Moray produced his proofs, and if Elizabeth, ‘by virtue of her
superiority over Scotland,’ gave a verdict against Mary. But Sussex
thought that the proofs of Moray ‘will not fall out sufficiently to
determine judicially, if she denies her letters.’
This was the opinion of a cool, unprejudiced, and well-informed observer.
Mary’s guilt could not, he doubted, be judicially proved. Moray’s party,
he might have added, would have been ruined by an acknowledgment of
English suzerainty. The one thing was to prevent the Scots from patching a
peace with Mary. And, to that end, though Sussex does not say so, Mary
must not be allowed to appear in her own defence.
On October 30, Elizabeth held a great Council at Hampton Court. Mary’s
Commissioners, and then those of the Lords, were to have audience of her.
Mary’s men were to be told that Elizabeth wished ‘certain difficulties
resolved.’ To the Lords, she would say that they should produce their
charges: if they were valid, Elizabeth would protect them, and detain Mary
during their pleasure. As Mary was sure to hear of this plan, she was to
be removed from Bolton to Tutbury, which was not done till later. Various
peers were to be added to the English Commission, but not the foreign
Ambassadors; though, on June 20, the Council reckoned it fair to admit
them.[297]
Mary heard of all this, and of Moray’s admission to Elizabeth’s
presence, from Hepburn of Riccartoun, Bothwell’s friend and kinsman
(November 21).[298] On November 22, therefore, she wrote to bid her
Commissioners break up the Conference, if she, the accused, was denied the
freedom to be present, conceded to Moray, the accuser. Nothing could be
more correct, but, at the same time, in ‘a missive letter’ Mary suggested
to her Commissioners that they should again try to compromise, saving her
crown and honour.[299] These would not have been saved by the compromise
which, according to Robert Melville, Norfolk forbade her to make.
XII
_THE LETTERS AT WESTMINSTER AND HAMPTON COURT_
The Commission opened on November 25 at Westminster, after Elizabeth had
protested that she would not ‘take upon her to be judge.’[300]
On the 26th Moray put in a written Protestation, as to their reluctance in
accusing Mary. They then put in an ‘Eik,’ or addition, with the formal
charge.[301] On the 29th November, the Lords said that this charge might
be handed to Mary’s Commissioners. Lennox appeared as an accuser, and put
in ‘A Discourse of the Usage’ of Darnley by Mary: the last of his
Indictments. It covered three sheets of paper. Mary’s men now entered,
received Moray’s accusation, retired, discussed it, and asked for a delay
for consideration. On December 1, they returned. Moray’s ‘Eik’ of
accusation had been presented to Mary’s Commissioners on November 29.
James Melville says that Lethington was not present, had ‘a sore heart,’
and whispered to Moray that he had shamed himself for ever. The Letters
would come out. Mary would retort. Lethington would be undone. Mary’s men
might have been expected, as they asked for a delay, to protract it till
they could consult their mistress. The wintry weather was evil, the roads
were foul, communication was slow, and the injustice to Mary of keeping
her at four or five days’ distance from her representatives was
disgraceful. Instead of consulting her, the Commissioners for Mary met the
English on December 1.
They had none of her courage, and Herries had plainly shown to Elizabeth
his want of confidence in Mary’s innocence. In June he had asked Elizabeth
what she meant to do if appearances proved against Mary. And he told Mary
that he had done so.[302] He now read a tame speech, inveighing against
the accusers, and declaring that, when the cause should be further tried,
some of them would be proved guilty of entering into bands for Darnley’s
murder. Lesley followed, stating that he and his fellows must see
Elizabeth, and communicate to her Mary’s demand to be heard in person,
before Elizabeth, the Peers, and the Ambassadors; while the accusers must
be detained till the end of the cause.[303] On December 3, Lesley and the
rest presented these demands to Elizabeth at Hampton Court. The Council
later put the request before legal advisers, who replied at length. They
answered that even God (though He was fully acquainted with all the
circumstances) did not condemn Adam and Eve unheard. But as to Mary’s
non-recognition of a mortal judge, that was absurd. If she meant to be
heard, she tacitly acknowledged the jurisdiction: which is perfectly true.
A door must be open or shut. Thirdly, it was ridiculous to ask Elizabeth
to be present, but only as a spectator. Fourthly, it was no less absurd to
ask all the nobles to attend a trial which might be long, but they might
choose representatives, if Mary desired it, to appear when convenient.
Fifthly, it was ridiculous to demand the presence of ambassadors, who
would be neither prosecutors, defenders, judges, clerks, nor witnesses:
they could only be lookers-on, like other people. That the scene should be
London was reasonable, but it might be elsewhere.
There was this addition (_puis est adjouxté_), ‘We think this voluntary
offer’ (of Mary) ‘so important that, in our opinion, all her demands
should be granted, without prejudice or contravention to the Queen of
England, so that none may be able to say a word against the manner of
procedure.’[304]
To myself it appears that the majority of the civilians consulted returned
the reply which insists that Mary must be tried with acknowledgment of
jurisdiction, if she is to be heard at all, and that the addition,
declaring her demands just, is the conclusion of a minority. Mary wanted
the pomp and publicity of a great trial, which, after all, was to be a
mere appeal to public opinion. As Queen of Scots, she could not destroy
the fruits of Bannockburn and the wars of Independence, by acknowledging
an English sovereign as her Judge and Superior. She could not return to
the position of John Balliol under Edward I. She had been beguiled into
confiding her cause to Elizabeth, and this was the result.
On December 4, Mary’s men, without consulting her, made a fatal error.
Before seeing Elizabeth they met Leicester and Cecil, in a room apart, and
asked that Elizabeth should be informed of their readiness, even now, to
make a compromise, with surety to Moray and his party. Now Mary had
declared to Knollys that, if once Moray accused her publicly, they were
‘past all reconciliation.’ That was the only defensible position, yet her
Commissioners, perhaps with her approval, receded from it. Elizabeth
seized the opportunity. It was better, she said, and rightly, for her
sister’s honour, that Mary’s accusers should be charged with their
audacious defaming of their Queen, and punished for the same, unless they
could show ‘apparent just causes of such an attempt.’ In fact, Elizabeth
must see the Letters, or cause them to be seen by her nobles. She could
not admit Mary in person while, as at present, there seemed so little to
justify the need of her appearance--for the Letters had not yet been
shown. When they were shown, it would probably turn out, she said, that
Mary need not appear at all.
The unhappy Scottish Commissioners tried to repair a blunder, which
clearly arose from their undeniable want of confidence in their cause. The
proposal for a compromise, they said, was entirely their own. We remember
that, by Norfolk’s desire, Mary had already refused a compromise to which
she had once consented. She would probably, in the now existing
circumstances, have adhered to her resolution.[305]
On December 6, Moray and his party were at Westminster to produce their
proofs. But Lesley put in a protest that he must, in that case, withdraw.
The English Commissioners declared that, in this protest, Elizabeth’s
words of December 4 were misrepresented: her words (as to seeing Moray’s
proofs) having, in fact, been utterly ambiguous. She had first averred
that Moray must be punished if he should be unable to show some apparent
just causes ‘of such an attempt,’ and then, at a later stage of the
conversation, had ‘answered that she meant not to require any proofs.’ So
runs the report, annotated and endorsed by Cecil.[306] But now the Council
were sitting to receive the proofs which Elizabeth had first declared that
she would, and then that she would not ask for, while, after vowing that
she would not ask for them, she had said that she ‘would receive them for
her own satisfaction’!
The words of the protest by Mary’s Commissioners described all this, and
the production of proofs in Mary’s absence, as ‘a preposterous
order.’[307] No more preposterous proceedings were ever heard of in
history. The English Commissioners, seizing on the words ‘a preposterous
order,’ declined to receive the protest till it should be amended, and at
once called on Moray to produce his proofs. Moray then put in the ‘Book of
Articles,’ ‘containing certain conjectures,’ a long arraignment of Mary.
In the Lennox Papers is a shorter collection of ‘Probable and Infallyable
Conjectures,’ an early form of Buchanan’s ‘Detection.’ The ‘Book of
Articles’ occupies twenty-six closely printed pages, in Hosack, who first
published it, and is written in Scots.[308] The band for Bothwell’s
marriage is said to have been made at Holyrood, and Mary’s signature is
declared to have been appended later. This mysterious band seems to have
reached Cecil _unofficially_, and is marked ‘To this the Queen gave
consent the night before the marriage,’ May 14 (cf. p. 254). Nothing is
noted as to Darnley’s conduct in seeking to flee the realm in September,
1566, and this account is given of the well-known scene in which Mary, the
Council, and du Croc attempted to extract from him his grievances. ‘He was
rejected and rebuked opinlie in presence of diverse Lords then of her
previe counsale, quhill he was constrenit to return to Streviling.’
Though less inaccurate than the ‘Detection,’ the ‘Book of Articles’ is a
violent _ex parte_ harangue.
Moray also put in the Act of Parliament of December, 1567. The English
heard the ‘Book of Articles’ and the Act read aloud, on the night of
December 6. On the 7th,[309] Moray hoped that they were satisfied. They
declined to express an opinion. Moray retired with his company, and
returned bearing, at last, The Casket. Morton, on oath, declared that his
account of the finding of the Casket was true, and that the contents had
been kept unaltered. Then a contract of marriage, said to be in Mary’s
hand, and signed, but without date, was produced. The contract speaks of
Darnley’s death as a past event, but they ‘did suppose’ that the deed was
made _before_ the murder. They may have based this suspicion on Casket
Letter III. (or VIII.) which, as we shall show, fits into no _known_ part
of Mary’s relations with Bothwell. Another contract, said to be in
Huntly’s hand, and dated April 5, was next exhibited. Papers as to
Bothwell’s Trial were shown, and those for his divorce. The Glasgow Letter
I. (which in sequence of time ought to be II.) was displayed in French,
and then Letter II.[310] _Neither letter is stated to have been copied in
French from the French original_, and we have no copies of the original
French, which, however, certainly existed. Next day (December 8) Moray
produced seven other French writings ‘in the lyk Romain hand,’ which seven
writings, ‘_being copied_, weare red in Frenche, and a due collation made
thereof as neare as could be by reading and inspection, and made to accord
with the originals, which the said Erle of Murray required to be
redelivered, and did thereupon deliver the copies being collationd, the
tenours of which vii wrytinges hereafter follow in ordre, _the first being
in manner of a sonnett_, “O Dieux ayez de moy etc.”’ Apparently all the
sonnets here count as one piece, the other six papers being the Casket
Letters III.-VIII.
No French contemporary copies of Letters I. II. have been discovered, as
in the cases of III. IV. V. VI. It is notable that while the sonnets, and
Letters III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. are said to have been copied from the
French, this is not said of Letters I. and II. The English versions of I.
and II. have been collated with the French, whether in copies or the
originals. Perhaps no French copies of these have been found, because no
copies were ever made: the absence of the copies in French is deplorable.
The next things were the depositions (not the dying confessions, which
implicated some of the Lords) of Tala, Bowton, Powrie, and Dalgleish, and
other legal documents. It does not appear that Mary’s warrant for the
signing of the Ainslie band, though exhibited at York, was again
produced.[311] On the 9th the Commissioners read the Casket Papers ‘duly
translated into English.’ They had been translated throughout the night,
probably, and very ill translated they were, to judge by the extant
copies.[312] Several of the copies are endorsed _in Scots_. Lesley now put
in a revised and amended copy of his Protest of December 6. Morton put in
a written copy of his Declaration as to the finding of the Casket, and
swore to its truth.[313]
Morton’s tale is that, as he was dining with Lethington in Edinburgh, on
June 19, 1567, four days after Mary’s surrender at Carberry, ‘a certain
man’ secretly informed him that Hepburn, Parson of Auldhamstokes, John
Cockburn, brother of Mary’s adherent, Cockburn of Skirling, and George
Dalgleish, a valet of Bothwell’s (and witness, at his divorce, to his
adultery), had entered the Castle, then held by Sir James Balfour, who
probably betrayed them. Morton sent Archibald Douglas (the blackest
traitor of the age) and two other retainers to seize the men. Robert
Douglas, brother of Archibald, caught Dalgleish in the Potter Row, not far
from the Kirk o’ Field Gate, with charters of Bothwell’s lands. Being
carried before Morton, Dalgleish denied that he had any other charge: he
was detained, and, on June 20, placed in the Tolbooth. Being put into some
torture engine, he asked leave to go with Robert Douglas to the Potter
Row, where he revealed the Casket. It was carried to Morton at 8 o’clock
at night, and, next day, June 21, was broken open, ‘in presence of Atholl,
Mar, Glencairn, Morton, Home, Semple, Sanquhar, the Master of Graham,
Lethington, Tullibardine, and Archibald Douglas.’ The Letters were
inspected (_sichtit_) and delivered over to Morton, who had in no respect
altered, added to, or subtracted from them.
True or false, and it is probably true, the list of persons present adds
nothing to the credibility of Morton’s account. The Commissioners of Mary
had withdrawn; there could not be, and there was not, any
cross-examination of the men named in Morton’s list, as witnesses of the
opening of the Casket. Lethington alone, of these, was now present, if
indeed he appeared at this sitting, and _his_ emotions may be imagined!
The rest might learn, later, that they had been named, from Lethington,
after he joined Mary’s cause, but it is highly improbable that Lethington
wanted to stir this matter again, or gave any information to Home (who was
with him in the long siege of the Castle). Sanquhar and Tullibardine,
cited by Morton, signed the band for delivering Mary from Loch Leven; so
much effect had the ‘sichting’ of the Casket Letters on _them_. The story
of Morton is probably true, so far: certainly the Lords, about June 21,
got the Casket, whatever its contents then were. But that the contents
remained unadded to and unimpaired, and unaltered, is only attested by
Morton’s oath, and by the necessary silence of Lethington, who, of all
those at Westminster, alone was present at the ‘sichting,’ on June 21,
1567. But Lethington dared not speak, even if he dared to be present. If
any minute was made of the meeting of June 21, if any inventory of the
documents in the Casket was then compiled, Morton produced neither of
these indispensable corroborations at Westminster. His peril was perhaps
as great as Lethington’s, but he was of a different temperament.
The case of the Prosecution is full of examples of such unscientific
handling by the cautious Scots, as the omission of minutes of June 21.
Next, on December 9, a written statement by Darnley’s servant, Nelson, who
survived the explosion, was sworn to by the man himself. His evidence
chiefly bore on the possession of the Keys of Kirk o’ Field by Mary’s
servants, and her economy in using a door for a cover of the ‘bath-vat,’
and in removing a black velvet bed. We have dealt with it already (p.
133).
Next was put in Crawford’s deposition as to his conversations with Darnley
at Glasgow. This was intended to corroborate Letter II., but, as shall
later be shown, it produces the opposite effect.[314] At an unknown date,
Cecil received the Itinerary of Mary during the period under examination,
which is called ‘Cecil’s Journal,’ and is so drawn up as to destroy
Moray’s case, if we accept its chronology. We know not on what authority
it was compiled, but Lennox, on June 11, had asked his retainers to
ascertain some of the dates contained in this ‘Journal.’
On December 14[315] Elizabeth added Northumberland and Westmorland to her
Commissioners. They not long after rose in arms for Mary’s cause.
Shrewsbury, Huntingdon, Worcester, and Warwick also met, at Hampton Court.
They were to be made to understand the case, and were told to keep it
secret. Among the other documents, on December 14, the _originals_ of the
Casket Letters ‘being redd, were duly conferred and compared for the
manner of writing and fashion of orthography, with sundry other letters,
long time heretofore written and sent by the said Quene of Scots to the
Quene’s majesty. And next after, there was produced and redd a declaration
of the Erle of Morton of the manner of the finding of the said lettres, as
the same was exhibited upon his othe, the ix of December. In collation
whereof’ (of _what_?) ‘no difference was found. Of all which letters and
writings, the true copies are contained in the memorialls of the actes of
the sessions of the 7 and 8 of December.’ Apparently the ‘collation’ is
intended to refer to the comparison of the Casket Letters with those of
Mary to Elizabeth. Mr. Froude runs the collation into the sentence
preceding that about Morton, in one quotation.
The confessions of Tala, Bowton, and Dalgleish were also read, and, ‘as
night approached’ (about 3.30 P.M.), the proceedings ended.[316]
The whole voluminous proceedings at York and Westminster were read
through: the ‘Book of Articles’ seems to have been read, _after_ the
Casket Letters were read, but this was not the case. On a brief December
day, the Council had work enough, and yet Mr. Froude writes that the
Casket Letters ‘were examined long and minutely by each and every of the
Lords who were present.’[317] We hear of no other examination of the
handwriting than this: which, as every one can see, from the amount of
other work, and the brevity of daylight, must have been very rapid and
perfunctory.
There happens to be a recent case in which the reputation of a celebrated
lady depended on a question of handwriting. Madame Blavatsky was accused
of having forged the letters, from a mysterious being named Koot Hoomi,
which were wont to drift out of metetherial space into the common
atmosphere of drawing-rooms. A number of Koot Hoomi’s _later_ epistles,
with others by Madame Blavatsky, were submitted to Mr. Netherclift, the
expert, and to Mr. Sims of the British Museum. Neither expert thought that
Madame Blavatsky had written the letters attributed to Koot Hoomi. But Dr.
Richard Hodgson and Mrs. Sidgwick procured earlier letters by Koot Hoomi
and Madame Blavatsky. They found that, in 1878, and 1879, the letter _d_,
as written in English, occurred 210 times as against the German _d_, 805
times. But in Madame Blavatsky’s earlier hand the English _d_ occurred but
15 times, to 2,200 of the German _d_. The lady had, in this and other
respects, altered her writing, which therefore varied more and more from
the hand of Koot Hoomi. Mr. Netherclift and Mr. Sims yielded to this and
other proofs: and a cold world is fairly well convinced that Koot Hoomi
did not write his letters. They were written by Madame Blavatsky.[318]
The process of counting thousands of isolated characters, and comparing
them, was decidedly not undertaken in the hurried assembly on that short
winter day at Hampton Court, when the letters ‘were long and minutely
examined by each and every of the Lords who were present,’ as Mr. Froude
says. On the following day (December 15) the ‘Book of Articles’ was read
aloud; though the minute of December 14 would lead us to infer that it was
read on that day. The minute states that ‘there was produced a writing in
manner of Articles ... but, before these were read,’ the Casket Letters
were studied. One would imagine that the ‘Book of Articles’ was read on
the same day, after the Casket Letters had been perused. The deposition of
Powrie, the Casket contracts, and other papers followed, and then another
deposition of Crawford, which had been put in on December 13.
This deposition is in the Lennox MSS. in the long paper containing the
description of the mysterious impossible Letter, which Moray also
described, to de Silva. Crawford now swore that Bowton and Tala, ‘at the
hour of their death,’ confessed, to him, that Mary would never let
Bothwell rest till he slew Darnley. Oddly enough, even Buchanan, or
whoever gives the dying confessions of these men, in the ‘Detection,’ says
nothing about their special confession to Crawford.[319] The object of
Crawford’s account appears clearly from what the contemporaries, for
instance the ‘Diurnal,’ tell us about the public belief that the
confession ‘fell out in Mary’s favour.’
Hepburne, Daglace, Peuory, to John Hey, mad up the nesse,
Which fowre when they weare put to death the treason did confesse;
And sayd that Murray, Moreton to, with others of ther rowte
Were guyltie of the murder vyl though nowe they loke full stowte.
Yet some perchaunce doo thinke that I speake for affection heare,
Though I would so, thre thousan can hearin trew witness beare
Who present weare as well as I at thexecution tyme
& hard how these in conscience pricte confessed who did the cryme.[320]
A number of Acts and other public papers were then read; ‘the whole lying
altogether on the council table, were one after another showed, rather “by
hap” as they lay on the table than by any choice of their natures, as it
might had there been time.’ Mr. Henderson argues, as against Hosack,
Schiern, and Skelton, that this phrase applies only to the proceedings of
December 15, not to the examination of the Casket Letters. This seems more
probable, though it might be argued, from the prolepsis about reading the
‘Book of Articles’ on the 14th, that the minutes of both days were written
together, on the second day, and that the hugger-mugger described applies
to the work of both days. This is unimportant; every one must see that the
examination of handwriting was too hasty to be critical.
The assembled nobles were then told that Elizabeth did not think she
_could_ let Mary ‘come into her presence,’ while unpurged of all these
horrible crimes. The Earls all agreed that her Majesty’s delicacy of
feeling, ‘as the case now did stand,’ was worthy of her, and so ended the
farce.[321]