Mary’s arrival threw the English court into turmoil. Not only was she next in line to Elizabeth’s throne, but the fact that she was Catholic meant that there were many, both at home and abroad, who viewed her as the rightful Queen, and saw in her a chance to restore Catholicism to England. Consequently, the next two decades would be marked by a plethora of plots aimed at overthrowing Elizabeth and replacing her with Mary.
By the mid 1580’s, with Elizabeth past her child bearing years and so unable to produce an heir, it had become more than apparent to the Queen’s advisers, that as long as Mary lived, Elizabeth was in danger. It fell therefore to Sir Francis Walsingham, one of the Queen’s most trusted and able minister’s, to provide the means by which the threat would be ended once and for all.
In December 1585, Mary and her household were moved to Chartley Hall near Stafford. Mary had found a new champion, the wealthy catholic Anthony Babington, and was delighted by the possibility that her captivity might soon be at an end. An ingenious method of sending messages had been devised, whereby coded letters would be placed in watertight pouches and hidden in the bung holes of Mary’s beer casks. Thus, in June 1586, Babington was able to furnish Mary with the details of his plot. Addressing her as “My dread Sovereign Lady and Queen”, he wrote that “six noble gentlemen, all my private friends” would “despatch the usurper” Elizabeth. He himself would free Mary from Chartley and then, aided by a Spanish invasion, place her upon the throne of England. On the 17th July, Mary sent her approval of the plan and, in so doing, sealed her death warrant. “The affair being thus prepared” she replied “and the forces in readiness both inside and outside the realm, then shall it be time to set the six gentlemen to work”. What neither Mary nor Babington knew, was that their letter’s were being taken straight to Walsingham, whose clerks would copy and decipher them, before forwarding them on to their intended recipients. On 11th August 1586, Mary was arrested while hunting on the moors near Chartley. Babington and his fellow conspirators were already in custody and, under torture, they confessed everything. A search of Mary’s rooms turned up hundreds of incriminating documents and her fate was sealed.
