The Creation of a Friendship and the Downfall of a Queen: The Letters of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots | Sophia Aiello

By Sophia Aiello

In our current age of instantaneous mass communication, it is important to revisit and consider the significance of a very different form of communication, the letter. By its nature and structure, the letter provides an opportunity to capture and exchange reflections and a means for argument and appeal. Letters provide historians with insights into personality, relationships and outcomes that are unlikely to appear in other forms of communication. To grasp the significance of letter writing and specific letters it is important to place them within their political, social, political and cultural context. This is particularly the case for the letters exchanged between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Historians are attracted to these letters for a number of diverse reasons. This article will focus on the relationship revealed in the letters between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England. These monarchs are of such interest because of their unusual position, as two female monarchs ruling at the same time, who appear to have had a very personable relationship despite never meeting. The letters are also of interest as first person narratives written by members of a unique community of royal women leaders facing death and asking for mercy.

The letters provide insight into the different personalities of the cousins and their respective positions as two Queens Regents living on the same island with a claim to the same throne. The way in which they wrote to each other, especially their choice of language and words reflects the different and evolving approaches these two women employed in seeking to control their changing circumstances. They show evidence of the shift in the Queens’ attitudes to each other from youthful rivalry and sisterly solidarity to profound confrontation at the end. Without the letters’ primary evidence, historians would have only the testimony of those who knew Mary and Elizabeth and not the actual words of the Queens.

Their correspondence began when Elizabeth referred to Mary politely in the first peace treaty of 1559 signed between France and Scotland. This treaty asserted that Mary was not queen of England. In declaring that Mary was not queen of England, Elizabeth intentionally chose diplomatic language stating her claim to be England’s rightful monarch. She argued that Mary’s incorrect claim to the throne was not Mary’s fault but ‘that the title to this kingdom injuriously pretended in so many ways by the Queen of Scotland has not proceeded otherwise than from the ambitious desire of the principal members of the House of Guise.’ Here she is removing the blame from Mary and putting it on Mary’s uncles. While Elizabeth recognises and respects Mary and her position even in her early letters, rivalry is present. Elizabeth patronises ‘young’ Mary and Francois, her husband for their error in claiming the title as monarch of England. ‘The King, who by reason of his youth…The Queen of Scots, who is likewise very young…have [not] of themselves imagined and deliberated an enterprise so unjust, unreasonable, and perilous.’

The letters between Mary and Elizabeth became much more frequent following the death of Francois, Mary I’s husband, as several months after his death she made the move back to Scotland. This made Elizabeth more fearful that her throne was under threat as her Catholic cousin and rival was suddenly on her doorstep. In fact, because of Mary’s refusal to ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh, in which Scotland would acknowledge Elizabeth as their queen, Elizabeth refused her cousin a warrant of safe passage through English waters on her return from England to Scotland. The dynamics and complexity of the relationship is captured throughout the exchange of letters. By the early 1560s however, the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth seems to shift to be much more amenable, perhaps even affectionate. Famously Mary once kissed a letter she sent to Elizabeth saying to the English ambassador, ‘I will kiss it also…for her sake it commeth from.’ The letters capture the transformations in the relationship between the two monarchs and provide insights into what is causing the changes.

The relationship seemed to change when Mary got married again, this time to Lord Darnley. Whilst Mary achieved one of her main goals through this marriage, producing an heir, her marriage was miserable, and Mary asked for comfort from Elizabeth to deal with it. In one such letter Elizabeth wrote a passionate letter to Mary in what she described as a ‘great frankness without any of the usual circumlocutions common in her diplomatic correspondence.’ This letter marks a significant change in their relationship as Elizabeth pointedly avoids formality, urging Mary in extremely direct language to act immediately to preserve her reputation and distance herself from her husband’s

alleged killer, James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell.

Madame: My ears have been so deafened and my understanding so grieved and my heart so affrighted to hear the dreadful news of the abominable murder of your mad husband and my killed cousin that I scarcely have the wits to write about it. In this letter, Elizabeth speaks to Mary directly as her equal, a fellow queen and as a woman. She wants her to defend her honour and in a heartfelt way. In fact, when Mary did not follow Elizabeth’s advice, Elizabeth touchingly wrote to Mary in her French:

For the love of God, Madame, use such sincerity and prudence in this matter [the hearing], which touches you so nearly, that all the world may feel justified in believing you innocent of so enormous a crime. These letters undoubtedly show a great deal of personal affection between the two women by this point.

The tide of their relationship turned once again when Mary married her third husband, James, Earl of Bothwell. While Elizabeth was originally asking for Mary to:

‘be careful how your son the Prince may be preserved, for the comfort of yours and your realm, which two things we have from the beginning always taken to heart…” signing her letter ‘a good neighbour, a dear sister and a faithful friend’. Mary’s response led to a turning point in the relationship as Mary admits she believes she cannot rule Scotland ‘Destitute of a husband’ and as such cannot follow the advice of her ‘sister queen’.

Mary’s reign collapsed shortly after as she was captured by rebellious Protestant lords in June 1567 and while Elizabeth told her ambassador to Scotland she wouldn’t not let ‘her [Mary] suffer’ she did not send troops to free Mary or restore her to her throne. Mary was able to escape Loch Leven prison and as soon as she had crossed England she wrote to Elizabeth, urging her to ‘fetch me as soon as you possibly can, for I am in a pitiable condition, not only for a queen, but for a gentlewoman.’ However, Mary’s presence in England was difficult for Elizabeth, as she was a direct claimant to her throne. As such she reacted coolly, stating she would ‘ask assistance of her other allies’. Mary found this response “maddening” and desperation and pleas were layered into her following letters as Elizabeth’s aid was not forthcoming: ‘Good madame, what wrong did I ever [seek] to you or yours in the former part of my reign.’

The relationship deteriorated when Elizabeth’s agents discovered Mary’s involvement in the Babington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne. From this point Elizabeth changed and described Mary as a ‘wicked murderess’. However, she still offered the Queen a way-out, which Mary did not accept. Mary’s last letter to her cousin contains an aggravated plea for her remains to stay in France after her death. She also threatened Elizabeth by stating that her death would outrage all Catholic Europe. She in fact states that her ‘bloody will her remembered’ which seemed to stay with Elizabeth for the rest of her life.

It is impossible to know which of the two Queens ‘won’ their war of letters. If we consider letters alone, Mary won the moral high ground, dying a martyr’s death for her Catholic faith. In terms of their final communications, Elizabeth’s last message to Mary was, ultimately, the death warrant dispatched to Fotheringay Castle on 1 February 1587. Yet even there, Mary appears triumphant through the dignity displayed at her execution and her deliberate casting of herself as a martyr. She managed to redeem herself in the eyes of much of history for her earlier marital problems and failure as a ruler. The letters provide us with the reflections and perspectives of the protagonists. This type of insight is unavailable elsewhere. The letters help us to decide whether Mary was a hopelessly incompetent ruler but the braver, if not more intelligent of the two women or whether Elizabeth was a solitary, lonely figure, yet a masterful politician who is ultimately forced to murder her own cousin to guarantee her own security.Illustration by Aoife Céitinn

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