MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, IN CAPTIVITY.* Tuts contribution of six
hundred pages to the story of the hap- less Queen of Scots is a useful and interesting addition to what has already been published on the subject. It is not put forward with the intention of settling the controversies of her numerous biographers, but to throw a stronger light on one portion of her life which has, so far, remained in the background. Those who may be emboldened, and we may be sure the list is not yet closed, to sift once more the facts and weigh the motives of Mary Stuart's chequered career, will have to turn to Mr. Leader's work, as the one containing the best procurable information on the fifteen years she passed under the care of the Earl of Shrews- bnry,—that is to say, from 1569 to 1584. The details of her tedious detention, the habits she formed, her occupations, amuse- ments, and the occasional breaks in her every-day life, which form the backbone of this narrative, will aid the student in a great measure to gauge her character ; and as Mr. Leader always gives, and often quotes, his authorities, the sources of informa- tion may be tested, as well as the information itself. In choos- ing this particular portion of Mary's unfortunate life, be avoids the questions of her connection with the murder of Darnley, and her complicity with Babington in conspiring against Elizabeth, and presents to us in the form of a narrative what he has col- lected from contemporary letters, published documents, and the archives of the Public Record Office. The period has been comparatively neglected by previous writers, for the more eventful and stirring periods that preceded and followed it, and therefore, Mr. Leader's task has been rather to amplify than question what has already been written. Though not forcing his views upon the attention of his readers, he does not disguise his opinion as to the intriguing nature of the Queen of Scots, nor does he shrink from representing in sensible lan- guage the difficulties that beset both Elizabeth and Mary in their respective positions. From partisan writers he has impartially borrowed any details that might strengthen the chain of events, when sufficiently authenticated ; but he has preferred, as a rule, to let original documents speak for them- selves, leaving people to draw their own conclusions as to their value and construction. No one, we imagine, will dispute Mr. Leader's statement that " at conspiracy Mary was an adept ; at acting, a consummate performer ; and she took care, during her chequered. life, never to allow these gifts to met for want of using."
Mary's captivity when she was in the close keeping of the Earl of Shrewsbury was marked by little variety. The removals from one of his mansions to another afforded some change of scene and habitation, but feelings of offended dignity or an interference with the progress of secret plans hindered her fall enjoyment of them. The discovery of treasonable correspondence often necessitated sudden and special precautions on the part of her guardian ; and he was so alive to the import- ance of keeping his scheming prisoner in security, that his measures may have appeared to her unnecessarily strict. The same causes more than once obliged a reduction in the number of Mary's attendants, and sometimes, as in the case of Alexander Hamilton, members of her household were abruptly dismissed, and sent to London to answer for their shortcomings. Often, too, she suffered from " rheum " and the chronic malady in her side ; and on these occasions Elizabeth became anxious for her recovery, knowing well that so convenient a death as that of Mary, Queen of Scots, would be laid at her door by the world in general, and physicians and medicines were forthwith despatched to Mary, "lest peradventure she should die." It says much for her mu- gninetemperament,that one who pined for air and freedom as she did should have lived so many years in close confinement and unhealthy rooms. The greater part of her time was employed in correspondence, chiefly, of course, respecting the means of escape, but not a little as to her state of health, her rigorous treatment, or the materials for the embroidery with which she diversified her
• Mary, Queen of Scots, in Captivity. By John Daniel Leader. ElheMeld Leader and Sons. London : George Bell and Sons. 1880.
leisure-hours. She made constant efforts to win Elizabeth's favour by means of presents. On one occasion, she sent her "stuffs, satin, taffetas, hats, linen, and other things," forgetting that in the previous month she had represented herself as destitute of proper clothing, and begging for such clothes as were allowed to prisoners ; and not long after, she gave her a skirt of red satin, very finely worked with silver. She also tried what could be gained by presenting Shrewsbnry with some hawks, but they did not impress him as much as she hoped, for " nothing came of all his fair speeches."
Mr. Leader has a good deal to say about the various por- traits of the Queen of Scots, and suggests an explanation for the extraordinary difference in likeness that exists. In a letter to her ambassador, the Archbishop of Glasgow, she says, " There are some of my friends in this country who ask for my portrait. I pray you have four of them made, which must be set in gold, and sent to me secretly, and as soon as possible." On this Mr.
Leader remarks :—
" Does not this passage throw some light on that curious sub- ject, the portraiture of Mary Stuart ? Likenesses bearing her name abound in the old houses of England, yet few of them can be proved genuine, and many are utterly irreconcilable with the idea that they represent the same face. This letter offers a solution of the puzzle. The portraits were ordered from France, probably copied hastily from some picture there, and were distributed rather as tokens of recognition than with any idea of recalling the features of a familiar face. Some would go to persons who had never seen the Queen of Scots, and would be. prized, not because they were like- nesses, but because they were her gifts. Hence we find all those strange diversities of feature and of complexion which have per- plexed inquirers, and led some to ask whether the Queen of Scots were a chameleon, in her frequent changes of appearance."
A passage in the well-known letter from Nicholas White to Sir William Cecil, describing his visit to Tutbury in 1569 and his interview with Mary, is also suggestive,—" Her hair of itself is black, and yet Mr. ICnollys told me that she wears hair of sundry colours." Mr. Leader offers no comment on this, but the artists may, after all, have depicted the Queen of Scots as they found her.
Too much credit cannot be given to Shrewsbury for the assiduous care and ceaseless vigilance with which, for fifteen years, he obeyed Elizabeth"s instructions to guard securely the Queen of Scots. The prospect of such a charge could have offered him no satisfaction beyond the fulfilment of his Sovereign's wishes, and it says little for the generosity of that Sovereign that the only reward he received at her hands was the title of Earl Marshal, left vacant on the execution of the Duke of Norfolk. The urgency previously shown by Sir Francis Knollys, his predecessor in the post, to be relieved of the duty testifies to the anxiety and thanklessness it entailed. In September, 1568, Sir Francis Knollys had expressed to Cecil his disappointment that he was not discharged. In November, he was growing impatient ; in December, he begged that he might be relieved; in January, the wish " to be rid of her " was the desire of his heart; and on the 19th of that month he wrote again to Cecil, that if he could not be discharged, after conducting the Queen of Scots to Tutbury, he would, "as sure as God is in heaven, repair to Court, and suffer any punish- ment that may be laid upon him, rather than continue in such employment." Nothing but his thorough loyalty could have induced Shrewsbury to undertake this duty, for it meant wear- ing anxiety, constant expense, alienation of friends, neglect of family, and even the suspicions of his Sovereign. He was kept " in a state of chronic uneasiness, his fears being aroused not so much by the prospect of attack from without, as by the dread of treachery from within ;" and his difficulty was increased by the necessity of guarding, without appearing to restrain, his prisoner. It was the combination in one person of a "prisoner in fact and a queen in appearance," that caused him so much trouble and perplexity, and Elizabeth had certainly shown great insight and discretion in selecting him for the post, for there was probably not another man in the kingdom who would have filled it so ably or so honourably.
The record of so much detail in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, necessarily brings Sheffield into prominence, a place little associated with her name ; but Sheffield Lodge or Manor, and the Castle in the valley, both the property of the Earl of
Shrewsbury, remained her prisons for nearly fourteen years. Compared with this, her sojourns at Bolton, Chatsworth, Tut- bury, and Fotheringay were but passing visits ; yet people are wont to connect the captive Queen with them, and ignore Shef- field altogether. Mr. Leader is enthusiastic about the latter plat; and has written a most interesting chapter about its ante-
cedents, endeavouring to describe with much minuteness its appearance when so famous in history. The Castle has disap- peared and the Manor is an unpicturesque ruin, so it is a fair matter for regret that the most important of Mary's " resid- ences " in England should have sunk into such insignificance.
It is a question whether the opening words of Mr. Leader's book sufficiently express how voluntary and deliberate an act was the coming to England in the first instance of the Queen of Scots. He says,—" Mary, Queen of Scots, flying before the face of her victorious rebels, landed at Workington," &c. This gives the impression that she was being pursued, and made good her escape by landing where she did. But this was not so. There is no evidence of pursuit, but it is notorious that after her defeat at Langside, she preferred coming to England and throwing herself on the protection of Elizabeth, to trusting to her Border adherents and remaining in Scotland. And she' came to this determination in spite of the protestations of her staunchest friends, and at a moment when there were many troops under able leaders ready and eager to fight for her.
This work will be welcomed by all who take an interest ire Mary, Queen of Scots, not, as we said before, because it decides any of the disputed points of her life and character, but because it furnishes useful material for helping to understand her actions- and the motives that inspired them. We conclude with some• of Mr. Leader's closing remarks, to the truth of which we think few of the unfortunate Queen's admirers can take exception, except so far as they may imply any marked preference for the character of Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a- much abler Queen, but we doubt her having been a much better woman :- " It will be manifest, however, from the preceding pages, that plots and intrigues were the familiar weapons of the Queen of Soots. One who could conspire, as we have seen her conspiring, with France- and Spain, to levy war upon the Queen of England, at the time when she was making the fairest professions of amity and good faith, was not the person to hesitate when the indiscretion of Babington and the ardour of Gilbert Giffard placed within her reach the attractions of a great and encouraging plot. That she was an accomplice with Babington and his companions cannot be doubted ; and it was for the welfare of England that she should be restrained from further mis- chief. It does not concern us to justify the devices by which her evil practices were counteracted, or to commend the manners of the age that brought her to the block. Rough justice was done. A. most dangerous person was removed from the realm ; and by way of com- pensation for the sternness of Mary Stuart's treatment, her memory has been banded down to posterity surrounded with a fictitious halo, arising from misfortune. The recollection of her evil deeds and more evil designs is obscured by her sad fate, and long as the page of his- tory remains, Mary Stuart will enjoy an advantage over her success- ful rival in the sentimental regard of a kind-hearted people."
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