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15 <Metadata name="Content">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
16 <Metadata name="Page_topic">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
17 <Metadata name="Author">Marilee Mongello</Metadata>
18 <Metadata name="Title">Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892: Chapter IX</Metadata>
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32
33&lt;table border=&quot;0&quot; cellpadding=&quot;3&quot; width=&quot;100%&quot; height=&quot;667&quot;&gt;
34 &lt;tr&gt;
35 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
36 &lt;td valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;50%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;
37 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
38 &lt;/tr&gt;
39 &lt;tr&gt;
40 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
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42 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
43 &lt;/tr&gt;
44 &lt;tr&gt;
45 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
46 &lt;td valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;50%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;
47 &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;
48 &lt;font size=&quot;4&quot;&gt;by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
49 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
50 &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;
51 &lt;i&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
52 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;
53 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
54 &lt;/tr&gt;
55&lt;/table&gt;
56&lt;blockquote&gt;
57 &lt;blockquote&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: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
61 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
62 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot;&gt;
63 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;
64 &lt;div align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;
65 &lt;b&gt;CHAPTER IX&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
66 &lt;b&gt;EXECUTION OF THE QUEEN OF SCOTS: 1584-1587&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
67 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;THROGMORTON'S plot--of which the Queen of
68 Scots was undoubtedly cognisant, though it was not pressed against
69 her--brought home to every one the danger in which Elizabeth stood (1584).
70 To the Catholic conspiracy, the temptation to take her life was enormous. It
71 was becoming clear that, while she lived, the much talked of insurrection
72 would never come off. The large majority of Catholics would have nothing to
73 do with it --still less with foreign invasion. They would obey their lawful
74 sovereign. But if once Elizabeth were dead, by whatever means, their lawful
75 sovereign would be Mary. The rebels would be the Protestants, if they should
76 try to place any one else on the throne. The Protestants had no organisation.
77 They had no candidate for the crown ready. It was to be feared that no great
78 noble would step forward to lead them. Burghley himself, though longing as
79 much as ever for Mary's head, had with a prudent eye to all eventualities,
80 contrived some time before to persuade her that he was her well-wisher.
81 Houses of Commons, it is true, had shown themselves strongly and
82 increasingly Protestant. But with the demise of the crown, Parliament, if in
83 being at the time, would be &lt;i&gt;ipso facto&lt;/i&gt; dissolved. The Privy Council,
84 in like manner, would cease to have any legal existence. Burghley,
85 Walsingham, and the other new men of whom it was mostly composed, had no
86 power or weight, except as instruments of the sovereign. Her death would
87 leave them helpless. The country would take its direction not from them, but
88 from the great nobles of large ancestral possessions. Nor could they provide
89 for such an emergency by privately selecting a Protestant successor
90 beforehand, and privately organising their partisans. It would have been as
91 much as their lives were worth if their mistress had caught them doing
92 anything of the kind. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
93 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In this dilemma an ingenious plan suggested
94 itself to them. They drew up a &amp;quot;Bond of Association,&amp;quot; by which the
95 subscribers engaged that, if the Queen were murdered, they would never
96 accept as successor any one &amp;quot;by whom &lt;i&gt;or for whom&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot; such act should be
97 committed, but would &amp;quot;prosecute such person to death.&amp;quot; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
98 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;This was a hypothetical way of excluding Mary
99 and organising a Protestant resistance to which Elizabeth could make no
100 objection. But the ministers knew that, as a merely voluntary association
101 without Parliamentary sanction, it would add little strength or confidence
102 to the Protestant party. It would not even test their numbers; for no Marian
103 ventured to refuse the oath. Mary herself desired to be allowed to take it.
104 The bond was therefore converted into a Statute by Parliament, though not
105 without some important alterations (March 1585). It was enacted that if the
106 realm was invaded, or a rebellion instigated, by &lt;i&gt;or for&lt;/i&gt; any one
107 pretending a title to the succession, or if the Queen's murder was plotted
108 by any one, or with the privity of any one that pretended title, such
109 pretender, &lt;i&gt;after ezamination and judgment&lt;/i&gt; by an extraordinary
110 commission to be nominated by the Queen, and consisting of at least
111 twenty-four privy councillors and lords of Parliament assisted by the chief
112 judges, should be excluded from the succession, and that, on proclamation of
113 the sentence and direction by the Queen, all subjects might and should
114 pursue the offender to death. If the Queen were murdered, the lords of the
115 Council at the time of her death, or the majority of them, should join to
116 themselves at least twelve other lords of Parliament not making title to the
117 crown, and the chief judges; and if, after examination, they should come to
118 the above-mentioned conclusion, they should without delay, by all forcible
119 and possible means, prosecute the guilty persons to death, and should have
120 power to raise and use such forces as should in that behalf be needful and
121 convenient; and no subjects should be liable to punishment for anything done
122 according to the tenor of the Statute. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
123 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Here, then, was a legal way provided by which
124 the Protestant ministers might act against Mary if Elizabeth were murdered.
125 They were in fact created a Provisional Government, with power to exclude
126 Mary from the throne. Whether they would have the courage or strength to do
127 so remained to be seen; but they would at least have formal law on their
128 side. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
129 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;It had never entered into Mary's plans to
130 wait for Elizabeth's natural death. She therefore read the new Act as a
131 sentence of exclusion. Another blow soon fell on her. In 1584, elated by her
132 son's victory over the raiders of Ruthven, and believing that he was willing
133 to recognise her joint sovereignty and cooperate with a Guise invasion, she
134 had scornfully refused the last overtures that Elizabeth ever made to her.
135 She now learnt that he had never intended to accept association with her,
136 and that he had urged Elizabeth not to release her. In the following year he
137 had accepted an annual pension of £4000 with some grumbling at its amount;
138 and a defensive alliance was at length concluded between the two countries,
139 Mary's name not being mentioned in the treaty (July 1586). &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
140 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;As the prospects of the Scottish Queen became
141 darker both in England and her own country, she grew more desperate and
142 reckless. Early in 1586, Walsingham contrived a way of regularly inspecting
143 all her most secret correspondence. He soon discovered that she was
144 encouraging Babington's plot for assassinating Elizabeth. Some of the
145 conspirators, though avowed Catholics, had offices in the royal household;
146 such was Elizabeth's easy-going confidence. It was hoped that Parma would at
147 the moment of the murder land troops on the east coast. Mendoza, now Spanish
148 ambassador in Paris, warmly encouraged the project. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
149 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Scottish Queen was now in the case
150 contemplated by the Statute of the previous year. But it required all the
151 urgency of the Council to prevail with Elizabeth to have her brought to
152 trial. Elizabeth's whole conduct shows that she would even now have
153 preferred to deal with her rival as she did in the inquiry into the Darnley
154 murder. She would have been content to discredit her, to expose her guilt,
155 and, if possible, to bring her to her knees confessing her crimes and
156 pleading for mercy. But Mary was not of the temper to confess. Humiliation
157 and effacement were to her worse than death. She chose to brazen it out with
158 a well-grounded confidence that, as long as she asserted her innocence,
159 people would always be found to believe in it, let the evidence be what it
160 would. Besides, long impunity had convinced her that Elizabeth did not dare
161 to take her life. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
162 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;There was nothing for it, therefore, but to
163 bring her to trial. A Special Commission was nominated under the provisions
164 of the Statute of 1585, consisting of forty-five persons--peers, privy
165 councillors, and judges--who proceeded to Fotheringay Castle, whither Mary
166 had been removed. She at first refused their jurisdiction; but on being
167 informed that they would proceed in her absence, she appeared before them
168 under protest (14 October 1586). After sitting at Fotheringay for two days,
169 the Court adjourned to Westminster, where it pronounced her guilty (25
170 October). A declaration was added that her disqualification for the
171 succession, which followed by the Statute, did not affect any rights that
172 her son might possess. The verdict was immediately known; but its
173 proclamation was deferred till Parliament could be consulted. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
174 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A general election had been held while the
175 trial was going on, and Parliament met four days after its conclusion (29
176 October). The whole evidence was gone into afresh. Not a word seems to have
177 been said in Mary's favour; and an address was presented to the Queen
178 praying for execution. If precedents were wanted for the capital punishment
179 of an anointed sovereign, there were the cases of Agag, Jezebel, Athaliah,
180 Deiotarus, king of Galatia, put to death by Julius CÊsar, Rhescuporis, king
181 of Thrace, by Tiberius, and Conradin by Charles of Anjou. In vain did
182 Elizabeth request them to reconsider their vote, and devise some other
183 expedient. Usually so deferential to her suggestions, they reiterated their
184 declaration that &amp;quot;the Queen's safety could no way be secured as long as the
185 Queen of Scots lived.&amp;quot; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
186 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Elizabeth's hesitation has been generally set
187 down to hypocrisy. It has been taken for granted that she desired Mary's
188 death, and was glad to have it pressed upon her by her subjects. I believe
189 that her reluctance was most genuine. If not of generous disposition,
190 neither was she revengeful or cruel. She had no animosity against her
191 enemies. She lacked gall. She was never in any hurry to punish the
192 disaffected, or even to weed them out of her service. She rather prided
193 herself on employing them even about her person. Since her accession only
194 two English peers had been put to death, though several had richly deserved
195 it. She could affirm with perfect truth that, for the last fifteen years,
196 she, and she alone, had stood between Mary and the scaffold, and this at
197 great and increasing risk to her own life. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
198 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;There had, perhaps, been a time when to
199 destroy the prospect of a Catholic succession would have driven the
200 Catholics into rebellion. But that time had long gone by, as every one knew.
201 Elizabeth had only two dangers now to fear, invasion and assassination, the
202 latter being the most threatening. There would be little inducement to
203 attempt it if Mary were not alive to profit by it. Yet Elizabeth hesitated.
204 The explanation of her reluctance is very simple. She flinched from the
205 obloquy, the undeserved obloquy, which she saw was in store for her.
206 Careless to an extraordinary degree about her personal danger, she would
207 have preferred, as far as she was herself concerned, to let Mary live. It
208 was her ministers and the Protestant party who, for their own interest, were
209 forcing her to shed her cousin's blood; and it seemed to her unfair that the
210 undivided odium should fall, as she foresaw it would fall, on her alone.
211 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
212 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The suspense continued through December and
213 January. In the meantime it became abundantly clear that no foreign court
214 would interfere actively to save Mary's life. While she had been growing old
215 in captivity, new interests had sprung up, fresh schemes had been formed in
216 which she had no place. She stood in the way of half-a-dozen ambitions.
217 Everybody was weary of her and her wrongs and her pretensions. The Pope had
218 felt less interest of late in a princess whose rights, if established, would
219 pass to a Protestant heir. Philip could not intercede for her even if he had
220 desired to save her life. He was already at war with England, and, if she
221 had known it, not with any intention of supporting her claims. James by his
222 recent treaty with England had tacitly treated his mother as an enemy. Her
223 scheme for kidnapping and disinheriting him, found among her papers at
224 Chartley, had been promptly communicated to him. Decency required that he
225 should make a show of remonstrance and menace. But he had every reason to
226 desire her death, and his only thought was to use the opportunity for
227 extorting from Elizabeth a recognition of his title to the English crown and
228 an increase of his pension. He sent the Master of Gray to drive this
229 bargain. The very choice of his envoy, the man who had persuaded him to
230 break with his mother, showed Elizabeth how the land lay, and she did not
231 think it worth her while to bribe him in either way. The Marian nobles
232 blustered and called for war. Not one of them wanted to see Mary back in
233 Scotland or cared what became of her; but they had got an idea that Philip
234 would pay them for a plundering raid into England, and the doubly lucrative
235 prospect was irresistible. James, however, though pretending resentment and
236 really sulky at his rebuff, knew his own interests too well to quarrel with
237 England. What the action of the French King was is less certain. Openly he
238 remonstrated with considerable vigour and persistence; not entering into the
239 question of Mary's guilt, but protesting against the punishment of a Queen
240 and a member of his family. Probably his efforts, so far as they went, were
241 sincere, for he instructed his ambassador to bribe the English ministers if
242 possible to save her life. But it was evident that, however offended Henry
243 III might be by the execution of his sister-in-law, he would not be provoked
244 into playing the game of Spain. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
245 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A warrant for the execution had been drawn
246 soon after the adjournment of Parliament, and all through December and
247 January Elizabeth's ministers kept urging her to sign it. At length, when
248 the Scotch and French ambassadors were gone, and with them the last excuse
249 for delay, she signed it in the presence of Davison (who had lately been
250 made co-secretary with Walsingham), and directed him to have it sealed (1
251 February). What else passed between them on that occasion must always remain
252 uncertain, because Davison's four written statements, and his answers at his
253 trial, differ in important particulars not only from the Queen's account but
254 from one another. So much, however, will to most persons who examine the
255 evidence be very clear. Elizabeth meant the execution to take place. There
256 is no reason to doubt Davison's statement that she &amp;quot;forbade him to trouble
257 her any further, or let her hear any more thereof till it was done, seeing
258 that for her part she had now performed all that either in law or reason
259 could be required of her.&amp;quot; But signing the warrant, as both of them knew,
260 was not enough. The formal delivery of it to some person, with direction to
261 carry it out, was the final step necessary. This, by Davison's own
262 admission, the Queen managed to evade. He saw that she wished to thrust the
263 responsibility upon him and Walsingham, and he suspected that she meant to
264 disavow them. Although, therefore, she had enjoined strict secrecy, he laid
265 the matter before Hatton and Burghley. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
266 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Burghley assembled in his own room the Earls
267 of Derby and Leicester, Lords Howard of Effingham, Hunsdon, and Cobham,
268 Knollys, Hatton, Walsingham, and Davison (3 February). (1) These ten were
269 probably the only privy councillors then at Greenwich. He laid before them
270 Davison's statement of what had passed between the Queen and himself at both
271 interviews. He said that she had done as much as could be expected of her;
272 that she evidently wished her ministers to take whatever responsibility
273 remained upon themselves without informing her; and that they ought to do
274 so. His proposal was agreed to. A letter was written to the Earls of Kent
275 and Shrewsbury instructing them to carry out the execution. This letter all
276 the ten signed, and it was at once despatched along with the warrant. They
277 quite understood that Elizabeth would disavow them. They saw that she wished
278 to have a pretext for saying that Mary had been put to death without her
279 knowledge, and before she had finally made up her mind. They were willing to
280 furnish her with this pretext. Of course there would be more or less of a
281 storm to keep up the make-believe. But ten privy councillors acting together
282 could not well be punished. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
283 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;On Thursday (9 February) the news of the
284 execution arrived. Elizabeth now learnt for the first time that the
285 responsibility which she had intended to fix on the two secretaries, one a
286 nobody and the other no favourite, had been shared by eight others of the
287 Council, including all its most important members. Storm at them the might
288 and did, and all the more furiously because they had combined for
289 self-protection. But to punish she whole ten was out of the question. Yet if
290 no one were punished, with what face could she tender her improbable
291 explanation to foreign courts? The unlucky Davison was singled out. He could
292 be charged with divulging what he had been ordered to keep secret and
293 misleading the others. He was tried before a Special Commission, fined
294 10,000 marks, and imprisoned for some time in the Tower. The fine was
295 rigidly exacted, and it reduced him to poverty. Burghley, whose tool he had
296 been almost as much as Elizabeth's, took pains to make his disgrace
297 permanent, because he wanted the secretaryship for his son, Robert Cecil.
298 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
299 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The strange thing is, that Elizabeth not only
300 expected her transparent falsehoods to be formally accepted as satisfactory,
301 but hoped that they would be really believed. Her letter to James was an
302 insult to his understanding. &amp;quot;I would you knew (though not felt) the extreme
303 dolour that overwhelms my mind, for that miserable accident which (far
304 contrary to my meaning) hath befallen. . . . I beseech you that as God and
305 many more know how innocent I am in this case, so you will believe me that
306 if I had bid [bidden] ought I would have bid [abided] by it. . . . Thus
307 assuring yourself of me that as I know this [the execution] was deserved,
308 yet if I had meant it I would never lay it on others' shoulders, no more
309 will I not damnify myself that thought it not.&amp;quot; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
310 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Little as James cared what became of his
311 mother, it was impossible that he should not feel humiliated when he was
312 expected to swallow such a pill as this --and ungilded too. He had no
313 intention of going to war with the country of which he might now at any
314 moment become the legitimate King. But to let Elizabeth see that unless he
315 was paid he could be disagreeable, he winked at raids across the border and
316 coquetted with the faction who were inviting Philip to send a Spanish army
317 to Scotland. It was but a passing display of temper. The end of the year
318 (1587) saw him again drawing close to Elizabeth, and she was able to give
319 her undivided attention to the coming Armada. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
320 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;It cannot be seriously maintained that
321 because Mary was not an English subject she could not be lawfully tried and
322 punished for crimes committed in England. Those, if any there now be, who
323 adopt her own contention that, being an anointed Queen, she was not amenable
324 to any earthly tribunal, but to God alone, are beyond the reach of earthly
325 argument. The English government had a right to detain her as a dangerous
326 public enemy. She, on the other hand, had a right to resist such restraint
327 if she could, and she might have carried conspiracy very far without
328 incurring our blame. But for good reasons we draw a line at conspiracy to
329 murder. No government ever did or will let it pass unpunished. If Napoleon
330 at St. Helena had engaged in conspiracies for seizing the island, no one
331 could have blamed him, even though they might have involved bloodshed. But
332 if he had been convicted of plotting the assassination of Sir Hudson Lowe,
333 he would assuredly have been hanged. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
334 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;That the execution was a wise and opportune
335 stroke of policy can hardly be disputed. It broke up the Catholic party in
336 England at the moment when their disaffection was about to be tempted by the
337 appearance of the Armada. There had been a time when they had hopes of
338 James. But he was now known to be a stiff Protestant. Only the small
339 Jesuitical faction was prepared to accept Philip either as an heir of John
340 of Gaunt or as Mary's legatee. There was no other Catholic with a shadow of
341 a claim. The bulk of the party therefore ceased to look forward to a
342 restoration of the old religion, and rallied to the cause of national
343 independence. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
344 &lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
345 &lt;u&gt;&lt;b&gt;NOTE ON PAULET'S ALLEGED REFUSAL TO MURDER MARY&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
346 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;I have not alluded in the text to the story,
347 generally repeated by historians, that Elizabeth urged Paulet and Drury to
348 murder Mary privately. There is no doubt that, after the signature of the
349 warrant, Walsingham and Davison, by Elizabeth's direction, urged Paulet and
350 Drury to put Mary to death, and that they refused. But was it a private
351 murder that was meant or a public execution without delivery of the warrant?
352 There is nothing in any of Davison's statements inconsistent with the latter
353 and far more probable explanation. The blacker charge is founded solely on
354 the two letters which are generally accepted as being those which passed
355 between the secretaries and Paulet, but which may be confidently set down as
356 impudent forgeries. They were first given to the world in 1722 by Dr. George
357 Mackenzie, a violent Marian, who says that &lt;i&gt;a copy&lt;/i&gt; of them was sent
358 him by Mr. Urry of Christ Church, Oxford, and that they had been found among
359 Paulet's papers. Two years later they were printed by Hearne, an Oxford
360 Jacobite and Nonjuror, who says he got them from &lt;i&gt;a ropy&lt;/i&gt; furnished him
361 by a friend unnamed (Urry?), who told him he had &lt;i&gt;copied&lt;/i&gt; them in 1717
362 from a MS. letter-book of Paulet's. There is also a MS. &lt;i&gt;copy&lt;/i&gt; in the
363 Harleian collection, which contains erasures and emendations--an
364 extraordinary thing in a copy. It is said to be in the handwriting of the
365 Earl of Oxford himself. There is nothing to show whence he copied it. &lt;/font&gt;
366 &lt;/p&gt;
367 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;No one has ever seen the originals of these
368 letters. Neither has any one, except Hearne's unnamed friend, seen the &amp;quot;letterbook&amp;quot;
369 into which Paulet it; supposed to have copied them. Where had this
370 &amp;quot;letter-book&amp;quot; been before 1717? Where was it in 1717? What became of it
371 after 1717? To none of these questions is there any answer. The most
372 rational conclusion is that the &amp;quot;letter-book&amp;quot; never existed, and that the
373 letters were fabricated in the reign of George I. by some Oxford Jacobite,
374 who thought it easier and more prudent to circulate &lt;i&gt;copies&lt;/i&gt; than to
375 attempt an imitation of Paulet's well-known handwriting, with all the other
376 difficulties involved in forging a manuscript. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
377 &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
378 with Davison's narrative? Of course they do. It was for the very purpose of
379 putting an odious meaning on that narrative that they were fabricated. It
380 was known that letters about putting Mary to death had passed. The real
381 letters had never been seen, and had doubtless been destroyed. Here
382 therefore was a fine opportunity for manufacturing spurious ones.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
383 &lt;/font&gt;
384 &lt;hr&gt;
385 &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.
386 The remaining Privy Councillors were Archbishop Whitgift, Lord Chancellor
387 Bromley, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Warwick, Lord Buckburst, Sir James
388 Crofts, Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Walter Mildmay, Sir Amyas Pualet, and the
389 Latin Secretary, Wolley.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
390 &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;
391 Queen Elizabeth&lt;/i&gt; by Edward Spencer Beesly.&amp;nbsp; Published in London by
392 Macmillan and Co., 1892.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
393 &lt;/font&gt;
394 &lt;font face=&quot;Times New Roman&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;
395 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
396&lt;/blockquote&gt;
397
398 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
399 &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fbeeslychapterten.html&quot;&gt;to Chapter
400 X: War with Spain: 1587-1603&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
401 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
402 &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
403 Elizabeth I website&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; /&amp;nbsp;
404 &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,
405 queen of Scots website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
406 &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;
407 to Secondary Sources&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
408 &lt;/font&gt;
409
410
411
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414</Content>
415</Section>
416</Archive>
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