Mary, Queen of Scots' captivity in England 'like a John Le Carré spy novel'
Mary, Queen of Scots became a natural at the “black art of subterfuge” during her captivity in England as the state unleashed a full force campaign against her, according to a new book on the doomed monarch.
As she stepped onto a fishing boat that waited in a tiny cove on the Solway Firth, Mary, Queen of Scots - with her shorn auburn hair, plain dress and panic in her heart - set sail on the worst decision of her life.
As she sought sanctuary in England and the help of her cousin, Elizabeth I, following her forced abdication from the Scottish throne, she set the route to her long captivity of 19 years and, ultimately, her death.
Now, a new book Exile, The Captive Years of Mary Queen of Scots, by Rosemary Goring, tracks the doomed queen through England during her confinement, from her first night at Workington Hall in Cumbria in 1568 to her last at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. Each location drew Mary further from the Border and any hope of her release and return to Scotland as Elizabeth I and her advisers kept the threat to English rule and of a broader Catholic rebellion at bay.
As she is held in England and moved from castle to castle and keeper to keeper, Mary, to the writer’s discovery, becomes more “interesting” as the depths of her character are exposed.
Mary evolves from the “headstrong and open-hearted” monarch who enjoyed hunting and all-night dancing at the Palace of Holyroodhouse to a calculating and cunning figure who “formidably” played the forces of the English state as they mounted a “campaign of undercover espionage unrivalled until the Cold War”, Goring said.
The author said: “When we think of the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, I think we all think that the really exciting years were when she was in Scotland where she was living this very gung-ho life, out on horseback at the head of her army, with lots of murderous treacherours plots all around her.
“But when she comes to England, the story strangely enough gets more interesting.
“I liken it to a John le Carré novel , like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It is all about deceit, deception, the letters, the hidden channels of communication, playing one person off against another - all within the walls of her very gilded cages.
“For me, that becomes absolutely riveting. You see the power of the English state secret service working against Mary. And there she is, keeping up her own end towards the great finale of her life.”
Mary, as she set sail on the Solway Firth looking for help, never fully assessed the threat she posed to Elizabeth I or the country at large. Devout Catholics believed she had a stronger claim to the English throne than Elizabeth, given her grandfather James IV was married to Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII.
This direct line of succession compared to Elizabeth the “usurper”, who was the only child of Henry by his second wife Anne Boleyn, whose marriage took place following Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and not recognised by the Catholic church.
While Mary felt hopeful that Elizabeth I, as a cousin and fellow queen, would aid her, Goring described Mary’s decision to go to England as “the most terrible mistake of her life”. Heading to France, where she was Dowager Queen and had an income and famiy support, would have been perhaps been the obvious choice.
Despite initial warm words between Elizabeth and Mary - and the suggestion that Mary would be returned to Scotland if her innocence in the plot to kill her second husband Lord Darnley was proven - Elizabeth and her advisors quickly poured their energies into containing the exile.
Goring said: “From that point, Mary became a much more thoughtful personality and, actually, even though she could be quite Machiavellian, my respect for her is absolutely enormous given the way she coped with the conditions of her captivity,
“She often goes for months without any contact with the outside world or knowing what was happening with her son James VI while believing, misguidedly, that he was on her side.”
As her captivity and isolation deepened, Mary showed herself a “natural when it came to the black arts of subterfuge and dissemblance”. She spent much of her time at her desk writing letters and petitioning diplomats and potential allies, both at home and abroad.
She became immersed in cryptology to an “unhealthy degree”, with some believing that her obsession with secret communications and its methods hastened her death.
As part of her research, Goring was given one of 57 recently discovered coded letters written by Mary during her captivity in England to unravel. The correspondence, which was believed to have been lost, was found in the National Library of France in Paris by a group of cryptographers.
The letters date from 1578 to 1584 and chart the mindset of an increasingly desperate queen. They include the details of her role in the 1583 Throckmorton Plot, which planned for a French invasion of England, the assassination of Elizabeth I and the arrival of Mary, Queen of Scots on the English throne.
Goring said; “Mary was not just aware of the Throckmorton Plot, but offered money to her Guise relatives in France to help them be part of this plot. So she was completely complicit in that as well as many other machinations as she tried to be part of the incredibly complicated European politics of the time.”
After the Throckmorton Plot, Mary was returned to Tutbury Castle, a place of “soaring curtain walls and solid towers, the definition of a prison”. This was the fourth time she had been held captive there.
By spring 1585, Mary was devastated. Her son James VI, now ruling Scotland in his own right, dismissed an ongoing notion presented by his mother that they could jointly head the country. Mary turned in earnest to plot against Elizabeth as her only route of escape.
When Anthony Babington proposed the “dispatch” of the “usurper” by six noble gentlemen, Mary listened and then acted.
Mary wrote the ‘Gallows Letter’ on July 17, 1586, authorising the plot and making recommendations. Fatefully, she agreed to Elizabeth’s assassination: ‘sett the six gentlemen to work’. The letter was intercepted in a beer barrel, decoded and used to seal her execution on February 8, 1587.
Goring said: "The people of Scotland were outraged and, particularly in the Borders, there was talk of marching into England and confronting the English for what they had done.
“They felt there had been a terrible deed committed. That shows, at a popular level, people’s interest in her had never diminished or died.”
Almost 440 years after her death, the same can also be said as Mary continues to surprise and enlighten.
Exile, The Captive Years of Mary Queen of Scots by Rosemary Goring, published by Birlinn, is available now priced £20.
Goring will appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival with authors Jade Scott and Kate Anderson on Wednesday, August 20.
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