Abstract
On 23 November 1586, from her prison in Fotheringhay, Mary wrote a letter to Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador to France. It would have been an exceptionally difficult and emotional moment in which to compose her thoughts, for Mary had just learned that she was to be executed for treason. Underneath the formality of the prose, the letter reveals a tangle of emotions, including disbelief, frustration, apprehension and defiance. Recounting the attitude of her persecutors, Mary exclaimed, ‘that I was no more than a dead woman, without any dignity. I think that the work in my room is for the purpose of erecting a scaffold on which I am to perform the last act of the tragedy’.1 In fact, another three months would pass before Elizabeth gave the final authorisation for the sentence to be carried out. In this interval, in constant expectation of the end, Mary had a good deal of time to contemplate her own mortality and to prepare for her final performance.
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Notes and References
James Phillips, Images of a Queen. Mary Stuart in Sixteenth-Century Literature (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), chapter 6.
Brad S. Gregory, Salvation at Stake. Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge Mass. & London, 1999).
Jean-Francois Gilmont, ‘Le Pseudo-Martyre du Vaudois Pierre Masson’, Bollettino della Societa di Studi Valdes, 13 (1973), p. 44, and David Watson, ‘The Martyrology of Jean Crespin and the Early French Evangelical Movement, 1523–55’, (unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of St Andrews, 1997), ch. 2 ‘The reliability of the Histoire des vray tesmoins as a historical source’.
[John Leslie], Harangue funebre sur la mort de la Royne d’Escosse ([Paris, Jean Charron, 1587–1588]).
Obert Barnestapolius [sic for Robert Turner], Maria Stuarta, regina Scotiae, dotaria Franciae, haeres Angliae et Hyberniae, martyr Ecclesiae, innocens a caede Darleana (Ingolstadt, ex officina W. Ederi, 1588). The translation was entitled L’Histoire et vie de Marie Stuart, Royne d’Escosse d’oiriere de France, heritiere d’Angleterre & dibernye, en laquelle est clairement justifiee de la mort du Prince d’Arlay [sic] son mary (Paris, chez Guillaume Julien, 1589). Mary’s speech to Melvin can be found on I5r. The principal sources used by Turner, L’Histoire et vie, were the L’Aubespine and Wingfield accounts, as well as anonymous ‘Le vray rapport de 1’execution faicte sur la personne de la Reyne d’Escosse le VIIIe février, le mercredy …’ MS. BNF Fonds de StGerm. Harl. no. 222 t. XI, fol. 31, reprinted in Relations Politiques de la France et de l’Espagne avec l’Ecosse au XVIe siecle, ed. Alexandre Teulet, (5 vols., Paris, 1862), vol. iv, pp. 153–64. Turner also drew from Renaud de Beaune, Oraison funebre, for instance in the wording on H12r of the desirable accusation of being called a Catholic c.f. de Beaune, Dlv, and most particularly on I7v where Turner copied almost word for word de Beaune’s comparison of Mary to St A¢nes. I7v c.f. de Beaune. E3v.
Robert Wingfield, Brit. Mus. MSS. Calig. C.IX, fol. 589 to 599, a report written to Willian Cecil dated 11 [21 New Style] February 1586 [sic for 1587], reprinted in The Trial of Mary Queen of Scots, ed. A. Francis Steuart (Edinburgh and London, 1922), pp. 173–85.
Luc Racaut, Hatred in Print. Catholic Propaganda and Protestant Identity during the French Wars of Religion (Aldershot, 2002). See also See Wylie G. Sypher, “‘Faisant ce qu’il leur vient a plaisir”: The Image of Protestantism in French Catholic polemic on the eve of the Religious Wars’, SCJ, 9/2 (1980), pp. 59–84.
R.I. Moore, ‘Heresy as Disease’, in D.W. Lourdeaux and D. Verhelst (eds.), The Concept of Heresy in the Middle Ages (Louvain, 1976), pp. 1–11.
Richard Verstegan [Richard Rowlands], Theatre des cruautez des héreticques de nostre temps (Antwerp, Adrien Hubert, 1588), A2r.
P. Jonin, Les Personnages feminins dans les romains francais de Tristan au XIIe siecle. Etude des influences contemporaines (Gap, 1958), cited in Moore, ‘Heresy as Disease’, p. 5. Syphilis was one of the diseases which fell under the term ‘lepra’.
Jean Gay, Histoire des scismes et heresies des Albigeois conforme a celle du present: par laquelle appert que plusieurs grands princes, & seigneurs sont tombez en extremes desolations & ruynes, pour avoir favorise aux heretiques (Paris, Pierre Gaultier, 1561); Gabriel de Sacconay, Regis Angliae Henrici huius nominis octavi assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martin Lutherum (Lyon, Guillaume Rouillé, 1561).
[Robert Persons], Epistre de la persecution meue en Angleterre contre 1 Eglise Chrestienne, Catholique & Apostolique, & fideles membres d’icelle. Ou sont déclarez les tresgrandes afflictions, miseres & calamitez, les tourmens tres cruelz & martyres admirables, que les fideles chrestiens anglois y souffrent pour leur foy & religion (Paris, Thomas Brumen, 1586).
Jerome Osorius, Remonstrance a Madame Elizabeth royne d’Angleterre touchant les affaires du monde (Lyon, C. Tantillon, 1587) & (Paris, 1587).
R. Bolgar, The Classical Heritage (Cambridge, 1954), pp. 494–504; see also appendix II, ‘Translations of Greek Authors in the Vernacular before 1600’, pp. 508–38. FVB has expanded our knowledge of translations of classical tragedy into the vernacular. However, the total number of printed editions is still very small.
Gillian Jondorf, Robert Gamier and the Themes of Political Tragedy in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1969). See also Gillian Jondorf, French Renaissance Tragedy: the Dramatic Word (Cambridge 1990).
Robert Gamier, La Troade, Antigone, ed. R. Lebegue (Paris, 1952), p. 9 cited and translated in William D. Howarth, French Theatre in the neo-classical era, 1550–1789 (Cambridge, 1997), p. 37.
Gillian Jondorf, Robert Gamier and the Themes of Political Tragedy in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1969).
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© 2004 Alexander S. Wilkinson
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Wilkinson, A.S. (2004). A Catholic Tragedy: The Radical Image of a Martyred Queen. In: Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542–1600. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286153_6
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