Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

[2] Initially hoping her cousin Elizabeth I of England would help her regain her throne, Mary instead was imprisoned for the murder of her English-born husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley though she was found neither guilty nor acquitted of the charge.

She was concerned that the killing of a queen set a discreditable precedent and was fearful of the consequences, especially if, in retaliation, Mary's son, James, formed an alliance with the Catholic powers and invaded England.

[14] James VI instructed his diplomats, William Keith of Delny, the Master of Gray, and Robert Melville, to try to stay his mother's execution.

[29] She was blindfolded by Kennedy with a white veil embroidered in gold, knelt down on the cushion in front of the block on which she positioned her head, and stretched out her arms.

At that moment, the auburn tresses in his hand turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground, revealing that Mary had very short, grey hair.

[32] Cecil's nephew, who was present at the execution, reported to his uncle that after her death, "Her lips stirred up and down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off",[30] and that a small dog owned by the queen emerged from hiding among her skirts.

[34] Items supposedly worn or carried by Mary at her execution are of doubtful provenance;[35] contemporary accounts state that all her clothing, the block, and everything touched by her blood was burnt in the fireplace of the Great Hall to obstruct relic hunters.

[33] When the news of the execution reached Elizabeth, she became indignant and asserted that William Davison had disobeyed her instructions not to part with the warrant and that the Privy Council had acted without her authority.

[36] Elizabeth's vacillation and deliberately vague instructions gave her plausible deniability to attempt to avoid the direct stain of Mary's blood.

[43] The procession from the Palace to the church was led by 100 or 120 poor women in black cloth gowns and white Holland linen head dresses (called "kerchers"), provided by John Fortescue.

[45] Ten women from Mary's household followed, wearing hoods with black taffeta at the front and white veils at the back in the French fashion.

[51] Richard Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough, read the funeral service where Mary was buried, and then the broken rods of her officers were placed in the grave.

[52] In August 1603, following the Union of the Crowns and his English coronation, Mary's son James VI and I sent William Dethick to Peterborough with an embroidered velvet pall for his mother's grave.

[56] By order of Royal warrant, dated 28 September 1612, Mary's body was exhumed and brought to London and reinterred at Westminster Abbey on 11 October 1612.