11 - Celebrated Crimes - Mary Stuart by Alexandre Dumas

Celebrated Crimes is a unique series of historical narratives by a young, rising Alexandre Dumas, before he became renowned as the author of DArtagnan or Monte Cristo. The third volume focuses on the tumultuous life and tragic end of Mary Queen of Scots. Dumas meticulously delves into the controversial aspects of her reign, yet maintains a sympathetic perspective towards her. Remembered for her strong ties to France through education and marriage, Marys fate has been a subject of unending debate, especially in light of the role Elizabeth played in her downfall.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of Celebrated Crimes, Volume three by Alexander Dumah,
translated by George Burnham, ives this LibriVox recordings in the
public domain. Chapter ten, two hours after the execution for
the body in the head, were taken into the same
hall in which Mary Stewart had appeared before the commissioners,
set down on a table round which the judges had

(00:21):
sat and covered over with a black serge cloth, and
there remained till three o'clock in the afternoon when Waters,
the doctor from Stamford, and the surgeon from Fatheringay Village,
came to open and embalm them, an operation which they
carried out under the eyes of Amyas Poulet and his soldiers,
without any respect for the rank and sex of the
poor corpse, which was thus exposed to the view of

(00:43):
any one who wanted to see it. It is true
that this indignity did not fulfill its proposed aim, for
a rumor spread about that the queen had swollen limbs
and was a dropsical, while on the contrary, there was
not one of these spectators, but was obliged to confess
that he had never seen the body of a young
girl in the bloom of health purer and lovelier than
that of Mary Stuart, dead of a violent death after

(01:05):
nineteen years of suffering and captivity. When the body was opened,
the spleen was in its normal state, with the veins
a little livid, only the lungs yellowish in places, and
the brain one sickth larger than is usual in persons
of the same age and sex. Thus everything promised a
long life to her, whose end had just been so
cruelly hastened. A report having been made of the above,

(01:28):
the body was embalmed, after a fashion, put in a
leaden coffin, and that in another of wood, which was
left on the table till the first day of August,
that is for nearly five months before anyone was allowed
to come near it. And not only that, but the English,
having noticed that Mary Stuart's unhappy servants, who were still
detained as prisoners, went to look at it through the keyhole,
stopped that up in such a way that they could

(01:50):
not even gaze at the coffin, enclosing the body of her,
whom they had so greatly loved. However, one hour after
Mary Stuart's death, Henry Talbot, who had been present at it,
set out at full speed for London, carrying to Elizabeth
the account of her rival's death. But at the very
first lines she read, Elizabeth, true to her character, cried
out in grief and indignation, saying that her orders had

(02:12):
been misunderstood, that there had been too great haste, and
that all this was the fault of Davison, the Secretary
of State, to whom she had given the warrant to
keep till she had made up her mind, but not
a cent of fathering Gay. Accordingly, Davison was sent to
the tower and condemned to pay a fine of ten
thousand pounds sterling for having deceived the Queen. Meanwhile, amid

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all this grief and embargo was laid down all vessels
in all the ports of the realm, so that the
news of the death should not reach abroad, especially France,
except through skillful emissaries who could place the execution in
the least unfavorable light for Elizabeth. At the same time,
the scandalous popular festivities which had marked the announcement of
the sentence, again celebrated the tidings of the execution. London

(02:57):
was illuminated bonfires, and thee enthusiasm was such that the
French embassy was broken into and would taken to revive
the fires when they began to die down. Crestfallen at
this event, Monsieur de Chateauneuf was still shut up at
the embassy when a fortnight later he received an invitation
from Elizabeth to visit her at the country house of
the Archbishop of Canterbury. Monsieur de Chateauneuf went thither with

(03:20):
the firm resolve to say no word to her on
what had happened. But as soon as she saw him, Elizabeth,
dressed in black rose, went to him, and, overwhelming him
with kind attentions, told him that she was ready to
place all the strength of her kingdom at Henry the
Third's disposal to help him put down the league. Chateauneuf
received all these offers with a cold and severe expression,

(03:41):
without saying, as he had promised himself, a single word
about the event which had put both the Queen and
himself into mourning. But taking him by the hand, she
drew him aside, and there with deep sighs, said.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Ah, sir, since I saw you, the greatest misfortune which
could befall me has happened. I mean the death of
my good sister, the Queen of Scotland, of which I
swear by God himself, my soul and my salvation, that
I am perfectly innocent. I had signed the order, it
is true, but my counselors have played me a trick
for which I cannot calm myself. And I swear to

(04:15):
God that if it were not for their long service,
I would have them beheaded.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
I have a woman's frame, sir, But in this woman's
frame beats a man's heart. Chateaunauf bowed without a response,
But his letter to Henry the third, and Henry's answer
proved that neither the one nor the other was the
dupe of this female Tiberius. Meanwhile, as we have said,
the unfortunate servants were prisoners, and the poor body was

(04:40):
in that great hall waiting for a royal internment. Things remained.
Thus Elizabeth said to give her time to order a
splendid funeral for her good sister Mary. But in reality,
because the Queen dared not place in juxtaposition the secret
and infamous death and the public and royal burial, then
was not time needed for the first reports, which it
pleased Elizabeth to spread to be credited, but for the

(05:02):
truth should be known by the mouths of the servants.
For the Queen hoped that once this careless world had
made up its mind about the death of the Queen
of Scots, it would not take any further trouble to
change it. Finally, it was only when the warders were
as tired as the prisoners, that Elizabeth, having received the
report stating that the ill embalmed body could no longer
be kept, at last ordered the funeral to take place accordingly.

(05:26):
After the first of August, tailors and dressmakers arrived at
Fatheringay Castle, sent by Elizabeth with cloth and black silk
stuffs to clothe in mourning all Mary's servants, but they refused,
not having waited for the Queen of England's bounty, but
having made their funeral garments at their own expense immediately
after their mistress's death. The tailors and dressmakers, however, nonetheless

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set so actively to work that on the seventh everything
was finished. Next day, at eight o'clock in the evening,
a large chariot drawn by four horses, in mourning trappings
and covered with black velvet. Like the chariot which was
beside tides adorned with little streamers, on which were embroidered
the arms of Scotland, those of the Queen, and the
arms of Aragon those of Darnley. Stopped at the gate
of fathering Gay Castle. It was followed by the Herald King,

(06:11):
accompanied by twenty gentlemen on horseback with their servants and lackeys,
all dressed in mourning, who, having alighted, mounted with his
whole train into the room where the body lay, and
had it brought down and put into the chariot with
all possible respect, each of the spectators standing with bared
head and in profound silence. This visit caused a great
stir among the prisoners, who debated a while whether they

(06:32):
ought not to implore the favor of being allowed to
follow their mistress's body, which they could not and should
not let go alone. Thus, but just as they were
about to ask permission to speak to the Herald King,
he entered the room where they were assembled, and told
them that he was charged by his mistress, the August
Queen of England, to give the Queen of Scotland the
most honorable funeral he could, that, not wishing to fail
in such a high undertaking, he had already made most

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of the preparations for the ceremony, which was to take
place on the tenth of August, that is to say,
two days later, but that the leaden shell on which
the body was enclosed, being very heavy, it was better
to move it beforehand and that night to where the
grave was dug, than to await the day of the
internment itself. That thus they might be easy, this burial
of the shell being only a preparatory ceremony, but that

(07:17):
if some of them would like to accompany the corpse
to see what was done with it, they were at liberty,
and that those who stayed behind could follow the funeral
pageant Elizabeth's positive desire being that all from first to
last should be present in the funeral procession. This assurance
calmed the unfortunate prisoners who deputed Bourgoyne, Gervais and six
others to follow their mistress's body. These were Andrew Melville,

(07:38):
Stuart Gorjon, Howard Laudet, and Nicolay de Lamar. At ten
o'clock at night, they set out, walking behind the chariot,
preceded by the herald, accompanied by men on foot who
carried torches to light the way, and followed by twenty
gentlemen and their servants in this manner. At two o'clock
in the morning they reached Peterborough, where there is a
splendid cathedral built by an ancient Saxon can king, and

(08:00):
in which on the left of the choir was already
interred good Queen Catherine of Aragon, wife of Henry the eighth,
and where was her tomb still decked with a canopy
bearing her arms. On arriving they found the cathedral all
hung with black, with a dome erected in the middle
of the choir, much in the way in which a
chappelle adand is set up in France, except that there

(08:21):
were no lighted candles round it. This dome was covered
with black velvet and overlaid with the arms of Scotland
and Aragon, with streamers like those on the chariot, yet
again repeated. The state coffin was already set up under
this dome. It was a bier covered like the rest
in black velvet, fringed with silver, on which was a
pillow of the same supporting a royal crown. To the

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right of this dome, and in front of the burial
place of Queen Catherine of Aragon, Mary of Scotland's sepulcher
had been dug. It was a grave of brick, arranged
to be covered later with a slab or a marble tomb,
and in which was to be deposited the coffin which
the Bishop of Peterborough, in his episcopal robes but without
his mitter cross or cope, was awaiting at the door,

(09:01):
accompanied by his dean and several other clergy. The body
was brought into the cathedral without chant or prayer, and
was let down into the tomb amid a profound silence.
Directly it was placed there, the Masons, who stayed their hands,
set to work again, closing the grave level with the floor,
and only leaving an opening of about a foot and
a half through which could be seen what was within,

(09:21):
and through which could be thrown on the coffin, as
is customary at the obsequies of kings, the broken staves
of the officers and the ensigns and banners with their arms.
This nocturnal ceremony ended Melville, Bourjoyne and the other deputies
were taken to the bishop's palace, where the persons appointed
to take part in the funeral possession were to assemble
in number more than three hundred fifty, all chosen, with

(09:44):
the exception of the servants, from among the authorities, the
nobility and Protestant clergy. The day following Thursday, August ninth,
they began to hang the banqueting halls with rich and
sumptuous stuffs, and that in the sight of Melville, Boorjoyne
and the others whom they had brought thither less to
be present at the interment of Queen Mary than to
bear witness to the magnificence of Queen Elizabeth. But as

(10:06):
one may suppose, the unhappy prisoners were indifferent to this splendor.
Great and extraordinary as it was. On Friday, August tenth,
all the chosen persons assembled at the bishop's palace. They
ranged themselves in the appointed order, and turned their steps
to the cathedral, which was close by. When they arrived there,
they took the places assigned them in the choir, and
the choristers immediately began to chant a funeral service in English,

(10:29):
and according to Protestant rites, at the first words of
this service, when he saw it was not conducted by
Catholic priests, Bourjoyne left the cathedral, declaring that he would
not be present at such sacrilege, and he was followed
by all Mary's servants, men and women, except Melville and
a barb Mowbray, who thought that whatever the tongue in
which one prayed, that tongue was heard by the lord.

(10:49):
This exit created a great scandal, but the bishop preached
none the less. The sermon ended, the Herald King went
to seek Bourjoyne and his companions, who were walking in
the cloisters, and told them that the almsgiving was about
to begin, inviting them to take part in this ceremony,
but they replied that, being Catholics, they could not make
offerings at an altar of which they disapproved. So the
Herald King returned, much put out at the harmony of

(11:12):
the assembly, being disturbed by this descent, But the alms
offering took place no less than the sermon. Then, as
a last attempt, he sent to them again to tell
them that the service was quite over, and that accordingly
they might return for the royal ceremonies, which belonged only
to the religion of the dead, And this time they consented,
But when they arrived, the staves were broken and the
banners thrown into the grave through the opening that the

(11:33):
workmen had already closed. Then, in the same order in
which it had come, the procession returned to the palace,
where a splendid funeral repast had been prepared. By a
strange contradiction, Elizabeth, who having punished the living woman as
a criminal, had just treated the dead woman as a queen,
had also wished that the honors of the funeral banquet
should be for the servants so long forgotten by her.

(11:54):
But as one can imagine, these ill accommodated themselves to
that intention, did not seem astonished at this luxury, nor
rejoiced at this good cheer, but on the contrary, drowned
their bread and wine and tears, without otherwise responding to
the questions put to them, where the honors granted them.
And as soon as the repast was ended, the poor
servants left Peterborough and took the road back to Fatheringay,

(12:15):
where they heard that they were free at last to withdraw.
Whether they would, they did not need to be told twice,
for they lived in perpetual fear, not considering their lives
safe so long as they remained in England. They therefore
immediately collected all their belongings, each taking his own, and
thus went out of fathering a castle on foot. Monday,
thirteenth August fifteen eighty seven, Bourgeoyne went last, Having reached

(12:36):
the farther side of the drawbridge, he turned and Christian,
as he was unable to forgive Elizabeth, not for his
own sufferings, but for his mistresses. He faced about to
those regisicide walls, and with hands outstretched to them, said,
in a loud and threatening voice, these words of David,
let vengeance for the blood of thy servants which has
been shed, O, Lord God, be accepted in thy sight.

(13:01):
The old man's curse was heard. An inflexible history is
burdened with Elizabeth's punishment. We said that the executioner's acts
in striking Mary Stuart's head had caused the crucifix and
the Book of Hours, which she was holding the fly
from her hands. We also said that the two relics
had been picked up by people in her following. We
are not aware of what became of the crucifix, but

(13:21):
the Book of Ours is in the Royal Library, where
the curious about these kinds of historical souvenirs can see it.
Two certificates inscribed on one of the blank leaves of
the volume demonstrate its authenticity. These are they first certificate, We,
the undersigned Vicar Superior of the Strict Observance of the
Order of Clooney, certify that this book has been entrusted

(13:43):
to us by order of the defunct Dame at Michel Nardin,
a professed religious priest of our said observance, deceased in
our college of Saint Martial of avignon March twenty eighth,
seventeen twenty three, aged about eighty years, of which he
has spent about thirty among us, having lived very religiously.
He was a German by birth and had served as
an officer in the army a long time. He entered

(14:04):
Clooney and made his profession there. Much detached from all
this world's goods and honors, he only kept, with his
superior's permission, this book, which he knew had been in
use with Mary Stuart, Queen of England and Scotland to
the end of her life. Before dying and being parted
from his brethren, He requested that to be safely remitted
to us, it should be sent us by mail sealed,

(14:26):
just as we have received it. We have begged Monsieur
Le Bey Bignon, Counselor of State and King's Librarian, to
accept this precious relic of the piety of a Queen
of England and of a German officer of her religion,
as well as of ours, Signed brother Gerard Ponseil Vicar
General Superior, second certificate, We, Jean Paul beyond King's Library,

(14:49):
are very happy to have an opportunity of exhibiting our
zeal in placing the said manuscript in his Majesty's library.
Eighth July seventeen twenty four, Signed Jean Paul Beignon. This
manuscript on which was fixed the Last Gaze of the
Queen of Scotland, is a Deui decimo written in the
Gothic character in containing Latin prayers. It is adorned with

(15:10):
miniatures set off with gold, representing devotional subjects, stories from
sacred history or from the lives of saints and martyrs.
Every page is encircled with arabesques, mingled with garlands of
fruit and flowers, amid which spring up grotesque figures of
men and animals. As to the binding worn now or
perhaps even then to the wolf. It is in a
black velvet, of which the flat covers are adorned in

(15:32):
the center with an enameled pansy in a silver setting,
surrounded by a wreath, to which are diagonally attached from
one corner of the cover to the other. Two twisted
silver gilt and knotted cords, finished by a tuft at
the two ends. End of chapter ten. End of Celebrated Crimes,
Volume three, Mary Stuart by Alexandre Duma, translated by George Burnham,

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Ives recording by John Vanstan Savannah, Georgia