The Tragedy of Fotheringay: Founded on the journal of D. Bourgoing, physician to Mary Queen of Scots, and on unpublished ms. documentsMaxwell-Scott, Mary Monica
General
The Tragedy of Fotheringay: Founded on the journal of D. Bourgoing, physician to Mary Queen of Scots, and on unpublished ms. documents
Maxwell-Scott, Mary Monica
Mary, Queen of Scots, 1542-1587 -- Death and burial
And because I fear the secret tyrany of some of those into
whose power you have abandoned me, I beg you not to permit
me to be executed without your knowledge--not from fear of
the pain, which I am ready to suffer, but on account of
the rumours which would be spread concerning my death if
it were not seen by reliable witnesses; how it was done,
I am persuaded, in the case of others of different rank.
It is for this reason that in another place I require that
my attendants remain to be spectators and witnesses of my
end in the faith of my Saviour, and in the obedience of
His Church, and that afterwards they shall all together
withdraw quickly, taking my body with them as secretly as
you wish, and so that the furniture and other things which
I may be able to leave them in dying, be not taken from
them, which will be, indeed, a very small reward for their
good services. Would you wish me to return a jewel which
you gave me to you with my last words, or would it please
you to receive it sooner? I implore of you anew to permit
me to send a jewel and a last adieu to my son, together
with my blessing, of which he has been deprived, owing to
what you informed me of his refusal to enter into a treaty
in which I was included,--by the unhappy advice of whom?
This last point I leave to your conscience and favourable
consideration. For the others, I demand of you, in the name
of Jesus Christ, and in consideration of our relationship,
in remembrance of King Henry VII., your [great]grandfather
and mine, and in honour of the dignity we have both held,
and of our common sex, that my request be granted.
For the rest, I think you will have certainly heard that
they pulled down my dais, by your order, as they said, and
that afterwards they told me that it was not done by your
command, but by that of some of the council. I praise God
that such cruelty, which could only show malice and afflict
me after I had made up my mind to die, came not from you. I
fear it has been like this in many other things, and that
this is the reason why they would not permit me to write to
you until they had, as far as they could, taken from me all
external mark of dignity and power, telling me I was simply
a dead woman, stripped of all dignity.
God be praised for all. I wish that all my papers, without
any exception, had been shown to you, so that it might have
been seen that it was not only the care of your safety
which animated all those who are so prompt in persuing me.
If you grant me this my last request, give orders that I
shall see what you write regarding it, as otherwise they
will make me believe what they like; and I desire to know
your final reply to my final request.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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