Mary Queen of Scots Calais Goodbye France I Am Afraid to Say I May Never See You Again Reign

Mary Stuart wrote this letter on 8 February 1587, completing it just six hours before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle.

Mary Queen Of Scots

It is addressed to her former brother-in-law, King Henry Iii of France. She had written to him regularly throughout her imprisonment in England. The letter is a remarkable document. Mary conspicuously believes she is dying as a martyr to her Catholic faith. She besides displays genuine concern for the loyal servants who joined her English language imprisonment.

It should exist noted that Henry III did not provide the wages and pensions which Mary then poignantly sought. It was Rex Philip Ii of Spain who honored her last wishes.

eight Feb 1587
To the most Christian king, my brother and sometime ally,
Majestic blood brother, having past God's will, for my sins I think, thrown myself into the power of the Queen my cousin, at whose hands I have suffered much for almost twenty years, I accept finally been condemned to death past her and her Estates. I take asked for my papers, which they take taken away, in order that I might make my volition, but I accept been unable to recover anything of use to me, or even get go out either to make my will freely or to accept my torso conveyed after my death, as I would wish, to your kingdom where I had the honor to exist queen, your sister and former ally.

Tonight, later on dinner, I have been advised of my sentence: I am to be executed like a criminal at 8 in the morning. I accept not had fourth dimension to give yous a full account of everything that has happened, but if you will listen to my doctor and my other unfortunate servants, you lot volition learn the truth, and how, thank you exist to God, I scorn death and vow that I meet information technology innocent of any crime, fifty-fifty if I were their subject. The Catholic organized religion and the assertion of my God-given right to the English crown are the two problems on which I am condemned, and yet I am not allowed to say that information technology is for the Cosmic religion that I die, simply for fear of interference with theirs. The proof of this is that they accept taken away my chaplain, and although he is in the building, I have not been able to become permission for him to come up and hear my confession and requite me the Concluding Sacrament, while they have been about insistent that I receive the consolation and instruction of their government minister, brought here for that purpose. The bearer of this letter of the alphabet and his companions, most of them your subjects, volition testify to my conduct at my last hour. It remains for me to beg Your Most Christian Majesty, my brother-in-law and old ally, who have always protested your honey for me, to give proof now of your goodness on all these points: firstly by charity, in paying my unfortunate servants the wages due them – this is a burden on my censor that simply you lot can relieve: further, by having prayers offered to God for a queen who has borne the title Most Christian, and who dies a Catholic, stripped of all her possessions. As for my son, I commend him to you in so far as he deserves, for I cannot answer for him. I have taken the liberty of sending you two precious stones, talismans against disease, trusting that you lot volition bask proficient health and a long and happy life. Accept them from your loving sister-in-law, who, as she dies, bears witness of her warm feeling for you. Once again I commend my servants to you. Give instructions, if information technology please you, that for my soul'due south sake part of what you owe me should be paid, and that for the sake of Jesus Christ, to whom I shall pray for you tomorrow every bit I die, I exist left enough to institute a memorial mass and give the customary alms.

Wednesday, at ii in the morning

Your most loving and nearly truthful sis
Mary R

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Link will announced as Hanson, Marilee. "Mary Queen Of Scots Last Letter" https://englishhistory.net/tudor/mary-queen-scots-last-letter/, Feb 10, 2015

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