Interview between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

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An interview between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots was planned to take place at Nottingham in England in September 1562. Despite diplomatic negotiation and detailed planning the meeting did not take place. There would have been theatrical entertainments celebrating the amity of England and Scotland. [1]

Contents

Background

There had been plans for Mary's father James V and Henry VIII to meet at York in 1541. Scotland was traditionally allied with France and remained a Catholic country while there had been a Protestant Reformation in England. The breakdown of arrangements for the York meeting was claimed to have led to the battles of Haddon Rig and Solway Moss in 1542. [2]

Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to Scotland from France in August 1561. [3] Elizabeth I was preoccupied with the terms of the 1560 treaty of Edinburgh, and sent Peter Meutas to ask for Mary's ratification. Issues about the treaty and its implications for the English succession might have been settled following a meeting in person. [4] Mary told the English diplomat Thomas Randolph that she would like to meet Elizabeth I, saying that "above all other things, I do desire to see and speak with her". By January 1562, a meeting of the two Queens regularly features in diplomatic correspondence. [5]

Preliminary discussions for a meeting of Mary and Elizabeth in 1562 included an exchange of diamond rings. [6] Mary sent verses with her gift, [7] and the English bishop John Jewel sent copies to his friend Henry Bullinger. The Bishop was sceptical of Mary's diplomatic overtures and the plans for a meeting of the two queens, and attributed Mary's part in the initiative to her uncle François, Duke of Guise. Bishop Jewel also sent the verses to Josias Simmler, commenting on Mary's statecraft with a quotation, "He who knows not how to dissemble, knows not how to govern". [8]

In Edinburgh, Thomas Randolph canvassed opinions about "th'intrevew" or "solemn meeting". He heard that the meeting might "repair the dishonour" of James V not coming to York with new "affiance and trust". Mary's secretary William Maitland of Lethington made arrangements in London and brought Elizabeth's picture, possibly a portrait miniature, to Mary at Dunfermline Palace or Holyroodhouse in July 1562. [9]

1562

Nottingham Castle would have been the venue for the 1562 meeting of queens Nottingham Castle Gate 2009.jpg
Nottingham Castle would have been the venue for the 1562 meeting of queens
Elizabeth would wait for Mary at the Archbishop's Palace at Southwell Archbishop's Palace ruins, Southwell - geograph.org.uk - 6591951.jpg
Elizabeth would wait for Mary at the Archbishop's Palace at Southwell

In April 1562, Thomas Randolph wrote about Mary's plans for the interview with Elizabeth. He thought the Scottish party would be dressed in black cloth, to suit Mary's wearing of mourning clothes and also save money. [10] Mary asked the Privy Council to support her interview plans on 19 May. [11] At the end of May, Mary invited the Hepburn or Cockburn Laird of Ormistoun, the Earl of Cassilis, and others to come the borders for the meeting of the queens. They were instructed that her "whole train will be clad in dule, therefore address you and such as will be in your company in like sort". [12]

The French ambassador in London Paul de Foix made a memorandum detailing plans for the interview between Mary and Elizabeth. He had discussed the plans with William Maitland, who was finalising details at Greenwich Palace. De Foix's secretary was sent to show Charles IX of France the schedule of events. The Earls of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lord Arundel would meet Mary at Berwick-upon-Tweed. The meeting would have been at Nottingham, and Elizabeth would have awaited Mary's arrival at the Bishop's Palace at Southwell. [13]

Articles for the interview were agreed by Maitland and William Cecil, setting a date for the meeting between 20 August and 20 September 1562. [14]

Masque at Nottingham Castle

Entertainments involving masques were to be held at Nottingham Castle on three successive evenings. [15] The hall of the castle would serve as a prison named Extreme Oblivion, kept by Argus or Circumspection. [16]

Performers would enter on pageant floats or riding artificial animals. A figure representing Peace on a chariot drawn by Friendship riding an elephant would be accompanied by 6 or 8 "ladyes maskers" in the hall of the castle. Pallas Athena would ride a unicorn, carrying a banner showing two clasped hands. Two crowned ladies would ride on lions, the porters of the Castle of Plenty who represented Temperantia and Prudencia and the realms of Scotland and England. On the third night the plans of Disdain and Malice would be frustrated by Temperantia and Prudencia who displayed a shield inscribed "Ever" and a sword inscribed "Never" from the battlements of the castle or a pasteboard Court of Plenty. Discretion was to lay the shield and sword at the feet of the two Queens. [17]

Some building works were performed at the castle in preparation. The surveyor of the Queen's works, John Revell, and a team of craftsmen spent two or more weeks on site. [18]

Cancelled

On 4 July 1562, the English Privy Council sent instructions to the Sheriff of Nottingham to prepare for the meeting of the Queens on 3 September. [19] A "safe conduct" or passport document for Mary was prepared on 8 July. [20] William Cecil and some members of the Privy Council were lukewarm about the event. [21] The English party first suggested a later date in York and then cancelled the interview, citing the religious conflict in France since the massacre of Vassy as their motivation. [22]

On 15 July, Henry Sidney was sent to Edinburgh to make excuses. [23] Sidney reported that Mary wept, showing her grief "not only in words but in countenance and watery eyes". [24] She then travelled to Aberdeen and Inverness Castle instead. [25] [26] In the north of Scotland, Mary took measures against the Earl of Huntly and the Gordon family. Huntly had opposed her plans for the interview, and in Edinburgh, John Gordon had fought with a member of her household James Ogilvie of Cardell. [27]

In England, at Hampton Court, Elizabeth had an attack of smallpox in October 1562. [28] Her illness heightened concerns about the succession and Mary's intentions. [29]

A performance at Elizabeth's court at Whitehall Palace in June 1572, The Masque of Discord of Peace, seems to have had some similarities to the entertainment planned for the 1562 meeting. [30]

In fiction

Fictional meetings between Mary and Elizabeth occur in novels and films, sometimes, as in Mary Queen of Scots (2018) and the opera Maria Stuarda , after Mary's flight to England in 1568. [31]

References

  1. ↑ Tracey Sowerby, "A Memorial and a Pledge of Faith: Portraiture and Early Modern Diplomatic Culture", English Historical Review, 129:537 (April 2014), p. 311: Sarah Carpenter, "Performing Diplomacies: The 1560s Court Entertainments of Mary Queen of Scots", Scottish Historical Review, 82:2 no. 214 (2003), pp. 209–211.
  2. ↑ David Potter, Henry VIII and Francis I: The Final Conflict, 1540–47 (Brill, 2011), pp. 89–90: Jenny Wormald, Mary, Queen of Scots: Politics, Passion and a Kingdom Lost (Tauris Parke, 2001), p. 47: Jamie Cameron, James V (Tuckwell, 1998), p. 131: Denys Hay, Letters of James V (Edinburgh, 1954), p. 320: Thomas P. Campbell, Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty, Tapestries at the Tudor Court (Yale, 2007), p. 261.
  3. ↑ A. A. MacDonald, 'Mary Stewart's Entry to Edinburgh: an Ambiguous Triumph', Innes Review, 42:2 (Autumn 1991), pp. 101–110: A. R. MacDonald, 'The Triumph of Protestantism: the burgh council of Edinburgh and the entry of Mary Queen of Scots', Innes Review, 48:1 (Spring 1997), pp. 73–82.
  4. ↑ Conyers Read, Mr. Secretary Cecil And Queen Elizabeth (New York, 1961), p. 229: David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), pp. 68–71.
  5. ↑ Conyers Read, Mr. Secretary Cecil And Queen Elizabeth (New York, 1961), pp. 235–238: Thomas Finlayson Henderson, Mary Queen of Scots, 1 (London, 1905), p. 209: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1547-1563, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 576 no. 1049, 585 no. 1058.
  6. ↑ Thomas Finlayson Henderson, Mary Queen of Scots, 1 (London, 1905), p. 215: John Guy, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (Fourth Estate, 2009), p. 159: Calendar State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, p. 202: Ada Jane Evelyn Arbuthnot, Queen Mary's Book: A Collection of Poems and Essays (Bell, 1907), p. 174.
  7. ↑ Morna R. Fleming, "An Unequal Correspondence", Sarah M. Dunningan, C. Marie Harker, Evelyn S. Newlyn, Women and the Feminine in Medieval and Early Modern Scottish Writing (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 107-9: Kate McClune, 'New Year and the Giving of Advice at the Stewart Court', Steven J. Reid, Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Boydell, 2024), 206: British Library Cotton Caligula B.IX (2), f.284: Anna Groundwater, 'Tracing Royal Stewart Jewels in the Archives', Decoding the Jewels (Sidestone, 2024), pp. 172–75: Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots (Phoenix Press, 2002), p. 206.
  8. ↑ J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth (London: Jonathan Cape, 1934), p. 112: Frank Arthur Mumby, Elizabeth and Mary Stuart: The Beginning of the Feud (London, 1914), p. 238: Hastings Robinson, Zurich Letters, 1 (Cambridge, 1842), pp. 114–115, 120, and in Latin pp. 68, 71, Jewel attributed the quotation to Louis XI.
  9. ↑ Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1547-1563, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 607–608 no. 1083, 639 no. 1125.
  10. ↑ Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 621 no. 1096.
  11. ↑ John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 206.
  12. ↑ Thomas Wright, Queen Elizabeth and her times, 1 (London, 1838), p. 98.
  13. ↑ Alexandre Teulet, Papiers d'État Relatifs à l'Histoire de l'Écosse, 2 (Paris: Plon, Bannatyne Club, 1852), pp. 24-30: John Guy, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (Fourth Estate, 2009), p. 159.
  14. ↑ Allan White, "Queen Mary's Northern Province", Michael Lynch, Mary Stewart, Queen in Three Kingdoms (Basil Blackwell, 1988), p. 59: Samuel Haynes, Collection of State Papers (London: Bowyer, 1740), pp. 388–390.
  15. ↑ E. K. Chambers and W. W. Greg, "Dramatic Records from the Lansdowne Manuscripts", Malone Society Collections, 2 (1908), pp. 144-148
  16. ↑ Katherine Butler, Music in Elizabethan Court Politics (Boydell, 2015), p. 91: Herbert Arthur Evans, English Masques (London, 1897), p. xxiii.
  17. ↑ Sarah Carpenter, "Performing Diplomacies: The 1560s Court Entertainments of Mary Queen of Scots", Scottish Historical Review, 82:2 no. 214 (2003), p. 209: Joseph Stevenson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1863), pp. lxxx–lxxxii.
  18. ↑ Howard Colvin, The History of the King's Works 1485-1660, 3 part 1 (HMSO, 1963), pp. 63, 284–285.
  19. ↑ John R. Dasent, Acts of the Privy Council of England, 7 (London: HMSO, 1893), pp. 110, 114.
  20. ↑ Samuel Haynes, Collection of State Papers, p. 390.
  21. ↑ Stephen Alford, The Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British Succession Crisis (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 90–97.
  22. ↑ John Guy, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (Fourth Estate, 2009), pp. 160–161: Sarah Carpenter, "Performing Diplomacies: The 1560s Court Entertainments of Mary Queen of Scots", Scottish Historical Review, 82:2 no. 214 (2003), p. 209: J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth (London: Jonathan Cape, 1934), p. 117.
  23. ↑ Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury, 1 (London, 1883), p. 267: Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 14, p. 182.
  24. ↑ Thomas Finlayson Henderson, Mary Queen of Scots, 1 (London, 1905), p. 218: David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), 74: Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Elizabeth, 5 (London, 1867), 182: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1547-1563, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 635, 641 no. 1147, 646–647.
  25. ↑ Jenny Wormald, Mary, Queen of Scots: Politics, Passion and a Kingdom Lost (Tauris Parke, 2001), p. 125: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 631 no. 1111, 640 no. 1126, 651 no. 1138: HMC 5th Report: Marquis of Ailsa, p. 615.
  26. ↑ Edward Furgol, "The Scottish itinerary of Mary Queen of Scots, 1542–8 and 1561–8", PSAS, 117 (1988), p. 224, a supplement gives Mary's itinerary
  27. ↑ Allan White, "Queen Mary's Northern Province", Michael Lynch, Mary Stewart, Queen in Three Kingdoms (Basil Blackwell, 1988), pp. 59–60.
  28. ↑ Donald Hopkins, The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History (University of Chicago, 2002), pp. 1–3: Simon Adams, Ian Archer, George W. Bernard, "A Journall of Matters of State", Religion, Politics, and Society in Sixteenth-Century England (Cambridge: Camden Society, 2003) p. 120: Haynes, Collection of State Papers, p. 773.
  29. ↑ Simon Adams, "The Release of Lord Darnley", Michael Lynch, Mary Stewart, Queen in Three Kingdoms (Basil Blackwell, 1988), p. 59–60.
  30. ↑ Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, British Drama 1533–1642, 2 (Oxford, 2012), pp. 78–81.
  31. ↑ Kate Williams, "Why Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots never met", BBC History Extra
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