[Footnote 67: Foreign Calendar, March 31st, 1561.] [Footnote 68: Foreign Calendar, 20th August, 1563.] [Footnote 69: Sir James Melville's _Memoirs_, pp. 116-130 (Bannatyne Club).] [Footnote 70: Laing's _Knox_, vi, p. 541.] [Footnote 71: Laing's _Knox_, vol. ii, p. 513. Melville's _Memoirs_, p. 134.] [Footnote 72: Foreign Calendar, July-December, 1565.] [Footnote 73: The evidence for the scandal which associated Mary's name with that of Rizzio will be found in Mr. Hay Fleming's _Mary, Queen of Scots_, pp. 398-401. It is very far indeed from being conclusive.] [Footnote 74: Foreign Calendar, March, 1566.] [Footnote 75: Mary to Elizabeth, July, 1566. Keith's History, ii, p. 442.] [Footnote 76: It is almost certain that Darnley was murdered before the explosion.] [Footnote 77: Mary's defenders point out that her 25th birthday fell in November, 1567, and that it was necessary to prevent her from taking any steps for the restitution of Church land; and they look on the plot as devised by Bothwell and the other nobles, the latter aiming at using Bothwell as a tool to ruin Mary. On the question of the Casket Letters, see Mr. Lang's _Mystery of Mary Stuart_.] [Footnote 78: Keith's History, ii, pp. 736-739.] [Footnote 79: In forming any moral judgment with regard to Elizabeth's conduct towards Mary, it must be remembered that Mary fled to England trusting to the English Queen's invitation.] CHAPTER IX THE UNION OF THE CROWNS 1568-1625 When Mary fled to England, Elizabeth refused to see her, on the ground that she ought first to clear herself from the suspicion of guilt in connection with the murder of Darnley. In the end, Mary agreed that the case should be submitted to the judgment of a commission appointed by Elizabeth, and she appeared as prosecuting Moray and his friends as rebels and traitors. They defended themselves by bringing accusations against Mary, and produced the Casket Letters and other documents in support of their assertions. Mary asked to be brought face to face with her accusers; Elizabeth thought the claim "very reasonable", and refused it. Mary then asked for copies of the letters produced as evidence against her, and when her request was pressed upon Elizabeth's notice by La Mothe Fenelon, the French ambassador, he was informed that Elizabeth's feelings had been hurt by Mary's accusing her of partiality.[80] Mary's commissioners then withdrew, and Elizabeth closed the case, with the oracular decision that, "nothing has been adduced against the Earl of Moray and his adherents, as yet, that may impair their honour or allegiances; and, on the other part, there has been nothing sufficiently produced nor shown by them against the queen, their sovereign, whereby the Queen of England should conceive or take any evil opinion of the queen, her good sister, for anything yet seen". So Elizabeth's "good sister" was subjected to a rigorous imprisonment, and