Trial of Mary, Queen of Scots Began - Oct. 14, 1586

The trial of Mary, Queen of Scots began on this day in 1586.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff
Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff you
Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore
the past one day at a time with a quick
look at what happened today in history. Hello and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and it's October.

(00:21):
The trial of Mary, Queen of Scott's began on this
day in fifteen eighties six. So that's Mary, Queen of Scott's,
also known as Mary Stewart, infamous for a series of
ill fated marriages and a really turbulent rule over Scotland
and her rivalry with her cousin, Queen Elizabeth the First.
There was so much to this rivalry. There was political power,
ongoing tensions between Scotland and England in general, and religion.

(00:45):
Elizabeth was Protestant and Mary was Catholic. In fifteen sixty five,
the first of a series of events happened that led
to Mary's downfall. She married her cousin, Henry Stewart, Earl
of Darnley. This was just not good match and as
she was considering how or whether she could get out
of it, Darnley was strangled to death while trying to

(01:07):
escape the house where he had been staying, which had
blown up. Mary remarried James Hepburn, the fourth Earl of Bothwell,
a few months later after he had abducted her. He
was also the lead suspect and the death of Lord Darnley,
but was later acquitted. Then, in fifteen sixty seven, Mary's

(01:28):
new husband was exiled and imprisoned, and he died the
following year. Mary was forced to abdicate in favor of
her son, James, who was still a baby. She was
held captive for a time, but fled to England, hoping
to take refuge with her cousin Elizabeth in spite of
their very long rivalry. Instead, though Elizabeth imprisoned her in

(01:50):
a series of English castles for more than eighteen years. Then,
in fifteen eighty six, Mary was implicated in the Babington plot,
which was named for its ringleader, Anthony Babington. This was
a plot to free Mary from her imprisonment and to
assassinate Elizabeth. Ciphered letters were being smuggled in and out

(02:13):
of where Mary was being held, but these letters were
intercepted and decoded. English authorities actually knew about this plot
for a while before making any moves to arrest anyone,
because they had enough information to convict some of the
co conspirators, but they really wanted to make sure they
had enough information to also convict Mary. They finally intercepted

(02:34):
a letter from her that said quote, when all is ready,
the six gentlemen must be set to work, and you
will provide that on their design being accomplished, I may
be myself rescued from this place. This, of course, was
ready as her approval for this plot that was being
hatched against the Queen. Babington and twelve co conspirators were captured, tried,

(02:57):
and hanged, and then Mary was put on trial for
two days. She was ultimately found guilty. During this trial
and even before, Mary argued that she was not a
subject of Queen Elizabeth. She could not commit treason against
a queen that she was not a subject of. She
also argued that she just wasn't subject to English jurisdiction

(03:18):
she was the Queen of Scotland. She also said that
the evidence that was being used against her had been forged,
but none of this was to any avail. It did
take Elizabeth months to sign the death warrant for her
cousin Mary, but ultimately Mary was beheaded in the Great
Hall of Fathering, Gay Castle on February eight of fifty seven.

(03:41):
Her son James did eventually become the King of England,
though he ascended to the throne after the death of
Queen Elizabeth the First. Thanks to Terry Harrison for her
audio work on this podcast, and you can subscribe to
This Day in History class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts
and wherever else that you get your podcasts, and you
can tune in tomorrow. I know we just had an execution,

(04:02):
but we're going to have another execution. H