Video · 2026-08-13 · 1h 7m · 6 moments

Did Mary Queen of Scots Really Have To Die? | Elizabeth I vs The Catholics (Part 5)

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Claim◆

Mary Queen of Scots explicitly approved the assassination of Elizabeth I in a letter intercepted by Walsingham's agents.

Sir Francis Walsingham intercepted a coded letter from Mary to Anthony Babington in which she gave her approval to a plot involving six gentlemen who would assassinate Elizabeth and facilitate an armed uprising and foreign invasion.

transcript

Tom Holland: And for the first time, in writing, Mary appears to have approved the assassination of Queen Elizabeth. >> The affairs being thus prepared, and forces in readiness both without and within the realm, then shall it be time to set the six gentlemen to work, taking order that on the accomplishing of their design, I may be suddenly transported out of this place, and that all your forces in the same time be on the field to meet me, as we await the arrival of the foreign aid, which then must be hastened with all diligence. >> So, that is an extract from one of the most consequential letters in all British history. It was written on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots, brought up, educated in France, hence the accent. And it was written actually by one of her secretaries, and it was written on the evening of the 17th of July, 1586... what Mary's doing there, Tom, she's giving the green light, isn't she, to something that has been mooted for so many years. The operation to overthrow her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England, and take the throne herself. >> Yes, and um it is projected that um this will be combined with an armed uprising in England itself... 'Then shall it be time to set the six gentlemen to work.' In other words, get the assassination squad out there. Let them kill Elizabeth.

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Mechanism

Elizabeth refused to execute Mary because she did not want to set a precedent of killing an anointed queen, which would threaten the divine authority of monarchy itself.

Elizabeth's reluctance to execute Mary stemmed from both foreign policy concerns about provoking Spain and a deeper fear that killing another anointed queen would damage the concept of royal divinity that legitimized her own rule.

transcript

Tom Holland: Elizabeth's opposition to having Mary executed goes beyond mere foreign policy concerns. She sees it as a threat to her own authority because Mary, like Elizabeth, is an anointed queen. And Elizabeth doesn't want to license anything that might impair the sense her subjects have of the divinity that hedges a king, as Shakespeare would put it. And obviously, if you're anxious to maintain the sense of dignity that surrounds an anointed monarch, then chopping off her head is not the way to maintain it.

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Mechanism◆

Walsingham orchestrated an elaborate sting operation using Gilbert Gifford and a beer barrel to intercept Mary's correspondence with Babington.

Walsingham turned Gilbert Gifford, Mary's courier, and used a scheme involving waterproof containers hidden in beer barrels to read all correspondence between Mary and Babington before delivering it to its intended recipients.

transcript

Tom Holland: Gifford has gone to um the local brewer who um supplies Chartley Manor with its beer. And Gifford's plan is to put letters for Mary into a kind of a waterproof receptacle or a beer-proof receptacle perhaps you might say, and then to insert this receptacle through the bung hole of the beer barrel. And then the beer barrel will be taken by the brewer to Chartley Manor. When it arrives there, the message can be retrieved through the bung hole by Mary's butler who can then take the correspondence to Mary's secretaries and they can then pass it on to Mary herself. And then should Mary want to reply to anything, the whole procedure can operate in reverse... Gilbert Gifford, so that's the young seminarian who'd been recruited by Mary's agents in Paris to serve as a courier, he too has been recruited by Walsingham. Walsingham has turned him.

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Claim

Thomas Phelippes, Walsingham's codebreaker, intercepted and deciphered Mary's letter, marking it with a gallows drawing as the 'bloody letter' that would condemn her.

Thomas Phelippes, Walsingham's master cryptanalyst, intercepted Mary's letter to Babington, deciphered its contents including the reference to the six assassins, and sent a copy to Walsingham marked with a gallows illustration.

transcript

Tom Holland: He deciphers Mary's letter. There is the reference to the six gentlemen. He writes it up, makes a copy um in English, which he then sends to Walsingham, and on the copy of the letter that he sends to Walsingham, he inscribes it with a drawing of a gallows, but he might as well have drawn a chopping block and an axe, and he describes it as the bloody letter because this Phelippes feels is the letter that is going to doom Mary Queen of Scots, who of course has no idea what has happened.

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Context

The trial of Mary Queen of Scots was effectively a show trial, with Elizabeth's empty throne presiding and Mary surrounded entirely by enemies.

Mary's trial at Fotheringhay Castle was dominated by Elizabeth's empty throne, with William Cecil and Walsingham leading proceedings; Mary had no lawyer and was surrounded by hostile commissioners who had spent decades working to destroy her.

transcript

Tom Holland: It's in this presence chamber on the 14th of October, 1586, that the trial of Mary Queen of Scots opens. And Elizabeth herself is not there, but it feels like she is, because her empty throne presides over the whole trial... Mary's judges, they are sitting around a table that's placed in the center of the room... there's no question who is the guy in ultimate charge of the proceedings, and this is William Cecil, Lord Burghley, because this is the moment he has been waiting for... Mary does not have a lawyer with her. She doesn't have a kind of barrister who is speaking on her behalf, and instead she is completely surrounded by enemies.

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Claim

Elizabeth wanted Mary killed privately but her officials refused to act without legal authority, so Burghley maneuvered behind Elizabeth's back to send the death warrant to Fotheringhay.

Despite signing the death warrant, Elizabeth hoped someone would privately kill Mary; when her jailer Paulet refused to murder without legal authority, Burghley gathered Privy Councilors and sent the warrant to Fotheringhay against Elizabeth's wishes.

transcript

Tom Holland: Does she want her kind of eliminated privately? And yes, that is absolutely what Elizabeth wants... She has Walsingham write a letter to Paulet... 'found out some way to shorten the life of that queen' in other words, Mary, 'do it.' And Paulet... replies to the Queen, 'God forbid that I should make so foul a shipwreck of my conscience, or leave so great a blot to my poor posterity to shed blood without law or warrant.'... Burghley now has the death warrant... he just thinks, 'Come on, let's crack on.' And so, he has a little sort of cabal, doesn't he? He gets some of the privy councilors to his house, and they agree, 'Yep, we're going to do this.' And they send the warrant to Fotheringhay.

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Highlight slides

Mary's Letter: The Green Light for Assassination✦ from: Mary Queen of Scots explicitly approved the assassination of Elizabeth I in a letter intercepted by Walsingham's agents.The Plot: A Three-Part Conspiracy✦ from: Mary Queen of Scots explicitly approved the assassination of Elizabeth I in a letter intercepted by Walsingham's agents.The Beer Barrel Sting✦ from: Walsingham orchestrated an elaborate sting operation using Gilbert Gifford and a beer barrel to intercept Mary's correspondence with Babington.Mechanism of the Intercept✦ from: Walsingham orchestrated an elaborate sting operation using Gilbert Gifford and a beer barrel to intercept Mary's correspondence with Babington.

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Video · The Rest Is History

Mary Queen of Scots explicitly approved the assassination of Elizabeth I in a letter intercepted by Walsingham's agents.

Elizabeth refused to execute Mary because she did not want to set a precedent of killing an anointed queen, which would threaten the divine authority of monarchy itself.

Walsingham orchestrated an elaborate sting operation using Gilbert Gifford and a beer barrel to intercept Mary's correspondence with Babington.

Thomas Phelippes, Walsingham's codebreaker, intercepted and deciphered Mary's letter, marking it with a gallows drawing as the 'bloody letter' that would condemn her.

The trial of Mary Queen of Scots was effectively a show trial, with Elizabeth's empty throne presiding and Mary surrounded entirely by enemies.

Elizabeth wanted Mary killed privately but her officials refused to act without legal authority, so Burghley maneuvered behind Elizabeth's back to send the death warrant to Fotheringhay.

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