The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots - 08 February 1587
- thedudleywomen
- Feb 8
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 15
On 08 February 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle, after being found guilty of high treason.
In 1568, following her forced abdication from the Scottish throne in 1567, Mary sought refuge in England, after being implicated in the murder of her second husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. However, she had been held in captivity since this time, spending fifteen years in the custody of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, and his wife Elizabeth 'Bess of Hardwick', from 1569 until 1585, at their various homes, including Wingfield Manor and Chatsworth (Fraser, 2010; Guy, 2019).
There had been multiple Catholic plots surrounding and involving the Scottish queen during her years in English captivity, relating to plans to remove Elizabeth I from the English throne and replace her with the Catholic monarch. In response to this, security around Mary was tightened, and she was moved out from the supervision of the Talbots, and to Chartley Manor, the childhood home of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (Weir, 2008, Guy, 2019).
Mary had been arrested in August 1586, following a further Catholic plot, 'The Babington Plot' being intercepted, being accused of approving the plot set out by ringleader Anthony Babington in plotting to assassinate Elizabeth. Cyphered letters sent between Babington and Mary, within Chartley Manor, were unknowingly intercepted by Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's 'Spymaster', which were later used as evidence to implicate her in the plot. Babington and his co-conspirators were executed, by hanging, drawing and quartering, in September 1586, following their own convictions of high treason following a three-day trial held at Westminster Hall (Williams, 2018; Folgerpedia, 2025).
Following her arrest, Mary was subsequently moved to Fotheringhay Castle, a medieval castle in Northamptonshire, in September 1586, where she subsequently underwent a trial in October 1586. The trial was held in the Great Hall at Fotheringhay, and began on 15 October; here, she was 'examined' by representatives from the English Crown, which included the Earl of Shrewsbury and Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, recently appointed Lord President of Wales and husband of Lady Mary Sidney. Despite the evidence presented to the commissioners present, Mary repeatedly denied the charges that were put to her (Fraser, 2010; Williams, 2018).
Following the conclusion of the trial, the Crown's representatives returned to London, where they presented their evidence to Elizabeth I and Parliament at a Star Chamber hearing on 25 October. After further examination of the evidence, Mary was found guilty of high treason, by means of "‘compassing and imagining since June 1st matters tending to the death and destruction of the Queen of England", and subsequently sentenced to death (Williams, 2018, p. 328).
Elizabeth did not act immediately following the conviction, attempting to encourage a 'confession' from Mary, in an attempt to save her kinswoman's life, as well as being aware of potential retaliatory action from Catholic allies abroad, England having been engaged in conflict with Catholic Spain since 1585. However, after ongoing pressures from her privy councillors, including her 'favourite' Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth finally signed Mary's execution warrant on 01 February 1587. On 03 February, her Secretary of State William Cecil, Baron Burghley, made arrangements, without the queen's knowledge, for the execution to proceed, with members of the Privy Council, including Robert Dudley (as 'R. Leycester') and his father-in-law Sir Francis Knollys, one of Mary's first custodians at Carlisle Castle in 1568, signing a document in support of the warrant being executed. (Weir, 1999).
Mary herself was informed of her planned death on the evening of 07 February, when officials started to gather at Fotheringhay, and to where the warrant had been forwarded. Later that evening, Mary composed a letter to her former brother-in-law, King Henri III of France, which would be her last. In the letter, written in French, Mary informed Henri that she had been informed of her planned execution shortly after dinner earlier that evening, and that it was due to take place at eight o'clock the following morning. Mary complained that she had not been given the opportunity to 'make her will freely', which included her wish for her body to be taken to France after her death "where I had the honour to be your queen, your sister and old ally". Mary also alleged that she had been denied access to her personal chaplain, and in accordance with her Catholic beliefs, had been unable to undertake confession and the 'Last Sacrament' - these being the final prayers and Eucharist (Holy Communion) offered to a person, required to prepare the soul after death. Mary completed her letter "This Wednesday, two hours after midnight", and signed off "your very loving and most true sister, Mary R" (National Library of Scotland, 2025).
The morning of 08 February 1587, the scheduled day of her execution, Mary woke around 6 o'clock in the morning; after making final arrangements and saying final goodbyes to her women and attendants, including handing over her will, Mary took herself to the castle's oratory where she prayed alone. It was a couple of hours later, between 8 and 9 o'clock, when she was broken from her prayers, and summoned from her rooms to the Great Hall (Fraser, 2010).
A scaffold had been erected in the middle of Great Hall, the same location where her trial had taken place five months previously; the hall and the platform had been draped in black cloth, and a. block placed on the platform. The Earl of Shrewsbury was one of the English peers present at her execution, with a stool set up for him on the stage; his eldest surviving son and heir Gilbert, Lord Talbot was also one of the 300 present in the hall that morning (Williams, 2018). Once on the scaffold, and her execution warrant was read aloud, Bishop Richard Fletcher, the Protestant Dean of nearby Peterborough Cathedral attempted to perform her last rites; Mary however defiantly rejected this, affirming her Catholic beliefs until her last moments, wearing a crucifix and rosary at the time of her death (Fraser, 2010).
Having been adorned in a favoured outfit, comprising of a black satin dress embroidered with black velvet, topped with a white peaked headpiece and matching veil, Mary was then undressed with the assistance of her gentlewomen; she was left standing in a red petticoat and satin bodice, "the colour of blood, and the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic Church" (Fraser, 2010, p.221). Mary reportedly kept her composure throughout, her female attendants audibly showing their distress. Janet Kennedy, one of her long-time companions during her time in captivity, tied a white cloth around Mary's eyes and head, covering her auburn hair. After placing her head on the block, Mary was subsequently executed by beheading, multiple strokes being required by the axeman to decapitate the condemned Scottish queen. Once his task was complete, the executioner held Mary's head aloft; unexpectedly Mary had worn a wig for her execution, and once held up, separated from the skull, leading it to drop shockingly to the floor. Her bloodied, decapitated body continued to lay on the scaffold, until it was further stripped of clothing and belongings by the executioners, with these also being burned (Fraser, 2010; Williams, 2018).
Lord Talbot rode from Fotheringhay to Greenwich, with the intent of providing details of Mary's execution in person to Elizabeth, arriving the following day on 09 February. Elizabeth met news of the execution with great distress and anger, initially imprisoning her personal secretary William Davison in the Tower of London, in response to the Privy Council actioning the signed death warrant. She disputed his account of events, alleging that her intent was never for Davison to pass the warrant on to the council, until she gave him permission to do so. However, in contrast to Elizabeth's despair, news of Mary's execution was greeted by London's population with great celebration: church bells peeled, guns fired, bonfires lit, and feasts held for the following week (Weir, 1999; Fraser, 2010).
The afternoon following her death, Mary was disembowelled, with her entrails, including her heart secretly buried within the castle grounds. Her body was then embalmed, wrapped in a used woollen cloth, and placed within a lead coffin ready for burial. Mary's coffin remained at Fotheringhay until the evening of 30 July 1587, when it was transported the 11 miles north-east to Peterborough Cathedral where it had been decided that she would be buried, contrary to her requests to be buried in France, arriving just after 2 o'clock in the morning (Fraser, 2010; National Library of Scotland, 2025). A Protestant funeral, conducted in English, was held the following day on 01 August 1587, overseen by Bishop Fletcher. The Protestant Bishop spoke to the gathered congregation addressed Mary's perceived faults, including murder and adultery. The service was attended by many members of the Earl of Shrewsbury's family, with Bridget Hussey, Dowager Countess of Bedford acting as Chief Mourner and representative of Elizabeth. Following the ceremony, her coffin was interred in a vault in the south aisle of the Cathedral (Fraser, 2010; Williams, 2018).
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