Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/393

Mary Stuart had acted without her instigation, and promised to reward him with a pension (, iii. 354) ; but to Moray's widow, whom she threatened with her direst vengeance unless the royal jewels were delivered up, she affirmed that the murder had been done 'agains our will,' and would not have been done 'if we micht have stopped the same' (letters in Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. i. 636-8).

Meanwhile the Norfolk marriage scheme was still persisted in, and as a preliminary to a further conspiracy a papal bull was obtained dissolving the marriage to Bothwell, on the ground of the rape previously committed (Norris, 29 Nov., Cal. State Fapers, For. Ser. 1569-71, entry 1412). In May 1570 Mary was transferred to Chatsworth, and ' here, in September, Elizabeth, chiefly with a view to relieve her immediate difficulties with France and Spain, commenced negotiations which probably were never meant seriously, and were finally broken off in April. On 28 Nov. Mary was removed to : Shrewsbury's home at Sheffield. The Ridolfi conspiracy [see Baillie, Charles], with which the Norfolk marriage scheme was conjoined, terminated in the execution of Norfolk on Tower Hill, 2 June 1572. The houses of parliament memorialised Elizabeth that Mary should share his fate. To this, more from prudence than generosity, Elizabeth demurred, but on the receipt of the news of the massacre of St. Bartholomew on 24 Aug. she endeavoured to entice the Scots into assuming the responsibility of disposing of her, the scheme being only frustrated by Morton's firmness in requiring that Elizabeth should at least commit herself to approval of the deed. From the time of the French massacre Mary was for five months guarded with special care, and kept in close confinement in her room ; but when the overthrow of her cause was assured, by the surrender of Edinburgh Castle, 29 May 1573, she was allowed as much liberty as was compatible with her detention.

Mary's remaining years were spent in scheming for her liberation. Her plans might have been more successful had they been more consistent. By her readiness to make terms either with Elizabeth or the catholics she only succeeded in effectually alienating both. In the midst of her efforts to conciliate the goodwill of Elizabeth by specimens of her needlework and other presents, and to secure the friendship of Leicester and Cecil, she was discovered in communication with the pope and Philip for a conquest of England, to be followed by her marriage to Don John of Austria, a preliminary being the capture of the young prince, her son, who was to be placed in Philip's keeping (, iv. 845). Should she die before her purposes were achieved, her rights in England or elsewhere were to pass to the catholic king unless her son should be brought back to the catholic fold (ib. pp. 354-5). The execution of Morton, 2 June 1581, through the intrigues of Esm6 Stuart, created Duke of Lennox, led to a revival of catholic hopes, and to a plot for an invasion under the Duke of Guise, which was suspended by the raid of Ruthven, 22 Aug. 1582, and the expulsion of Lennox from Scotland. On learning that her son was in the hands of the protestant nobles Mary wrote a passionate letter to Elizabeth protesting that she now looked for no other kingdom than that of heaven, and beseeching that she might be allowed to leave England and retire to some place of rest where she might prepare her soul for God (ib. v. 318-38) : but the worth of these professions was subsequently shown by the confessions of Throckmorton, revealing her superintendence of all the details of the resumed project for the invasion of England. In the autumn of 1583 Mary became aware of the scandalous assertion by the Countess of Shrewsbury of a criminal intrigue between her and Shrewsbury. As a consequence of them Mary was on 25 Aug. transferred from the care of Shrewsbury to that of Sir Ralph Sadler, and on 3 Sept. she was removed from Sheffield to Wingfield. Lady Shrewsbury was then in the Tower, and Shrewsbury, in an interview with Elizabeth after resigning his charge of Mary, sincerely thanked Elizabeth for having freed him from two devils, his wife and the Queen of Scots (Teflet, v. 345). In a letter to Mauvissiere, 18 Oct., Mary expressed her determination, unless the calumnies were withdrawn, to make known to all the princes of Christendom the stories which Lady Shrewsbury had told her about Elizabeth (, vi. 36-42), and in November penned to Elizabeth the extraordinary letter in which she recited with scarce concealed gusto every minutest item of Lady Shrewsbury's nauseous narrative (ib. pp. 51-7). It has been doubted whether Elizabeth received the letter, and it may have been intercepted by Cecil. Subsequently the council obtained from Lady Shrewsbury and her daughters a denial of the truth of the rumours of criminal intercourse between Shrewsbury and Mary. In the autumn of 1584 the Master of Gray [see, sixth ] also began his negotiations for a defensive league between England and Scotland, in connection with which James VI, at the instance of Gray, repudiated any desire to include his