The Burial of Mary Queen of Scots
On 8th February 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was exEcuted in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle.
She had spent 19 years of captivity, in England.
Her body was embalmed, her entrails secretly buried within the grounds, and she then lay in a lead coffin, within the Castle for nearly six months.
Queen Elizabeth, finally ordered her burial, which was to be in Peterborough Cathedral.
Despite Mary’s suspected involvement in plots against her, Elizabeth had been very reluctant to condemn a fellow anointed sovereign – and cousin – to death.
She had been furious with the councillors, who had carried out the death warrant – against her wishes, she claimed.
Mary, at least received a grand funeral – although as a devout Roman Catholic, she would not have appreciated the Protestant burial service.
Mary’s request to be laid to rest in France, next to her first husband King François ll, had been denied.
Instead, a burial place was chosen at Peterborough Cathedral, which was opposite Katharine of Aragon’s tomb.
A rich hearse was erected near the first step of the Quire, and the whole interior festooned with black hangings.
On Sunday 30th July 1587, between 1am and 2am, Mary’s body was brought from Fotheringhay Castle by torchlight, in a chariot hung with black velvet and adorned with Queen Mary’s emblems.
Mary’s body was exhumed 25 years later, by her son James l, and laid to rest in an ornate marble tomb, in Westminster Abbey.
What remained of the empty tomb in Peterborough Cathedral, was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell’s forces in 1643.
Mary’s tomb in Westminster Abbey is striking.
A marble effigy of Mary, wearing a close-fitting coif, a laced ruff, and a long mantle fastened by a brooch, is covered by an elaborate canopy.
Lengthy inscriptions in Latin, can also be found on her tomb.
Mary’s much taller, and more magnificent tomb, is just across the way from the relatively modest shared tomb of her cousins, Elizabeth I and Mary I of England.
