Chartley Castle

Chartley Castle lies in ruins to the north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in Staffordshire, between Stafford and Uttoxeter (grid reference SK010285).

[6] When Chartley Manor belonged to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex it became one of the last places of imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Her jailor Amias Paulet came from Tutbury Castle to view the manor in September 1585 and saw the house was just big enough to accommodate both his and the queen's households, "somewhat straitly."

[8] Paulet prepared to move the queen the twelve miles from Tutbury before Christmas 1585, and decided to avoid going through the busy market town of Uttoxeter.

Acting on the Babington Plot, Mary was arrested on 11 August 1586 while out riding and hunting with a crossbow, with her secretaries Claude Nau and Gilbert Curle, Bastian Pagez, her doctor Dominique Bourgoing and others.

[11] Claude Nau, Gilbert Curle, and the cipher clerk Jérôme Pasquier were arrested and questioned about Mary's involvement in the Babington Plot.