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14 <Metadata name="Content">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
15 <Metadata name="Page_topic">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
16 <Metadata name="Author">Marilee Mongello</Metadata>
17 <Metadata name="Title">Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892: Chapter IX</Metadata>
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30
31&lt;table border=&quot;0&quot; cellpadding=&quot;3&quot; width=&quot;100%&quot; height=&quot;667&quot;&gt;
32 &lt;tr&gt;
33 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
34 &lt;td valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;50%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;
35 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
36 &lt;/tr&gt;
37 &lt;tr&gt;
38 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
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40 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
41 &lt;/tr&gt;
42 &lt;tr&gt;
43 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
44 &lt;td valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;50%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;
45 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;7&quot;&gt;Queen Elizabeth&lt;br&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
46 &lt;font size=&quot;4&quot;&gt;by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
47 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
48 &lt;img border=&quot;2&quot; src=&quot;_httpdocimg_/eliz1-ermine.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;478&quot; alt=&quot;'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas Hilliard&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
49 &lt;i&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
50 Hilliard;&lt;br&gt;from the &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fwww.marileecody.com%2feliz1-images.html&quot;&gt;Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I&lt;/a&gt; website&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
51 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
52 &lt;/tr&gt;
53&lt;/table&gt;
54&lt;blockquote&gt;
55 &lt;blockquote&gt;
56 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
57 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
58 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
59 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
60 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot;&gt;
61 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;
62 &lt;div align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;
63 &lt;b&gt;CHAPTER IX&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
64 &lt;b&gt;EXECUTION OF THE QUEEN OF SCOTS: 1584-1587&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
65 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;THROGMORTON'S plot--of which the Queen of
66 Scots was undoubtedly cognisant, though it was not pressed against
67 her--brought home to every one the danger in which Elizabeth stood (1584).
68 To the Catholic conspiracy, the temptation to take her life was enormous. It
69 was becoming clear that, while she lived, the much talked of insurrection
70 would never come off. The large majority of Catholics would have nothing to
71 do with it --still less with foreign invasion. They would obey their lawful
72 sovereign. But if once Elizabeth were dead, by whatever means, their lawful
73 sovereign would be Mary. The rebels would be the Protestants, if they should
74 try to place any one else on the throne. The Protestants had no organisation.
75 They had no candidate for the crown ready. It was to be feared that no great
76 noble would step forward to lead them. Burghley himself, though longing as
77 much as ever for Mary's head, had with a prudent eye to all eventualities,
78 contrived some time before to persuade her that he was her well-wisher.
79 Houses of Commons, it is true, had shown themselves strongly and
80 increasingly Protestant. But with the demise of the crown, Parliament, if in
81 being at the time, would be &lt;i&gt;ipso facto&lt;/i&gt; dissolved. The Privy Council,
82 in like manner, would cease to have any legal existence. Burghley,
83 Walsingham, and the other new men of whom it was mostly composed, had no
84 power or weight, except as instruments of the sovereign. Her death would
85 leave them helpless. The country would take its direction not from them, but
86 from the great nobles of large ancestral possessions. Nor could they provide
87 for such an emergency by privately selecting a Protestant successor
88 beforehand, and privately organising their partisans. It would have been as
89 much as their lives were worth if their mistress had caught them doing
90 anything of the kind. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
91 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In this dilemma an ingenious plan suggested
92 itself to them. They drew up a &amp;quot;Bond of Association,&amp;quot; by which the
93 subscribers engaged that, if the Queen were murdered, they would never
94 accept as successor any one &amp;quot;by whom &lt;i&gt;or for whom&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot; such act should be
95 committed, but would &amp;quot;prosecute such person to death.&amp;quot; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
96 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;This was a hypothetical way of excluding Mary
97 and organising a Protestant resistance to which Elizabeth could make no
98 objection. But the ministers knew that, as a merely voluntary association
99 without Parliamentary sanction, it would add little strength or confidence
100 to the Protestant party. It would not even test their numbers; for no Marian
101 ventured to refuse the oath. Mary herself desired to be allowed to take it.
102 The bond was therefore converted into a Statute by Parliament, though not
103 without some important alterations (March 1585). It was enacted that if the
104 realm was invaded, or a rebellion instigated, by &lt;i&gt;or for&lt;/i&gt; any one
105 pretending a title to the succession, or if the Queen's murder was plotted
106 by any one, or with the privity of any one that pretended title, such
107 pretender, &lt;i&gt;after ezamination and judgment&lt;/i&gt; by an extraordinary
108 commission to be nominated by the Queen, and consisting of at least
109 twenty-four privy councillors and lords of Parliament assisted by the chief
110 judges, should be excluded from the succession, and that, on proclamation of
111 the sentence and direction by the Queen, all subjects might and should
112 pursue the offender to death. If the Queen were murdered, the lords of the
113 Council at the time of her death, or the majority of them, should join to
114 themselves at least twelve other lords of Parliament not making title to the
115 crown, and the chief judges; and if, after examination, they should come to
116 the above-mentioned conclusion, they should without delay, by all forcible
117 and possible means, prosecute the guilty persons to death, and should have
118 power to raise and use such forces as should in that behalf be needful and
119 convenient; and no subjects should be liable to punishment for anything done
120 according to the tenor of the Statute. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
121 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Here, then, was a legal way provided by which
122 the Protestant ministers might act against Mary if Elizabeth were murdered.
123 They were in fact created a Provisional Government, with power to exclude
124 Mary from the throne. Whether they would have the courage or strength to do
125 so remained to be seen; but they would at least have formal law on their
126 side. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
127 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;It had never entered into Mary's plans to
128 wait for Elizabeth's natural death. She therefore read the new Act as a
129 sentence of exclusion. Another blow soon fell on her. In 1584, elated by her
130 son's victory over the raiders of Ruthven, and believing that he was willing
131 to recognise her joint sovereignty and cooperate with a Guise invasion, she
132 had scornfully refused the last overtures that Elizabeth ever made to her.
133 She now learnt that he had never intended to accept association with her,
134 and that he had urged Elizabeth not to release her. In the following year he
135 had accepted an annual pension of £4000 with some grumbling at its amount;
136 and a defensive alliance was at length concluded between the two countries,
137 Mary's name not being mentioned in the treaty (July 1586). &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
138 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;As the prospects of the Scottish Queen became
139 darker both in England and her own country, she grew more desperate and
140 reckless. Early in 1586, Walsingham contrived a way of regularly inspecting
141 all her most secret correspondence. He soon discovered that she was
142 encouraging Babington's plot for assassinating Elizabeth. Some of the
143 conspirators, though avowed Catholics, had offices in the royal household;
144 such was Elizabeth's easy-going confidence. It was hoped that Parma would at
145 the moment of the murder land troops on the east coast. Mendoza, now Spanish
146 ambassador in Paris, warmly encouraged the project. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
147 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Scottish Queen was now in the case
148 contemplated by the Statute of the previous year. But it required all the
149 urgency of the Council to prevail with Elizabeth to have her brought to
150 trial. Elizabeth's whole conduct shows that she would even now have
151 preferred to deal with her rival as she did in the inquiry into the Darnley
152 murder. She would have been content to discredit her, to expose her guilt,
153 and, if possible, to bring her to her knees confessing her crimes and
154 pleading for mercy. But Mary was not of the temper to confess. Humiliation
155 and effacement were to her worse than death. She chose to brazen it out with
156 a well-grounded confidence that, as long as she asserted her innocence,
157 people would always be found to believe in it, let the evidence be what it
158 would. Besides, long impunity had convinced her that Elizabeth did not dare
159 to take her life. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
160 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;There was nothing for it, therefore, but to
161 bring her to trial. A Special Commission was nominated under the provisions
162 of the Statute of 1585, consisting of forty-five persons--peers, privy
163 councillors, and judges--who proceeded to Fotheringay Castle, whither Mary
164 had been removed. She at first refused their jurisdiction; but on being
165 informed that they would proceed in her absence, she appeared before them
166 under protest (14 October 1586). After sitting at Fotheringay for two days,
167 the Court adjourned to Westminster, where it pronounced her guilty (25
168 October). A declaration was added that her disqualification for the
169 succession, which followed by the Statute, did not affect any rights that
170 her son might possess. The verdict was immediately known; but its
171 proclamation was deferred till Parliament could be consulted. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
172 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A general election had been held while the
173 trial was going on, and Parliament met four days after its conclusion (29
174 October). The whole evidence was gone into afresh. Not a word seems to have
175 been said in Mary's favour; and an address was presented to the Queen
176 praying for execution. If precedents were wanted for the capital punishment
177 of an anointed sovereign, there were the cases of Agag, Jezebel, Athaliah,
178 Deiotarus, king of Galatia, put to death by Julius CÊsar, Rhescuporis, king
179 of Thrace, by Tiberius, and Conradin by Charles of Anjou. In vain did
180 Elizabeth request them to reconsider their vote, and devise some other
181 expedient. Usually so deferential to her suggestions, they reiterated their
182 declaration that &amp;quot;the Queen's safety could no way be secured as long as the
183 Queen of Scots lived.&amp;quot; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
184 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Elizabeth's hesitation has been generally set
185 down to hypocrisy. It has been taken for granted that she desired Mary's
186 death, and was glad to have it pressed upon her by her subjects. I believe
187 that her reluctance was most genuine. If not of generous disposition,
188 neither was she revengeful or cruel. She had no animosity against her
189 enemies. She lacked gall. She was never in any hurry to punish the
190 disaffected, or even to weed them out of her service. She rather prided
191 herself on employing them even about her person. Since her accession only
192 two English peers had been put to death, though several had richly deserved
193 it. She could affirm with perfect truth that, for the last fifteen years,
194 she, and she alone, had stood between Mary and the scaffold, and this at
195 great and increasing risk to her own life. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
196 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;There had, perhaps, been a time when to
197 destroy the prospect of a Catholic succession would have driven the
198 Catholics into rebellion. But that time had long gone by, as every one knew.
199 Elizabeth had only two dangers now to fear, invasion and assassination, the
200 latter being the most threatening. There would be little inducement to
201 attempt it if Mary were not alive to profit by it. Yet Elizabeth hesitated.
202 The explanation of her reluctance is very simple. She flinched from the
203 obloquy, the undeserved obloquy, which she saw was in store for her.
204 Careless to an extraordinary degree about her personal danger, she would
205 have preferred, as far as she was herself concerned, to let Mary live. It
206 was her ministers and the Protestant party who, for their own interest, were
207 forcing her to shed her cousin's blood; and it seemed to her unfair that the
208 undivided odium should fall, as she foresaw it would fall, on her alone.
209 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
210 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The suspense continued through December and
211 January. In the meantime it became abundantly clear that no foreign court
212 would interfere actively to save Mary's life. While she had been growing old
213 in captivity, new interests had sprung up, fresh schemes had been formed in
214 which she had no place. She stood in the way of half-a-dozen ambitions.
215 Everybody was weary of her and her wrongs and her pretensions. The Pope had
216 felt less interest of late in a princess whose rights, if established, would
217 pass to a Protestant heir. Philip could not intercede for her even if he had
218 desired to save her life. He was already at war with England, and, if she
219 had known it, not with any intention of supporting her claims. James by his
220 recent treaty with England had tacitly treated his mother as an enemy. Her
221 scheme for kidnapping and disinheriting him, found among her papers at
222 Chartley, had been promptly communicated to him. Decency required that he
223 should make a show of remonstrance and menace. But he had every reason to
224 desire her death, and his only thought was to use the opportunity for
225 extorting from Elizabeth a recognition of his title to the English crown and
226 an increase of his pension. He sent the Master of Gray to drive this
227 bargain. The very choice of his envoy, the man who had persuaded him to
228 break with his mother, showed Elizabeth how the land lay, and she did not
229 think it worth her while to bribe him in either way. The Marian nobles
230 blustered and called for war. Not one of them wanted to see Mary back in
231 Scotland or cared what became of her; but they had got an idea that Philip
232 would pay them for a plundering raid into England, and the doubly lucrative
233 prospect was irresistible. James, however, though pretending resentment and
234 really sulky at his rebuff, knew his own interests too well to quarrel with
235 England. What the action of the French King was is less certain. Openly he
236 remonstrated with considerable vigour and persistence; not entering into the
237 question of Mary's guilt, but protesting against the punishment of a Queen
238 and a member of his family. Probably his efforts, so far as they went, were
239 sincere, for he instructed his ambassador to bribe the English ministers if
240 possible to save her life. But it was evident that, however offended Henry
241 III might be by the execution of his sister-in-law, he would not be provoked
242 into playing the game of Spain. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
243 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A warrant for the execution had been drawn
244 soon after the adjournment of Parliament, and all through December and
245 January Elizabeth's ministers kept urging her to sign it. At length, when
246 the Scotch and French ambassadors were gone, and with them the last excuse
247 for delay, she signed it in the presence of Davison (who had lately been
248 made co-secretary with Walsingham), and directed him to have it sealed (1
249 February). What else passed between them on that occasion must always remain
250 uncertain, because Davison's four written statements, and his answers at his
251 trial, differ in important particulars not only from the Queen's account but
252 from one another. So much, however, will to most persons who examine the
253 evidence be very clear. Elizabeth meant the execution to take place. There
254 is no reason to doubt Davison's statement that she &amp;quot;forbade him to trouble
255 her any further, or let her hear any more thereof till it was done, seeing
256 that for her part she had now performed all that either in law or reason
257 could be required of her.&amp;quot; But signing the warrant, as both of them knew,
258 was not enough. The formal delivery of it to some person, with direction to
259 carry it out, was the final step necessary. This, by Davison's own
260 admission, the Queen managed to evade. He saw that she wished to thrust the
261 responsibility upon him and Walsingham, and he suspected that she meant to
262 disavow them. Although, therefore, she had enjoined strict secrecy, he laid
263 the matter before Hatton and Burghley. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
264 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Burghley assembled in his own room the Earls
265 of Derby and Leicester, Lords Howard of Effingham, Hunsdon, and Cobham,
266 Knollys, Hatton, Walsingham, and Davison (3 February). (1) These ten were
267 probably the only privy councillors then at Greenwich. He laid before them
268 Davison's statement of what had passed between the Queen and himself at both
269 interviews. He said that she had done as much as could be expected of her;
270 that she evidently wished her ministers to take whatever responsibility
271 remained upon themselves without informing her; and that they ought to do
272 so. His proposal was agreed to. A letter was written to the Earls of Kent
273 and Shrewsbury instructing them to carry out the execution. This letter all
274 the ten signed, and it was at once despatched along with the warrant. They
275 quite understood that Elizabeth would disavow them. They saw that she wished
276 to have a pretext for saying that Mary had been put to death without her
277 knowledge, and before she had finally made up her mind. They were willing to
278 furnish her with this pretext. Of course there would be more or less of a
279 storm to keep up the make-believe. But ten privy councillors acting together
280 could not well be punished. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
281 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;On Thursday (9 February) the news of the
282 execution arrived. Elizabeth now learnt for the first time that the
283 responsibility which she had intended to fix on the two secretaries, one a
284 nobody and the other no favourite, had been shared by eight others of the
285 Council, including all its most important members. Storm at them the might
286 and did, and all the more furiously because they had combined for
287 self-protection. But to punish she whole ten was out of the question. Yet if
288 no one were punished, with what face could she tender her improbable
289 explanation to foreign courts? The unlucky Davison was singled out. He could
290 be charged with divulging what he had been ordered to keep secret and
291 misleading the others. He was tried before a Special Commission, fined
292 10,000 marks, and imprisoned for some time in the Tower. The fine was
293 rigidly exacted, and it reduced him to poverty. Burghley, whose tool he had
294 been almost as much as Elizabeth's, took pains to make his disgrace
295 permanent, because he wanted the secretaryship for his son, Robert Cecil.
296 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
297 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The strange thing is, that Elizabeth not only
298 expected her transparent falsehoods to be formally accepted as satisfactory,
299 but hoped that they would be really believed. Her letter to James was an
300 insult to his understanding. &amp;quot;I would you knew (though not felt) the extreme
301 dolour that overwhelms my mind, for that miserable accident which (far
302 contrary to my meaning) hath befallen. . . . I beseech you that as God and
303 many more know how innocent I am in this case, so you will believe me that
304 if I had bid [bidden] ought I would have bid [abided] by it. . . . Thus
305 assuring yourself of me that as I know this [the execution] was deserved,
306 yet if I had meant it I would never lay it on others' shoulders, no more
307 will I not damnify myself that thought it not.&amp;quot; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
308 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Little as James cared what became of his
309 mother, it was impossible that he should not feel humiliated when he was
310 expected to swallow such a pill as this --and ungilded too. He had no
311 intention of going to war with the country of which he might now at any
312 moment become the legitimate King. But to let Elizabeth see that unless he
313 was paid he could be disagreeable, he winked at raids across the border and
314 coquetted with the faction who were inviting Philip to send a Spanish army
315 to Scotland. It was but a passing display of temper. The end of the year
316 (1587) saw him again drawing close to Elizabeth, and she was able to give
317 her undivided attention to the coming Armada. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
318 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;It cannot be seriously maintained that
319 because Mary was not an English subject she could not be lawfully tried and
320 punished for crimes committed in England. Those, if any there now be, who
321 adopt her own contention that, being an anointed Queen, she was not amenable
322 to any earthly tribunal, but to God alone, are beyond the reach of earthly
323 argument. The English government had a right to detain her as a dangerous
324 public enemy. She, on the other hand, had a right to resist such restraint
325 if she could, and she might have carried conspiracy very far without
326 incurring our blame. But for good reasons we draw a line at conspiracy to
327 murder. No government ever did or will let it pass unpunished. If Napoleon
328 at St. Helena had engaged in conspiracies for seizing the island, no one
329 could have blamed him, even though they might have involved bloodshed. But
330 if he had been convicted of plotting the assassination of Sir Hudson Lowe,
331 he would assuredly have been hanged. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
332 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;That the execution was a wise and opportune
333 stroke of policy can hardly be disputed. It broke up the Catholic party in
334 England at the moment when their disaffection was about to be tempted by the
335 appearance of the Armada. There had been a time when they had hopes of
336 James. But he was now known to be a stiff Protestant. Only the small
337 Jesuitical faction was prepared to accept Philip either as an heir of John
338 of Gaunt or as Mary's legatee. There was no other Catholic with a shadow of
339 a claim. The bulk of the party therefore ceased to look forward to a
340 restoration of the old religion, and rallied to the cause of national
341 independence. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
342 &lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
343 &lt;u&gt;&lt;b&gt;NOTE ON PAULET'S ALLEGED REFUSAL TO MURDER MARY&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
344 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;I have not alluded in the text to the story,
345 generally repeated by historians, that Elizabeth urged Paulet and Drury to
346 murder Mary privately. There is no doubt that, after the signature of the
347 warrant, Walsingham and Davison, by Elizabeth's direction, urged Paulet and
348 Drury to put Mary to death, and that they refused. But was it a private
349 murder that was meant or a public execution without delivery of the warrant?
350 There is nothing in any of Davison's statements inconsistent with the latter
351 and far more probable explanation. The blacker charge is founded solely on
352 the two letters which are generally accepted as being those which passed
353 between the secretaries and Paulet, but which may be confidently set down as
354 impudent forgeries. They were first given to the world in 1722 by Dr. George
355 Mackenzie, a violent Marian, who says that &lt;i&gt;a copy&lt;/i&gt; of them was sent
356 him by Mr. Urry of Christ Church, Oxford, and that they had been found among
357 Paulet's papers. Two years later they were printed by Hearne, an Oxford
358 Jacobite and Nonjuror, who says he got them from &lt;i&gt;a ropy&lt;/i&gt; furnished him
359 by a friend unnamed (Urry?), who told him he had &lt;i&gt;copied&lt;/i&gt; them in 1717
360 from a MS. letter-book of Paulet's. There is also a MS. &lt;i&gt;copy&lt;/i&gt; in the
361 Harleian collection, which contains erasures and emendations--an
362 extraordinary thing in a copy. It is said to be in the handwriting of the
363 Earl of Oxford himself. There is nothing to show whence he copied it. &lt;/font&gt;
364 &lt;/p&gt;
365 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;No one has ever seen the originals of these
366 letters. Neither has any one, except Hearne's unnamed friend, seen the &amp;quot;letterbook&amp;quot;
367 into which Paulet it; supposed to have copied them. Where had this
368 &amp;quot;letter-book&amp;quot; been before 1717? Where was it in 1717? What became of it
369 after 1717? To none of these questions is there any answer. The most
370 rational conclusion is that the &amp;quot;letter-book&amp;quot; never existed, and that the
371 letters were fabricated in the reign of George I. by some Oxford Jacobite,
372 who thought it easier and more prudent to circulate &lt;i&gt;copies&lt;/i&gt; than to
373 attempt an imitation of Paulet's well-known handwriting, with all the other
374 difficulties involved in forging a manuscript. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
375 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;But it may be said, Do not the letters fit in
376 with Davison's narrative? Of course they do. It was for the very purpose of
377 putting an odious meaning on that narrative that they were fabricated. It
378 was known that letters about putting Mary to death had passed. The real
379 letters had never been seen, and had doubtless been destroyed. Here
380 therefore was a fine opportunity for manufacturing spurious ones.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
381 &lt;/font&gt;
382 &lt;hr&gt;
383 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Notes:&lt;/b&gt; 1.
384 The remaining Privy Councillors were Archbishop Whitgift, Lord Chancellor
385 Bromley, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Warwick, Lord Buckburst, Sir James
386 Crofts, Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Walter Mildmay, Sir Amyas Pualet, and the
387 Latin Secretary, Wolley.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
388 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;From &lt;i&gt;
389 Queen Elizabeth&lt;/i&gt; by Edward Spencer Beesly.&amp;nbsp; Published in London by
390 Macmillan and Co., 1892.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
391 &lt;/font&gt;
392 &lt;font face=&quot;Times New Roman&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;
393 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
394&lt;/blockquote&gt;
395
396 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
397 &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fbeeslychapterten.html&quot;&gt;to Chapter
398 X: War with Spain: 1587-1603&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
399 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
400 &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fmonarchs%2feliz1.html&quot;&gt;to the Queen
401 Elizabeth I website&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; /&amp;nbsp;
402 &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2frelative%2fmaryqos.html&quot;&gt;to the Mary,
403 queen of Scots website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
404 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fsecondary.html&quot;&gt;
405 to Secondary Sources&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
406 &lt;/font&gt;
407
408
409
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412</Content>
413</Section>
414</Archive>
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