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

34:37floor of these state rooms, there is what was called a presence chamber, which is a room where the monarch, if she arrives, you know, the throne can be placed there, and she can keep state, and all the people around can come and uh pay their respects to her. And 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

35:01not there, but it feels like she is, because her empty throne presides over the whole trial. It's positioned beneath uh a great cloth of state emblazoned with her royal arms, and so it dominates the proceedings. Mary's judges, they are sitting around a table that's placed in the center of the room. And then around that table, there are three benches, and one of them is facing the kind of the

35:32empty throne at the opposite end of the room. And the other two are set at right angles to it, so kind of framing the space in which the table had been set. Essentially, it does the throne, and then there are kind of benches um at right angles to the throne, and a bench at the far end of the room. And on these three benches are sat the

35:50commissioners who've been appointed by Elizabeth to the trial. So these are the privy councilors and assorted kind of supplementary peers, so barons and viscounts and earls. The leading figures in the state. Walsingham is there, obviously. Um so too is Sir Christopher Hatton, um Elizabeth's great favorite, the uh the sponsor of of of Drake on his circumnavigation of the globe. But there's no question who is the guy in ultimate charge of the

36:16proceedings, and this is William Cecil, Lord Burghley, because this is the moment he has been waiting for. This is the moment that he has been working towards for many decades, long before even Mary Queen of Scots had sought refuge in England. His great aim has been to bring Mary Queen of Scots down right from the very beginning. >> To bring her to justice, you might say. But of course, does she have a place at

36:44this trial at all? Because she's a queen. She's not a subject, and she's not a subject of Elizabeth the the first. You know, she's she's not even English. So, is this Is it actually legal? I guess that's the question. >> Well, that's the point she makes. And she said, "I should betray the dignity and majesty of kings. And it would be tantamount to a confession that I am

37:05bound to submit to the laws of England." >> Well, she's got a Scottish accent now. >> Well, she she had a very pretty Scottish accent. Um it's it's the it's the report. So, she she's pretty obdurate. I'm not you know, it's a bit like her grandson Charles the first when he gets put on trial at the end of the English Civil War. You know, he refuses to

37:21recognize the court, and this is basically Mary's strategy. And this is infuriating for Burghley. And so, he leads um a succession of delegations to try and persuade her otherwise. But she just seems completely obdurate, and she tells Burghley very memorable terms, "Look to your consciences, and remember that the theater of the whole world is wider than the kingdom of England." But the guy who ultimately is able to