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