The Last Days of Mary Stuart, and the journal of Bourgoyne her physicianCowan, Samuel
History
The Last Days of Mary Stuart, and the journal of Bourgoyne her physician
Cowan, Samuel
Mary, Queen of Scots, 1542-1587 -- Death and burial
In the first place, I declare that I die in the Catholic Apostolic and
Romish faith. First, I desire that a complete service be performed
for my soul in the Church of St. Denis in France, and another in St.
Peter's at Rheims, where all my servants are to attend in such manner
as they may be ordered to do by those to whom I have given directions
and who are named therein. Further, that an annual obit be founded for
prayers for my soul in perpetuity in such place and after such manner
as shall be deemed most convenient. To furnish funds for this I will
that my houses at Fontainebleau be sold, hoping that the King will
render me assistance, as I have requested him to do in my memorandum. I
will that my estate of Trespagny be kept by my cousin de Guise for one
of his daughters, if she should come to be married. In these quarters
I relinquish half of the arrears due to me, or a part, on condition
that the others be paid, in order to be expended by my executors in
perpetual alms. To carry this into effect the better, the documents
shall be looked out and delivered according to the assignment for
accomplishing this. I will also that the money which may arise from
my lawsuit with Secondat, be distributed as follows:—First, in the
discharge of my debts and orders hereafter mentioned and which are not
yet paid: in the first place, the 2000 crowns to Curle, which I desire
to be paid without any hesitation, they being a marriage portion,
upon which neither Nau nor any other person has any claim, whatever
obligation he may hold, inasmuch as it is only fictitious, and the
money is mine, and not borrowed, which since I did but show him, and
afterwards withdrew it; and it was taken from me with the rest at
Chartley; the which I give him, provided he can recover it agreeably
to my promise in payment of the four thousand francs as promised at
my death, one thousand as a marriage portion for an own sister, and
he having asked me for the rest for his expenses in prison. As to the
payment of a similar sum to Nau it is not obligatory, and therefore
it has always been my intention that it should be paid last, and then
only in case he should make it appear that he has not acted contrary
to the conditions upon which I gave it him, and to which my servants
were witnesses. As regards the 1200 crowns which he has placed to my
account as having been borrowed by him for my use—600 of Beauregard,
300 from Jervis, and the remainder from I know not whom, he must repay
them out of his own money, and I must be quit and my order annulled,
as I have not received any part of it, consequently it must be still
in his possession, unless he has paid it away. Be this as it may, it
is necessary that this sum should revert to me, I having received
nothing; and in case it has not been paid away, I must have recourse
to his property. I further direct that Pasquier shall account for the
moneys that he has expended and received by order of Nau, from the
hands of the servants of Mons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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