizabeth we have two young women who are queens is extraordinary.
03:44This is not an era of female rulers, and now we have two of them, and their kingdoms border each other.
03:53As two young queens on one island, surrounded by a sea of male rulers, they seem to be drawn to one another.
04:02Yet their characters couldn't be more different.
04:07Elizabeth's godson, Sir John Harrington, said of her that when she smiled, it was like pure sunshine.
04:14But then he continued, he said, anon would come a storm and then thunderous weather would fall upon them all.
04:22At one point she actually broke one of her maid's fingers by slamming a candlestick down on it.
04:27She would smash things, she could say very unkind things.
04:33Elizabeth has survived prison and death threats to become queen only two years earlier.
04:39Mary has been Queen of Scots since she was six days old.
04:43She's been raised in the luxury of the French court.
04:47Mary loved life. She loved dancing, she loved hunting, she loved sewing, she loved people.
04:54She would have danced all night if she could.
04:58She'd been raised the pampered princess in France.
05:02She was very vulnerable, she was volatile.
05:05She was alluring, but she was impulsive and she was impatient.
05:09These were seen as quite dangerous qualities in a queen in the 16th century.
05:14If you're a man looking at this from the 21st century backwards, you think if you want a good date,
05:18you're going to choose Mary every time, you're never going to choose Elizabeth.
05:24Mary Stuart hasn't chosen to come to Scotland.
05:28The death of her husband, the King of France, just left her with no role in the French court.
05:34She's sort of unmoored when she arrives in Scotland.
05:38She's got these big, brash Scottish lords who are really not too sure about having this bonnie wee lassie as their queen.
05:47To Mary, Scotland must seem like Afghanistan,
05:51a mountainous country of feuding clans, warlords and religious fanatics.
05:56She's a Catholic, and many of them are fiercely Protestant.
06:02Her indifference is an insult to these men, and will prove to be a dangerous mistake.
06:10Instead, her ambition makes her look south, to England and Elizabeth's crown.
06:17She has to be forced back to Scotland, and when she's there, when she arrives,
06:23she nags on about being recognised as Elizabeth's successor.
06:30I am the nearest kinswoman she has, being both of us of one house and stock.
06:37As the great-granddaughter of Henry VII, Mary has a strong claim to be named Elizabeth's successor.
06:44So the English queen has every reason to be wary.
06:52If it became known who would succeed me, I would never think myself secure.
07:00Tensions between Catholics and Protestants are worsening across Europe.
07:05Many people fear that just the presence of Queen Mary could inflame the passions of English Catholics.
07:13One reason England had become Protestant was so that Henry VIII could marry Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother.
07:24English Catholics had a settled hatred for Anne Boleyn.
07:27They always favoured Mary, Queen of Scots' claim over Elizabeth.
07:31They called her bastardised Elizabeth.
07:35In the eyes of Catholic Europe, Mary, the good Catholic that she is, is the rightful heir to the English throne.
07:45Catholic Europe could back Mary if she tried to seize the English throne,
07:49a threat that obsessed Elizabeth's chief minister, Lord Burley.
07:54The Queen of Scots is and always will be a dangerous person to your estate.
08:00She cannot forbear from her continual ardent desire to possess the crown of this realm.
08:07He thinks he's the man appointed almost by God to save Elizabeth from herself.
08:16Burley is constantly dripping poison in Elizabeth's ear about Mary.
08:21Not to be neglected, trusted, nor pardoned.
08:27He saw Mary almost as the Antichrist.
08:30There was no way he was going to allow that woman to get anywhere near the throne of England.
08:37Mary is aware of Burley's opposition.
08:41I know how near I am descended of the blood of England,
08:45and what devices have been attempted to destroy me.
08:49And what devices have been attempted to make me a stranger from it.
09:00Elizabeth uses elaborate tactics to avoid ever giving Mary a straight answer about the succession.
09:08In September 1564, Mary's envoy, Sir James Melville, is sent to speak to Elizabeth to pin her down.
09:17But she bombards him with strangely personal questions.
09:23What colour of hair is reputed best?
09:28Is my hair or your Queen's the best?
09:35Well, which of us is fairer?
09:38Your Majesty is the fairest Queen in England, and ours is the fairest Queen in Scotland.
09:44Your Majesty is the whiter, but our Queen is very lovely.
09:50And who is taller?
09:52My Queen is, Your Majesty.
09:55Then she is too high. I am neither too high nor too low.
10:03What Elizabeth does is intelligent and subtle.
10:06She simply does not want to have the conversation that Melville has travelled to her court to try and have with her.
10:12She refuses to do it.
10:14And what she does is she invokes femininity to simply evade this conversation.
10:19And he is climbing the walls with frustration.
10:27But then he goes back to Mary, and he's not fooled at all.
10:30He says, you cannot trust Elizabeth.
10:32There are nothing but jealousies and suspicion.
10:37But the two women hide their suspicions behind a charm offensive.
10:43We shall present to the world such friendship as has never been seen.
10:51They seem to compete in their declarations of love.
10:55Elizabeth sends Mary a diamond ring, but Mary goes on.
10:59Mary sends Elizabeth her portrait.
11:03It's a miniature portrait in heart-shaped diamond ring.
11:07And she sends it with Petrarchan, almost love lyrics.
11:11And it's this sort of sense that she's wooing Elizabeth.
11:14She wants to meet her.
11:17Mary's most comfortable writing in French.
11:22Elizabeth's most comfortable writing in English.
11:25Mary's most comfortable writing in French.
11:43Mary's obsession with being recognized as Elizabeth's heir to the English throne
11:48made her easy to manipulate.
11:51Elizabeth could deal with this.
11:54She's dealing with someone who wants what only Elizabeth can give.
11:57It's marvellous.
12:01But Elizabeth avoids actually meeting her cousin.
12:07Mary was renowned for her charisma, for her charm.
12:11It was said that anyone who came within ten feet of the Queen of Scots
12:14would fall in love with her.
12:16Now, I think Elizabeth had heard that, and she believed it, and she feared it.
12:21She didn't want to like Mary.
12:26Having failed to meet and charm Elizabeth,
12:29Mary tries a new scheme to strengthen her claim to the crown.
12:34Marriage.
12:35But Elizabeth is not about to let her cousin marry one of her powerful European rivals.
12:43I recommend some fit nobleman within the island.
12:48But I declare no child of France, Spain or Austria will be acceptable.
12:55And your right and title to the English crown will depend much on your marriage.
13:02The root problem is Elizabeth regards herself as the superior queen,
13:06and she regards Mary as a satellite queen,
13:09and no Scot, then or now, would accept that.
13:18Elizabeth isn't like other queens.
13:20She has little interest in marriage.
13:23That would mean handing power to a husband.
13:26No husband means no chance of an heir, no matter how much Burleigh badges her.
13:32God send our mistress a husband, and by him a son,
13:37that we may hope our posterity shall have a masculine succession.
13:42I am already bound unto a husband which is the kingdom of England.
13:47As many as are English are my children.
13:53If I am to disclose to you what I prefer, if I follow the inclination of my nature,
13:59I will tell you it is this, beggar woman and single,
14:04far rather than queen and married.
14:07I think the reason Elizabeth chose not to marry had an awful lot to do with
14:11the examples from which she had learned in childhood.
14:14So, of course, it's not a great role model,
14:16the fact that her mother, Anne Boleyn, is executed by her father,
14:20but I think it went further than that for Elizabeth.
14:23There have been a number of scandals surrounding her.
14:27At the age of just 13, the first major scandal erupted.
14:33Her stepfather, Thomas Seymour, came into Elizabeth's bedroom early in the morning
14:38and basically, you might say he sexually touched her.
14:44His wife, Catherine, was actually complicit in this,
14:47and there's one occasion described where she held Elizabeth down
14:51while her husband cut Elizabeth's gown into a hundred pieces.
14:57I've thought about this for over 30 years,
14:59and I now think that Elizabeth had probably pretty much decided
15:03that she never would marry.
15:05And I think the reason for this is simply those teenage experiences
15:09when she had seen how men could behave.
15:12The one exception is Lord Robert.
15:15Lord Robert did not marry Elizabeth.
15:17He did not marry Elizabeth.
15:19He did not marry Elizabeth.
15:21He did not marry Elizabeth.
15:23The one exception is Lord Robert, Lord Robert Dudley.
15:27And she was in love with him, there's absolutely no question
15:30that he was the only man she ever truly loved.
15:37My true opinion is that she will never marry.
15:41I know Her Majesty as well, or better than anyone else.
15:45We were friends before she was eight years old.
15:48She has always said she would never do so.
15:53But if by chance she should change her mind,
15:57I'm practically assured she would choose no-one else but me.
16:01She told me so herself quite openly on more than one occasion.
16:07But even love is just a pawn in the Queen's game.
16:11Elizabeth is willing to sacrifice Lord Robert.
16:14She knows he'll always be loyal to her.
16:20If I had ever wanted to take a husband,
16:22I would have married him myself.
16:24But being determined to end my life in virginity,
16:28I wish that my sister should marry him.
16:32Being matched with him would remove out of my mind
16:35all fear of usurpation before my death.
16:38He is so loving, trusty,
16:40that he would never suffer such a thing to be attempted.
16:46Mary is insulted by Elizabeth's suggestion
16:49that she should marry Lord Robert.
16:51She's not even a very high aristocrat.
16:54He's the son of a traitor,
16:56and he is Elizabeth's discarded suitor.
17:00Do you think it might stand with my honour to marry a subject?
17:07Being assured of me, you might let me marry where I best like.
17:13And Elizabeth has this sort of weird idea
17:16that they will have a sort of menage-a-trois at Elizabeth's court.
17:20Very strange.
17:21If the Queen, my sister, is pleased to live with me in household,
17:25I will gladly bear the charges of the family
17:28as shall one sister do for another.
17:30I do mind to use my own choice in marriage.
17:34I will no longer be fed with yea or nay
17:37and depend on uncertain dealings.
17:43The sisterly pretense is over.
17:46Mary decides on her own potential husband,
17:49an Englishman and a Catholic,
17:51her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
17:55Darnley's actually a really good bet for Mary.
17:58He's got royal blood,
17:59which strengthens her own claim to the English throne.
18:03Moreover, he represents something extremely unusual
18:06for elite women in the 16th century, and particularly queens.
18:09He's young, he's handsome, he's desirable.
18:13He is the lustiest and best-proportioned tall man
18:18that I have ever seen.
18:21Mary's desire scandalises her court.
18:24The gossip gets back to Elizabeth through her ambassador,
18:28Thomas Randolph.
18:31She is seized in love in more fervent passions
18:35than is comely for any mean personage.
18:38Some report she is bewitched.
18:42Shame is laid aside.
18:47Darnley is but a pawn,
18:49but he may well checkmate me if he is promoted.
18:53I think Elizabeth was very suspicious of Mary's motives
18:57when it came to Lord Darnley,
19:00because Darnley, too, had royal blood.
19:03In fact, he was one of the strongest claimants
19:06to the English throne,
19:08so she undoubtedly saw this as an aggressive move on Mary's part,
19:12that she was considering marriage to this man.
19:16A Catholic couple on the Scottish throne
19:19could attract the support of England's enemies, France and Spain.
19:24So Elizabeth simply puts any question of succession on hold.
19:29Elizabeth turns round and says that she will not name her successor
19:33until she decides whether she'll marry.
19:36Nothing shall be done until I shall be married,
19:40or shall notify my determination never to marry.
19:44This is heartbreaking for Mary.
19:46She feels played.
19:48All the letters, the gifts, the petitions,
19:51it feels completely wasted.
19:53It shall turn to your discredit more than my loss.
19:57I will not fail in any good offices towards you,
20:00but to rely or trust much from henceforth in you.
20:05I will not.
20:09She gets up, she goes out, she has a good cry,
20:12and then she goes to see Darnley.
20:16On July 29th, 1565,
20:19Mary marries Darnley without Elizabeth's permission.
20:25When she went ahead, quite rightly, and married Lord Darnley,
20:29Elizabeth was incandescent with rage.
20:33Mary can't see the problem.
20:35She thinks she's upheld her side of the bargain, effectively.
20:38She's married an Englishman, as Elizabeth had wanted.
20:41So what's the problem?
20:43You can never persuade me that I have failed you,
20:46but you have failed me.
20:48I have found your proceedings of late very strange.
20:53You forget yourself marvellously.
20:57The naming of your husband King
20:59shall not give him any authority to do anything.
21:03Her Majesty desires her good sister to meddle no further.
21:12Mary now has both a Catholic husband
21:15and a strong acclaim to the English throne.
21:19The Queen of Scots is delighted.
21:22Suddenly, probably for the first time,
21:25Mary really has the upper hand in this relationship.
21:29Madame Massa, I understand you are offended
21:34without just cause against the King, my husband and myself.
21:40Mary's marriage to Darnley doesn't just offend Elizabeth.
21:44The Scottish lords are horrified.
21:47Darnley, he was awful.
21:49The Protestant lords couldn't bear him.
21:52He may have had Scottish blood, he may even have Stuart blood,
21:55but to them he was this effete, bisexual, beardless Englishman.
22:01One contemporary even called him a great cock chick.
22:05And this is not the kind of guy that they want
22:08telling them what to do in Scotland.
22:10He's unfaithful to Mary, you know, from very, very early on.
22:13He's a terrible drug addict.
22:15He's a big whisky drinker.
22:17He goes into uncontrollable rages.
22:20I know for certain that Queen Mary repents her marriage
22:24and that she hates him.
22:26She is so much altered, her wits are not what they were,
22:29her beauty another.
22:31Her cheer and countenance changed.
22:34A woman more to be pitied than any I ever saw.
22:37Once he's married, that's it, he's king.
22:40He thinks that she should be a submissive queen.
22:43Then comes big news.
22:45Mary is pregnant.
22:47If it's a boy, he'll strengthen the Stuart claim to the English crown.
22:52But some wonder if Darnley is the father,
22:55or one of Mary's courtiers, David Rizzio.
22:59David Rizzio is an Italian musician, and he's Catholic,
23:04so of course he has to be Catholic,
23:06but he's also an Italian musician.
23:09He's an Italian musician, and he's Catholic,
23:12so of course he has to be a papal spy.
23:15He's everything that the Protestant lords can't bear.
23:18He seems to have inveigled himself into Mary's intimacies,
23:21into her familiarity.
23:25Jealous of the influence the Italian has over Mary,
23:28Darnley goes after him.
23:31There are practices in hand that David, with the consent of the king,
23:35shall have his throat cut within these ten days.
23:39The attack comes suddenly.
23:41Darnley and Lord Riven, a Scottish lord, came in.
23:45They tried to detach Mary from Rizzio, but she was shielding him.
23:49He hid behind her skirt.
23:51They dragged Rizzio away, and they stabbed him.
23:54It was like a cellblock shanking.
23:56He was stabbed 56 times, Mary recalled.
24:02With her friend lying in a pool of blood at her feet,
24:06Mary could take no more of Darnley.
24:13You have taken your last of me, and your farewell.
24:30No more tears.
24:33I will think upon revenge.
24:39She despises her husband now,
24:42and this makes her into a decisive, fearsome, strong ruler,
24:48the sort of queen that Elizabeth already is,
24:52and Mary now seizes the initiative.
24:57Fearing that Darnley would try to push her off the throne,
25:01Mary writes directly to Elizabeth, asking for support.
25:06Praying you remember your honour and our nearness of blood.
25:14The word of God commands that all princes
25:18should defend the just actions of other princes,
25:22as well as their own.
25:24For once, Elizabeth shows solidarity with her sister queen.
25:28She wears her portrait around her waist,
25:31and she seems genuinely sympathetic towards Mary at this time.
25:37Do you think the Queen of Scotland has been well treated?
25:41If it had been me, I would have taken her husband's dagger
25:44and stabbed him with it.
25:48What she doesn't know is that Burleigh had advised her
25:52and didn't bother to tell his own queen,
25:55because he knew that this would bring about turmoil in Scotland
25:59and this would help to destabilise Mary.
26:06But on June 19th, 1566,
26:09Mary Stuart does something Elizabeth will never do.
26:13She gives birth to a male heir, James.
26:17But Mary is still miserable, shackled to her husband.
26:23Unless I am quit of the king by one means or another,
26:26I can never have a good day for the rest of my life.
26:32I could wish to be dead.
26:38Elizabeth may despise Darnley,
26:41but she never sends a single letter to him.
26:44She may despise Darnley,
26:46but she never sends a single soldier to defend her cousin.
26:51Instead, Mary turns to another violent man.
26:55At the moment that Mary is at her most vulnerable,
26:58somebody steps forward, and in this case it's the Earl of Bothwell.
27:02Yes, he will help Mary, he will be her protector,
27:05but he wants something back. She doesn't know that yet.
27:08Bothwell, violently malicious, beyond measure.
27:12He's as malicious and dishonest as the devil.
27:19It isn't long before an explosion destroys Darnley's bedroom,
27:24as seen in illustrations from the time.
27:27Alone in the air with such fearmence that the whole lodging, walls and other,
27:32there is nothing remaining, no.
27:36Not a stone above another, but all carried away
27:41or dashed and drossed to the very ground.
27:46Mysteriously, Darnley's half-naked body,
27:49which had been left to rot in the fire,
27:53mysteriously, Darnley's half-naked body is found 60 paces from the house,
27:58strangled.
28:00Many Scots suspect that Mary and Bothwell are behind it.
28:06Killing a king is considered the worst crime in the Christian world.
28:10With public opinion turning against Mary,
28:13Elizabeth is losing patience with her cousin.
28:17She procured her husband's murder.
28:20Bothwell, the chief murderer, was protected by her.
28:27But Mary is adamant that she has nothing to do with it.
28:32I lament the tragedy of my husband's death more than any of my subjects can do.
28:38I had never knowledge, art, nor part thereof.
28:43For the love of God, madam, use such sincerity and prudence in this.
28:48In this case, that all the world may feel justified
28:51in believing you innocent of so enormous a crime,
28:54which, if you were not, would be good cause
28:57for degrading you from the rank of princes.
29:01All of Scotland cried out upon the foul murder of the king.
29:05Everybody suspected Botherwell.
29:08Now Bothwell calls in Mary's dead.
29:11He abducts her for 12 days, and some think he rapes her.
29:16And some think he rapes her to force her into marriage.
29:22I cannot dissemble that he has used me as I would have wished,
29:26or deserved, at his hand.
29:30There are people that have tried to defend Mary
29:33who have said that she was raped by Bothwell.
29:35I don't agree with that, actually, because the one thing
29:38that everyone knew Mary for was that she stood on her grandeur
29:41as a former queen of France.
29:43I don't believe that he had raped her,
29:45so I think that she was talked round.
29:50May 14th, 1567.
29:53Mary marries Bothwell in the middle of the night.
29:56They have so little support now.
29:59Only a few people attend.
30:02The news soon reaches Elizabeth.
30:09How could a worse choice be made for your honour
30:12to marry a subject who, besides other notorious lacks,
30:16public fame has charged with the murder of your late husband?
30:22Burleigh and the Scottish Lords use Darnley's assassination
30:26to accuse Mary and Bothwell of adultery and murder,
30:30declaring them morally unfit to rule.
30:35She feigned herself to be forcibly taken by him
30:39and then married this murderer.
30:41Giving him greater estates than ever she gave her own husband.
30:47She could now be completely rubbished
30:51as a woman of any status, any pretensions or rights to royalty.
30:59She's a whore, she's a murderess, she's an adulteress.
31:02What more do you want?
31:03Scots think their nation dishonoured,
31:05the queen shamed and country undone.
31:08She is now in utter contempt of her people
31:11and so far in doubt of them herself
31:13that without speedy redress, worse is to be feared.
31:18With the Scottish Lords gathering their armies against her,
31:22Mary realises she has no chance.
31:25She surrenders herself in order to save Bothwell.
31:29Perhaps she did love him after all.
31:32It basically ends with Bothwell offering to fight the Lords
31:36in single combat.
31:37At the last moment, Mary stops it.
31:39She wants to try and end the thing with non-violence,
31:42so she proposes that Bothwell be allowed to escape
31:46and not to return, and she will go with the Lords.
31:53Bothwell flees to Norway
31:55and Mary is paraded as a trophy through Edinburgh.
31:59She's brought back to Edinburgh as a captive,
32:03dressed in very ordinary clothes,
32:06not the great robes of a queen,
32:08with the Edinburgh mob howling at her.
32:12Burn her.
32:14Burn her.
32:16She is not worthy to live.
32:19Kill her.
32:21Drown her.
32:24Or so I'm told.
32:26Of course, Burleigh is, of course, just rubbing his hands with glee.
32:30Now Scotland is in chaos.
32:34But in England, Elizabeth is having none of it.
32:37First, she throws her support behind Mary.
32:40You have a good neighbour,
32:42a dear sister and a faithful friend.
32:47You shall not lack my friendship or power
32:50for the preservation of your honour in quietness.
32:54You don't rebel against an anointed queen.
32:57That's a red line for Elizabeth.
32:59So she's always going to support Mary
33:01against the laws who are undermining her sovereignty.
33:05Then Elizabeth threatens war against the Scottish lords.
33:10You have no warrant by God's or man's law
33:14to act as superiors, vindicators or judges over your prince,
33:19whatever disorders you gather against her.
33:22If you continue to keep her in prison
33:25or touch her life or person,
33:28I will not fail to revenge it to the uttermost.
33:34Rather than fight Elizabeth,
33:36the Scottish lords imprison Mary on an island in Loch Leven
33:40and force her to abdicate.
33:45They show her the documents.
33:47She reads it through. She doesn't want to sign it.
33:50They threaten to slit her throat.
33:53If I did not sign this letter,
33:56they would have taken me from Loch Leven
34:00and, as they were crossing the lake, would have thrown me into it.
34:06Or secretly conveyed me to some island in the middle of the sea,
34:11there to be left unknown for the remainder of my life.
34:16They advised me to sign,
34:19for if I did not...
34:24..they would cut my throat.
34:35You don't imprison a woman like that
34:37and expect her just to say,
34:40You don't imprison a woman like that
34:42and expect her just to, you know, keep her composure.
34:45So they just brutally wear her down.
34:48Of course, she also has to fear...
34:50She's fearing for her son, you know, what will happen to him.
34:54They do, of course, say that, well, he will be crowned king.
34:58Mary will never see her infant son, James, again,
35:02but she can ensure he'll be king.
35:05On July 24th, 1567, Mary signs the letter of abdication.
35:10She is now a queen without a country.
35:15Mary was in a pretty bad mental state.
35:19It's a reminder of the problem of Mary's character all along.
35:24She's not got that quality of toughness, of steel,
35:28that enables monarchs to rule in very difficult times.
35:34She panicked, hared off down to Galloway
35:39and fled to England.
35:44Her Majesty lost all courage and took so great fear
35:48that she never rested till she was in England,
35:51thinking herself of refuge there.
35:56Mary will never reach England.
36:00Mary will never return to Scotland.
36:03Her last hope is with Elizabeth, a woman she has never met.
36:10I am now completely forced out of my kingdom
36:15and driven to such straits that next to God...
36:22I have no hope but in you.
36:26She'd believed Elizabeth when she'd offered her support,
36:29when she'd expressed her love for her sister queen,
36:33and so she took her at her word
36:36and the result was disaster for Mary.
36:43Instead of a royal welcome, Mary runs straight into a trap.
36:48Burley has her immediately placed under house arrest.
36:52Burley makes sure that Mary's locked up straightaway
36:55and around her are put people whom he knows are loyal
36:59to the Protestant cause and to him.
37:02When rude Scotland vomits up a poison,
37:06must fine England lick it up for a restorative.
37:11From the moment Mary sets foot in England, he wants her dead.
37:16Mary tries to meet Elizabeth face-to-face
37:19so she can clear her name.
37:22If it please you that I come to you in private,
37:25I can tell you the truth against all their lies.
37:29When it is proposed yet again that Elizabeth and Mary meet,
37:34the English queen gives the excuse
37:37that she cannot meet her husband,
37:41The English queen gives the excuse
37:44that she cannot meet her cousin
37:47because Mary is still embroiled
37:50in the scandal of Lord Darnley's murder
37:53and until her name has been cleared once and for all,
37:57the English queen cannot be seen to meet her.
38:01If you find it strange not to see me,
38:04you will see that it would be malaise of me
38:07to receive you before your justification.
38:10Once honorably acquitted of this crime,
38:13I swear to you before God, among all worldly pleasures,
38:17meeting you will hold the first rank.
38:23Now that Mary is actually in England,
38:26Elizabeth isn't so friendly as Mary realizes.
38:33I see how things frame evil for me.
38:40I have many enemies about the queen, my good sister,
38:43who do all they can to keep me from her.
38:49She is reduced to making empty threats.
38:55I have made great wars in Scotland,
38:59and I pray God I make no trouble in other realms also.
39:06Have some consideration for me
39:09when you are always thinking of yourself.
39:12I assure you I will do nothing to hurt you,
39:16but rather honor and aid you.
39:19The question becomes what's to be done with her,
39:23and for this, of course, Burleigh needs some evidence.
39:30Burleigh's spies intercept encrypted letters
39:33from Mary's Catholic supporters
39:35but they are plotting to put her on the throne.
39:38Now Mary really is a potential threat.
39:41Now whether or not she is trying to get Elizabeth's throne,
39:44other people are trying to get it and put her on it.
39:49Mary denies any part of it.
39:52I never wrote anything concerning that matter to any creature,
39:56and if any such writings be, they are false and feigned,
39:59invented only by themselves to my dishonor and slander.
40:03I am no enchantress but your sister and natural cousin.
40:12But Mary's protests fall on deaf ears.
40:16The queens are caught up in a battle bigger than themselves.
40:20Catholics and Protestants are dying on both sides,
40:23in the Netherlands, in France,
40:25and what happens with Elizabeth and Mary
40:27is that privately morderate, though they may have been,
40:30they become polarised as figureheads of two sides
40:35in a more and more extreme conflict
40:38in which their particular conflict with one another
40:41has become emblematic.
40:44To Lord Burleigh, the Catholics are a clear and imminent danger.
40:50Their malice is bent against your person.
40:54They will never cease, as long as the Scottish Queen lives.
41:01Elizabeth refuses to be bounced into executing Mary, Queen of Scots.
41:06The evidence is not watertight,
41:08and also she has this abhorrence
41:11at the idea of executing an anointed queen.
41:16Can I put to death the bird
41:18that to escape the pursuit of the hawk
41:20has fled to my feet for protection?
41:24Honour and conscience forbid.
41:27Mary's held in castles all over England,
41:30but she never accepts being a prisoner.
41:33Since you have detained me forcibly,
41:35if you suspect that I desire my liberty, I cannot help it.
41:38I am a free princess,
41:40in that I am not responsible to you or any other.
41:47Months turn into years of confinement.
41:50Mary never tires of writing to Elizabeth,
41:53tens of thousands of words,
41:55demanding her freedom and pleading to meet.
41:59Each word scored into her embittered heart.
42:04I have written to you several times during the last year
42:09to lay before your consideration
42:12the unworthy treatment which I have received
42:16in this...
42:20captivity.
42:26In her more desperate moments in captivity,
42:29she becomes increasingly a prisoner of her own imagination
42:33within this claustrophobic world.
42:36Mary did start sending small gifts to Elizabeth
42:39to attract her attention.
42:41Elizabeth had a terribly sweet tooth,
42:43so Mary would send marzipan, she would send nuts.
42:47She also had a mirror on a chain.
42:52She also sent this to Elizabeth as a gift.
42:58She's trying to open up a line of communication
43:01so that maybe they can work this out,
43:04but Elizabeth just stonewalls them all.
43:11I beg you to relieve yourself of the charge which I am to you.
43:17But things only get worse for Mary.
43:20After 17 years in prison,
43:22she still hopes her son James, the King of Scotland,
43:25will negotiate her release.
43:29Elizabeth had the bright idea
43:31that Mary might go back to Scotland
43:34and rule jointly with James.
43:39Now, young James grew up to be a very effective king.
43:44James, who's now approaching adulthood,
43:50decides he's going to ditch his mum.
43:53The last thing he wanted was a discredited mother back,
43:57messing things up and getting in the way.
44:02Was there ever a sight so detestable and impious
44:06before God and man than an only child
44:09despoiling his mother of her crown and royal estate?
44:14There is no King of Scotland.
44:20Nor any Queen but me.
44:26What this does is it forces Mary to say,
44:29I've got to get out of here,
44:31and from this point she's willing to listen to even desperate plots.
44:37Having lost all hope of regaining his throne,
44:41having lost all hope of regaining her crown
44:44or convincing Elizabeth to help her,
44:46Mary becomes obsessed with getting Elizabeth's crown.
44:51I will not leave my prison save as Queen of England.
44:57Burleigh suspects Mary is plotting to have Elizabeth killed
45:01and trying to make England Catholic again.
45:05So he sends his spies out to get proof.
45:09Mary becomes this romanticised figurehead
45:12for a generation of young men
45:14educated in the Catholic colleges in France, in Rome and in the Netherlands
45:19who want to give their lives for their faith.
45:26It doesn't take long before a young man writes to Mary.
45:31Burleigh's trap is set.
45:34Anthony Babington is a young, not very bright,
45:38but enthusiastic Catholic gentleman with too much money
45:41and a lot of time on his hands.
45:47He writes to her and he says that he will help spring her
45:51from her imprisonment and at the same time,
45:54six gentlemen will do the deed.
45:57They will assassinate Elizabeth.
45:59There'll be six noble gentlemen, all my private friends,
46:02who, for the zeal they bear the Catholic cause
46:05and Your Majesty's service, will undertake the execution.
46:13Everyone's waiting. Burleigh's waiting.
46:16Babington's waiting for Mary's reply.
46:18And 12 days later, it comes.
46:22She basically damns herself in that letter.
46:25The affair's being thus prepared,
46:27and forces and readiness both without and within the realm.
46:31Then shall it be time to put the six gentlemen to work
46:35upon the accomplishing of their design.
46:39Babington's promising her ships and soldiers
46:42and there never were any. There were no ships, there were no soldiers,
46:45there were no loyal Catholics waiting to carry her
46:48to elegance and luxury.
46:51Burleigh's spies bring him a copy of Mary's letter.
46:54But would it be enough to condemn her to death?
46:58I hope that God, which hath given us the light
47:01to discover this great conspiracy,
47:04will also give assistance to put Mary to death.
47:07I hope that God, which has given us the light
47:10to discover this great conspiracy,
47:13will also give assistance to put Mary to death.
47:16I hope that God, which has given us the light
47:19will also give assistance to punish it.
47:23Any sympathy Elizabeth ever had for Mary is gone.
47:28Well, what do you think of your Queen of Scotland?
47:33With black ingratitude and treachery,
47:36she tries to kill me, who so often saved her life.
47:43Now, I am certain of her evil intent.
47:46It may be she will not have another opportunity to behave like this.
47:50Despite the proof, Elizabeth can't bring herself to condemn Mary.
47:55She felt guilty,
47:57she felt terrified that God would judge her on the last day
48:02for putting to death a divine right ruler,
48:05and, you know, she probably felt upset and annoyed
48:09that she had been boxed into this situation,
48:11that she never wanted to be in,
48:13that she had managed to avoid for most of her reign.
48:17Instead, she turns her rage on the young plotters.
48:23Babington and his associates were hanged on the gibbet,
48:27they were cut down while still alive,
48:30and they had their private parts chopped off in front of them,
48:33they were eviscerated, their entrails were burnt in front of them,
48:37and then they were executed, and then they were quartered.
48:40And what's really gruesome about this is that Elizabeth asks Burleigh
48:45if he could come up with something else,
48:47and Burleigh assures her that if it's done properly,
48:50i.e. if they're cut down soon enough
48:52so that they can witness their own evisceration,
48:55then it would be pain enough.
49:00On October 25th, 1586,
49:04Mary is pronounced guilty of conspiring to murder Elizabeth.
49:11I am quite ready and very happy to die,
49:15and to shed my blood for God Almighty, my Saviour, and my Creator.
49:22So the sentence was proclaimed,
49:24but even then Elizabeth wouldn't do anything.
49:27Why? She just wanted it all to go away.
49:31She didn't want to be the source of the execution of Mary,
49:36she didn't want to be the source of the execution of an anointed queen.
49:42If it had pleased God to have made us both milkmaids,
49:46with pails on our arms, so that the matter rested between us two,
49:50and that I knew she should still seek my destruction,
49:54yet could I not consent to her death?
49:58This is my own personal speculation, but I think she wanted Mary dead.
50:03She knew that Mary had to die,
50:05but when it came to it, she couldn't quite bring herself
50:10to believe that she was the person who was striking Mary's head off.
50:36To bounce Elizabeth into making this decision, she is told by Burleigh,
50:41and this, when I first discovered this in the archives,
50:44I could hardly believe it.
50:46She's told by Burleigh that the Spanish Armada
50:49had landed a year early in Wales.
50:51Burleigh invents a full-scale invasion to push her into signing.
50:56The Rome will be in great danger,
50:59principally the person of Your Majesty.
51:02Burleigh tells the queen to double her guards.
51:04Who knows what might happen?
51:08She calls for the warrant, and she signs.
51:13She signs it after they've been pressuring her
51:16and pressuring her to do it, and suddenly it's done.
51:21Burleigh quickly sends off the executions.
51:25But then, almost immediately,
51:28But then, almost immediately,
51:31Elizabeth acts as if she didn't know what she was signing.
51:35I was given a whole pile of papers by my secretary.
51:38He should have told me that top of the pile
51:41was the warrant for the execution of the Queen of Scots.
51:45So she blames everybody but herself.
51:48All the time she's trying to wash her hands of the blood of Mary,
51:53but they are covered in it.
51:58After 19 years of confinement,
52:01Mary is suddenly told that she will die the next morning
52:04at Fotheringay Castle, February 8th, 1587.
52:10I did not think the Queen, my sister, would have consented to my death.
52:17But seeing that your pleasure is so,
52:20death shall be to me most welcome.
52:24Do not accuse me of presumption
52:26if on the eve of leaving this world
52:29and preparing myself for a better one,
52:32I remind you that one day you will have to answer for your charge.
52:38Mary had decided that she would die a death that would always be remembered.
52:43She was going to go for a Catholic martyrdom.
52:47If she couldn't win in life, she would triumph in death.
52:52Mary may not have had much sense,
52:56but what she did have was great style.
52:59And right until the end, she kept that up.
53:07She's dressed in black.
53:09She's got a cross in one hand, a Latin prayer book in the other.
53:13There's a rosary around her.
53:15She's got a cross in one hand, a Latin prayer book in the other.
53:19There's a rosary around her wrist.
53:22I hope you shall make an end to all my troubles.
53:25She shows charity to her executioner.
53:28She consoles her weeping ladies.
53:35Under her outer garment, she's dressed in tawny, red, the colour of martyrdom.
53:40There's even gallows humour that you get.
53:43So she jokes with her executioner
53:45that she hasn't had such a servant undressing her before.
53:48Certainly not in front of the audience that she had there.
53:55I have never taken off my clothes before such a company.
54:07In manners to us, Dominic, amend your spirit and may him reign.
54:11In manners to us, Dominic, amend your spirit and may him reign.
54:14In manners to us, Dominic, amend your spirit and may him reign.
54:17In manners to us, Dominic, amend your spirit and may him reign.
54:20In manners to us, Dominic, amend your spirit and may him reign.
54:23In manners to us, Dominic, amend your spirit and may him reign.
54:36The first stroke goes right into the back of the neck.
54:39She continues praying into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit, in Latin.
54:47The second blow goes really nine tenths of the way but he finishes it off using the act
54:53as a meat cleaver.
54:56The headsman picks up the head as you do and say, God save the Queen, except that of course
55:01Mary was wearing a wig so the head rolls off the stage like a football.
55:05In a sense it's a terribly fitting kind of end because like so much of Mary Queen of
55:11Scots life it's theatrical and very good theatre at this time.
55:21In my end is my beginning.
55:25In my end is my beginning, that was so apt, she's been immortalised after her death in
55:31many ways as the ultimate doomed heroine, the E. E. Damsel in distress, also as a figure
55:38of Scots nationalism in a way against those beastly English and perhaps above all she
55:45is the ultimate Catholic martyr.
55:49We will never be sure what Elizabeth really felt for her cousin but Mary's execution marked
55:55her forever.
55:57This is something Elizabeth never got over, she always denied that she'd been responsible
56:01for Mary's death, she lied point blank to James that she was responsible, she blamed
56:06her counsellors.
56:08I would you know, though not felt, the extreme pain which overwhelms my mind for that miserable
56:17accident, far contrary to my meaning, I beseech you, God and many more know how innocent I
56:26am in this case.
56:31After 26 years of never having met Mary, Elizabeth now finds she's left it too late.
56:40History will have to decide who won their battle.
56:45It may seem that the winner is obvious, it is Elizabeth she has put to death Mary Queen
56:51of Scots, she's vanquished her rival in the end but arguably Mary has the last laugh because
56:59it's her son James who becomes King of England when Elizabeth dies without any children of
57:06her own, without anyone else to leave the throne to, she's forced to leave it to the
57:11son of her greatest rival.
57:16Mary's son James not only went on to rule both Scotland and England, he ensured that
57:22every subsequent British monarch would carry the blood of Mary Queen of Scots.
57:28She has shaped history as profoundly as she had affected Elizabeth.
57:34Elizabeth was haunted by Mary's ghost for the rest of her days, she could never quite
57:41get out of her head the guilt that she felt at putting Mary to death and it's said that
57:46on Elizabeth's own deathbed the name that she uttered last was that of the Queen of
57:53Scots.
57:57But that we, being two queens so near of kin, neighbours and living in one isle, should
58:07be friends and live together like sisters, than by strange means divide ourselves to
58:16the hurt of us both.
58:27And this programme was shown in memory of Dr Jenny Wormald.
58:57.