Saturday. Queen Mary Queen of Scots enters the crowded court chamber at Fotheringhay Castle. The throne of Queen Elizabeth, her archenemy, is empty. Mary Queen of Scots is being tried for treason. She is accused of plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth so she could seize the English throne herself. Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s principal secretary, has already arrested the other conspirators and extracted confessions. Elizabeth, despite hating Mary, must be convinced of her guilt, as she is her cousin, a queen (of Scotland), and ultimately condemning a queen to death could set a dangerous precedent… The conspirators are a group of young Catholic nobles authorized by Mary. But all her correspondence with the conspirators is carefully protected by ciphers. Unfortunately for Mary, Walsingham was not only Elizabeth’s secretary, but also an expert in espionage and ciphers, and he contacted the person he knew could decipher it: Thomas Phelippes. Mary had been crowned queen at the age of nine months, after her father, only thirty, died suddenly when she was only a week old. Mary later became Queen of France when she married Francis, King of France, who died only a year after their marriage. She then returned to Scotland to marry her cousin Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley. Henry was surly and brutal and at one point murdered David Riccio, Mary’s secretary, in front of her. One day, Henry Stewart’s house was set on fire, and when he tried to escape, he was strangled and killed. Mary later married James Hepburn, Fourth Earl of Bothwell, but with no better luck: Scottish Protestant nobles managed to imprison Mary, who was forced to abdicate in favor of her son, James VI, who was only 16 months old. Mary was then forced to flee to England, where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth (who was not recognized as Queen of England by Catholics, as Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII following her divorce from her previous marriage). In 1586, after 18 years in prison, she authorized the plot to kill Elizabeth and exchanged information using encrypted codes. However, Mary’s agent, Gifford, was actually a double agent and was also in the pay of Walsingham, who obtained copies of each letter, which were then resealed after being copied. The letters were then deciphered by Phelippes using the frequency of each letter and suggested attempts. Mary’s trial began on October 15th. She maintained a composed and dignified demeanor throughout the trial and denied everything. However, she was sentenced to death, a warrant signed by Elizabeth, and was beheaded on February 8, 1587, in front of a crowd of three hundred people in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle.
