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, INNOCENT/ A ~
Handwriting Expert in LondonNow Comes Forward With Statement ~
That Famous “Casket Letters,” Which Led to Execution of the _ ”f.
« ‘~ Renowned Beauty, ,Were Not. Written by the Luch‘less ‘
' Monarch, but by William vMaitland, Her Political J N‘ . " l
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A
tax
In calm resignation to ' .
he, me, a, m mm” Adviser and Former, Secretary
recount it, Mary Stuart /‘
”Drowned “3° “uh” clearly indicated by his but" history and Bothwell. according to the story which i‘
supported by two of- her his present relations with the Queen as gained credenu at the time, stole back .-
faithful m at d s a n d the instrument of Darnley’s death. This into Daraley’s room and gave the signal.
I . ’ was the Earl of Bothwell, a border ruf~ The others prepared to go. It was past
smiled absently while “1° flan of the worst type. midnight. Mary suddenly recalled her
V promise to be present at the masque and
' '-
By William Nelson Tait
enemies alike
\ as though her thoughts ‘
\ \ had preceded her soul to
\ . the spirit land. Just be- .
\ fore the executioner's
ax fell she prayed fer-
vently for friends and
\ death warrant was read,
ON THE day before Christmas Morton
received his pardon and on the same
night Darnley fell violently ill. But
Darnley did not die—then. His recovery
Was proceeding when Bothwell himself
met Morton upon the latter's return
from exile and openly proposed to him
to take part in Darnley'e murder. Mor-
ton refused, on the ground that he feared
again to incur the Queen’s wrath, and
Bothwell thereupon assured him that
- the Queen was a consenting party to the
plot.
“Bring me the Queen's writing for a
warrant," was Morton's retort. “and I
will answer you."
At this very time, according to the
belief of historians who have condemned
Mary Stuart upon the evidence of the
, “Cask-c: letters," Bothwell had in his
bade her husband an affectionate fare-
well. Then she walked toward the door
of the room and spoke the words lab.
on the opinion of her enemies, p ved
‘ that she had full cognizance of what yes
to happen: . -
“It would be just about this time. last
year that Davie was slain." . .
Four persons were left to sleep in the
wing of the monastery—Damien a page
who slept at the foot of his bed and two
other servants. For an hour the lonely
youth talked and read himself to sleep.
Then all was still. At 2 o’clock a loud
explosion woke the city of Edinburgh.
The whole west wing of the castle of
Kirk-a~Fleld came down in ruins, among
which lay the bodies of the two servants.
one blown to pieces, the other still alive.
But neither Darnley nor his page was
‘ mR ‘ up” °f “my ”me find ‘ ckc' . cries of letters written to him there. Their bodies were found. under
1 half centuries, modern science, in the yond. Again the door openr'd and ll" :0 “2”} ”grossing extravagant love a tree, forty yards away. “film“.
shape Of a handwriting “pen Who has Countess 0f Argyle uttered u I'M] 0! ‘y h IQ“: i-rcinn him to the crime. without any sign of fire on them and
at his command all the latest chemical fear at the grim SNOW” 9‘“ ‘"='-*'l<l 0" or "n f‘.‘ ,‘_ ‘ M!" was at the bed- with their cloth“ on the ground bald.
and microscopic tests, has declared that the threshold. it was 11 lira: '. :n‘mod .Mennvtnm. 1 “dyand :he remained in then! "a.
Mary Stuart, better known as Mary. as for n tourney, in ;.‘lu:l:>:ill_; .1 from side of her huls 1:: was ‘11“ enough to , .. .. .-
Queen of Scots, was innocent of the head to loot, u r: \\'.lll u w.- ml the Glasgow mm . t1 set off to Edin- FHOW they came there and in Will.
crimes which sent her to the scaffold. right hand :‘l‘silllu own 1‘. - all «t‘ the travel. 11ml ”1“) l”) H) Bothwell O manner they met their ht. no .3.
and that the famous “Casket Letters" heavy (l'lguwl' 1‘; 1m amigo 'l'w helmet's burgh,\vh€1”(’-l~h'~‘y “Effinim This plmafion h“ a", been forthcoming.
which caused her imprisonment and later visor was raw}, '1 coal l g 1.10 ghastly and cohductcd. to ll" misled. of . The mystery of what really. took place
execution were written, not by the luck- face if Kw Fawn, 1'l loud of Murray and celebrated bfmlgggfly “dc-copied as . on that morning in early February in the
less daughter of James V. but by Wil- the calm ‘ml . quadrangle at t adioining a ruined “we of Klrk-a-Field still remains
liam Maitland, her political adviser and At It“. " "A ‘ ‘ ”‘5’ “'- m- “170’? Ill. Dominic“: Egglsgnl on'lhe first floor oi among the,unsolved riddles of history.
:0??? Mortars; \ her f ears 3321111" III. “iiltivllm‘ {13:33: antigen-wing had been fitted up for But Bothwell, after having been tried
S Oil ' {l (’1‘ a num 0 ~ . " . lZ.. :l.\~‘l l' e . . . . . . _
went in wlllcctinr' and cxnminingy the WNW -. Y ,3], ,‘,,,'_;,,u.c of Darnlel‘ and another room, immediately and acquitted of thismurderjvas race;
' ‘ i - ~ D . ll‘li', m... ~. . 1.. mm, (or the Queen. and It 18" mended by the nobility to e'coms e
ongma. records and documents con- _ . . I..- fear- undern his Sunday Edam", Queen‘s husband and, throwmg cere-
nected With one of the most famous {Ultlhlflh if”! 1-": . firm who had came that “remote . mony m the winds carried her off by ‘.‘
mysteries in histor that Ainsworth 1U" t‘l‘fi‘u'u .Ei . ;::l' word 1568. . . .' 1
Mitchell, editor of ythe Analyst and "Judar?" Filmy l‘IH‘ 2. im v1.2. 9,011 lhls particular evening there was {lace lilo-h... (“What“Ddundblibrce'rllg:
handwriting expert of the Home Office “Wl‘a'v FL“); .‘t‘ “in. :1.-.- 1'14 and in a masqu‘: and dance M the p;lace 9!; hiselvf'bmhmm: 1lieuln‘ll‘ll‘iir a few daya '
in London, has announced that Mary this fluke?" “,9 Em. mm. .. lilenge. the Gauguin ofthe marriage ohonehod aft ‘ id 9 mar}? ythe Scotch .
Stuart could not possibly have written Ruthvcn‘s bum'm: «yr» u' V before 'Qm.e_n's servants and 5 8 3 0“ 3. . -rcupon
the “Casket Letters" because of their her niancu. il~ (.mp4, ,' . . at the ivd ,U be present. Nevertheless, nobles, outraged by ‘her adventures,
context, the quality of the me, (which or two, film: we: a mu. it'll all: ‘°‘“,,‘,§..e.i the festivities after supper raised a rebellion against their Queen »
differs radically from that used at an With *1 him? ‘hS-l :hi “ [in n' ., lull d F” .’ _..,, .1...- a low hours by the bed and locked her up in Lochlevm Castle. . ’
0th" time by Mary) and other detail); Rizzio aim am] w AL. I“ I ,3," '"l m “mind. aband. Bothweil was pres- but she escaped to England to seals thq ‘ "\
- 1. .. ' . l V I 5"".- u'h- ”Um“ him. 0‘ h” A“: ,.... - . d Huntl protection of her cousin Elizabeth '
connected mt}; the handwriting, the . ISOCiL),'L:11..:Hl, lie suld gruiiiy. “ng out mgrctm‘r \vlth Alli)” 3“_ h” .,. p _ ' , , .I . .
seal; and the ink. All of these, declares him come tenth." ' thrct‘ (.t' the men who had signed t o By eseapmg into England Mary Stuart y. .
Mr, Mitchell, are materially different in “And why 1‘” domamlnd the Queen. bond in put liarzilcy out of extstence. had but fallen from the frying plan into , z
the “Casket Letters" from any of the “He is: here by my will, while you are While 11.0,. were lll the room above, it the fire.‘ hllzabeth, still smartmg from 1| .
existing specimens of the correspond. not. You shall Lu made to answer for "’ " ' .~ . 3., said. unlhwcll's kccn ear overheard I her c°”5‘".s former “mm to the English L . i
once of the Queen of Scots, but there “1:15:51" Famous for her beauty among monarchs of medieval times ”(use an lllc room bhclow 8:31;: $93: 3:33;, deildcd thntthslie “Mu“ mystic“. /f' ' ;
are striking similarities between them en {Ullmml a scene which w . ‘ ' ' f u es of 0 l d ,Wh ,ywnstfdll'S l” warn ‘5 cre _ c. ”395 n ary 8 .con- 1
and the records left by William Mait- 100 clear oven to those who partl‘c‘iprh‘l: :0? :31: 32': 3:13:13 ‘l‘hllillllll: uls- drl-ll .I‘: Scfifiutufin'd colt)f :llcnt. lie is supposed to have found a filmed With Bothwell to assassmate ‘
' .
land, secretary to Mary before David
Rizzio.
Mitchell, the author of “Science and
Criminals" and other works, and who
has figured in a number of trials where
the authenticity of documents played a
vital role, therefore declares that he is
convinced, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, that the “Casket Letters" were
the evening and in a tiny room or closet
opening out from her bedchamber, the
beautiful young Queen of Scotland was
cupping with a little company of her
intimates.
Less than three years before, Rizzio,
' I wandering musician from Savoy, had
found his way in an ambassadors train
to the bleak shores of Scotland, and the
porter of Holyrood, taking compassion
on the exile, had allowed him in charity
to pass a night lying on- a chest which
stood in the lodge. Now that foreign
outcast was the Queen’s favorite and
close to being the most powerful man
In Scotland.
Not long since there had arrived in
the Northern kingdom a handsome youth
at Mary’s own blood, who had journeyed
from England because of the tales which
had reached him of the superb beauty
of the Queen of Scots.
The supper was still on the table
when the door of the room opened,
without even the formality of a knock.
“If! lOOl‘Cd “P. Imazed at the intro-
sion, to see her husband enter, uneasy
and excited.
“What is it, my lord?" she asked him
coldly. for it was clear that he had be“
drinking. He leered at her, put an arm
around her waist, pulled her to him “a
kissed her oafishly.
Then. upon the silence, ominous as ch.
yery steps of doom, came a ponderoue
planking tread from the anteroom be.
L.—
in it. The young Queen flung herself
between Ruthvcn and his victim. The
three other men in the chamber tried to
seize Ruthvcn. The latter drew his dag-
ger and called to his followers, who were
waiting outside the door. One man ac-
tually held a pistol to Mary’s breast
another overturned the table, and, if thd
Countess of Argyll had not caught up
A few minutes later a mangled corpse.
. stabbed in a dozen places, was carried
into the perter’s lodge and flung into
a chest which had stood in the same
place during the three years that had
passed, '
BIN a week the Queen, of Scot-
land rode back into Edinburgh at
the head of an army. The actual mur-
derers of Rizzio tied. The rest were
pardoned. But Darnley did not recei
the crown he longed for. Instead, h:
found himself despised and distrusted .
by every man in Scotland.
In December of the same year a re-
markable conversation took place be-
tween the Queen and some of the chief
lords of the Kingdom. Moray, Argyll
and Maitland wished to obtain the par-
don of Morton, who, next to Ruthven.
had borne the chief part in Riazio's mur-
der. They believed the best way to ob-
tain it was to rid the Queen of Darnley
and they went to wait on her accom.
panied by Lord Huntly and the man
whose evil shadow falls about this time
across the page of Mary’s life—the
radian Bothwcll.
Mary had already applied to Rome for
a divorce from Darnley and had been re-
fused. When the tlve lords came before
her to breach their project. her first an-
swer was that she would consent to no
divorce that would render doubtful the
rights of her infant son. the fetus
\
sidered likely to become also Quccn ol‘ l-Inglund. Probably
no woman in history has in: u more 1cm pea-lunus career than
this fair Scotch lady of many intrigues, whose death now is
laid to letters said to have been written by forging con-
splrators instead of the sovereign herself
James VI of Scotland and James I of and bride so short a time before.
fingers thereto and will be behind our
doings, saying nothing 38th ll“
same.”
In that age and in Scotland such
words could have but one meaning. So
it was that Mary answered: “I will that
ye do nothing whereby any spot may be
laid to my honor orsny conscience, and
therefore I pray you let the matter be
in the state it is, abiding. till God in
His goodness provide a remedy. 'Think-
ing to do no service, the‘end may not
be conformable to your desires. 0n the
contrary, it may turn to,my hurt and
displeasure." It is quite evident from
these words, reported verbatim by three
separate witnesses, that Mary under-
stood Maitland'a offer to kill her hus-
band—and that she had refused his oifer.
Immediately after leaving the Queen's
presence, Argyll, Huntly, Maitland and
Bothwell signed a bond reading: “That
for sea meikle it was thought expedient
and profitable for the commonweal, by
the nobility and lords underwritten, that
sic ans young fool and proud t'yrsn
should bear rule over them, for divers
causes therefore they all‘had concluded
that he should be put forth by one way
or another and whosoever should take
the deed in hand to do it, they should
defend and fortify it, for it should be by
every one of them reckoned and holden
done by themaelvea'fl
So no the death warrant of the "long
lad" who had come North to win crown
So successful have modern scientists become in analysis of
handwriting that a is declared impossible to perform a
forgery that cannot be detected, and thus have Inndon hand-
writing experts, comparing other specimens of Mary Stuart’s
chirography. declared: the famous “Casket Letters” forgerles
llack heap of naked gunpowder on the
floor, with two of the minor instruments
in the plot. Hay and Hepburn, standing
over it, waiting until all was quiet over-
head.
Darnley~charges which had been made
by the Earl of Murray, regent of the
infant James, who naturally wished to
retain the Scottish throne. As proofs
of. her guilt Murray placed before a com
mission of inquiry a silver casket al-
leged to have been given to Mary by her,
first husband, the young King of France,
and to have been later given by her to
plot to kidnap her and carry her 03. But
it seems absurd to suppose that any one
as shrewd as Mary Stuart would have
confided such indiscretions to paper; that
any one as wily as Bothwell should have
preserved incriminating evidence against
himself and that the Duke of Norfolk,
if convinced of the fact that Mary had
murdered her second husband, would
- have later tried to earnestly to become
her fourth consort, Moreover, Mary was
. a clever poet and the sonnets attributed
to her were crude and inelegant. She
was a woman of refinement, while the
letters she was supposed to have written
were, to the last degree, indecent as well
as written in a style to which she
would never have descended.
But, despite these facts, the “Casket
utters” helped to pave Mary Stuart's
way to the scaflold, and it is only now
—three and a half centuries after they
were written—that apparently good
proof has been brought forward that
they were forgeries.
Science—the measuring of handwrlt.
m to the' thousandth part of an inch,
the micro-co, pic ands-la of parchment-
and the chemical examination of sealing
ens—has succeded in doing that which
the testimony of scores of human wit-
nesses could not achieve—has succeeded
in clearing the memory of Mary. Queen
of Boots. of one of the blackest crimes
on the annals of her country.
W is him Lesser om
\
M“.
:lwweonwwscesa-ua..»
written by Maitland with the ur one a and“, all would have been “my“? sentence was pronounced, but the ex- Bothwell. It contained love letters and h -
of securing the removal of his l‘glial darkness. ' in £1331:pgdzglifidga'fifig‘md the ecutioncr was not named. It was un- sonnets, said to have been written in her '
mistress, though it is more than proba- Ruthven the“ ordered Damley to bold man who it is now claimed, forged “1° necessary. There m“ but one man 0"“ hand to Bothwell; also two papers, , / :
ble that some of Mary's other enemies his wife, and Kerr of Faudonside flung “Casket lietters"—replied: “Madam. We ’ ' ' ‘ 0’“ in her °Wn hand and one‘subserlbed 1
had a hand in the plot which culmi- a noose around Rizzio’s body and drag. that are here, the principal of Your by her. ‘ | 2
rated in her execution in 1587. ged him Ofl’ through the outer room Grace’s nobility and council, will find the .,._... . mi. , l
and down the palace stairs, followed by means that Your Majesty all!“ he quit I SE letters, lf genuine, contained " l 3
IN ORDER to secure the proper per. the Queen 5_ Warning that ‘If Davis's of him without prejudice of your 5°n- incontestable proofs of a criminal l 5
spective upon the events which led up “00d be SP1”. it Shall be dear blood to and, although my lord of Many be & correspondence between Mary and Both— ‘ i
'to the discovery of the famous letters it 303.13 0f YOU—Yemeni“?! thatl”—words ‘llttle less scrupulous for 3 “mutant well. of her consent to Darnley's mur- l 3
is necessary to go back to the night of which Damley had cause to remember than your Grace is for a Papist. I am der and of her concurrence to Bothwell’e i :
Saturday, March 9, 1567, when, late in before a year had passed. assured that he will look through his r : ;
Norwalk Chronicler