Queen & Country (37 page)

And then, when all was gone, the guests went home to bed, the servants slipped away, and they were left alone, quite still, and centred in that house. The bed was turned back, sprinkled with lavender; rose petals perfumed the sheets. Hew crossed to the window.

‘Leave the shutters open,' Frances said. ‘For I want the moon to look at us.'

‘How wanton you become,' he laughed. ‘I have something for you, here. I found it at the krames.'

‘It is a lute!' Frances cried, as he brought it from its box. ‘I did not think,' she teased him, ‘a lute would be allowed here.'

‘There is nothing,' answered Hew, ‘that is not allowed here. For this is
our place.'
He took her hand in his, and by her mother's ring, closest to her heart, he slipped on his own, and the sliver of moonlight that fell through the window fell softly, askance, on the pale band of gold, with its clasp of two hands, and its bright lines of flowers. ‘There is a verse inside.'

‘Is it a riddle?' Frances smiled. ‘A cipher, to be solved?'

He did not reply, but showed her what was written there, that was true, and plain, and spoken from the heart.

My hand in yours shall never roam
In fear of lands that lie unseen
For where thou art, that place is home
Thou art my country, and my queen
.

Notes and Attributions

The earl of Shrewsbury's guest house in Buxton spa survives, in part, in the Old Hall Hotel, which claims to be perhaps the oldest in England. In 2012, the hotel commissioned a reproduction feature window to illustrate the writing on the glass left by Mary, queen of Scots and other noble guests between 1573 and 1584, based on a handwritten copy of the original, kept among the Portland papers at Longleat in Wiltshire.

A transcription and translation of the writing there was also published by Patrick Chapman in the same year, in his
Things Written in the Glasse Windowes at Buxstons
.

My translations of the two proverbs quoted here differ very slightly from his.

The title of
Chapter 7
, ‘Frost of Cares', is taken from Chidiock Tichborne's elegy, ‘My prime of youth is but a frost of cares'. Tichborne is the young poet who made the longest speech upon the scaffold, and who, according to report, took the longest time to die. The conspirator who came ‘not to argue but to die' was Charles Tilney. There were in all fourteen executions, on the 20th and 21st September 1586.

The title of
Chapter 8
, ‘The Opened Bud' is an allusion to Robert Southwell's poem depicting Mary, queen of Scots as a Catholic martyr: ‘the bud was opened to let out the rose'.

The often-quoted ‘In my end is my beginning' is from Mary's cloth of estate, embroidered by her in captivity.

The wording of the proclamation at the mercat cross in Edinburgh, and the squib against Elizabeth, in
chapters 13
and
14
are quoted verbatim from contemporary letters in the Elizabethan state papers.
The Latin verse quoted by Laurence Tomson in
chapter 2
is alluded to in a letter by Thomas Phelippes, written in his final days at Chartley.

The ‘turning picture' is inspired by the one currently on display in the library of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Queen Street, Edinburgh.

The text and translation of ‘Ars
naturam adiuvans'
is quoted, for convenience, from the 1591 edition of Alciato's
Emblemata
, but Glasgow University offers digital access to 22 editions, from 1531–1621, in their fantastic Alciato at Glasgow project:
http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/alciato/index.php

The samples of verse in George Heriot's shop are from actual poesy rings. But Hew's is entirely his own.

Historical Figures

Mary Stewart, queen of Scots

Mother of James VI. Exiled and imprisoned in England from 1568. Implicated, in letters to Anthony Babington, in conspiracy against the English queen Elizabeth. Convicted in October, 1586 and executed at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587

James VI of Scotland

Son of Mary Stewart and Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. Born 1566. King of Scotland from 1567–1625. King of England (as James I) from 1603–1625

Patrick Adamson

Archbishop of St Andrews

Anthony Babington

Catholic conspirator against Queen Elizabeth whose letters to Mary, queen of Scots were intercepted by Sir Francis Walsingham. A page in the household of the earl of Shrewsbury at Sheffield. Executed September 1586

John Ballard

Jesuit priest ‘Black Fortescue'. Instigator of the Babington plot. Executed September 1586

Robert Beale

Diplomat. Deputy to Sir Francis Walsingham

Binning family

Edinburgh painters active from c.1538–1633

William Cecil, first baron Burghley

Lord Treasurer of England

Arnold or Arthur Bronckhorst

Court painter to King James VI c.1580–1583. Identified as gold prospector in Scotland c.1579 by Stephen Atkinson [gold miner, 1616]. Living in London by 1583. May be identified as ‘Aart' detained for questioning by Lord Cobham at Dover in September 1586

Burton Brewer

Supplied ale to Chartley Manor. Smuggled letters to and from Mary, queen of Scots in beer barrels, at the instigation of Sir Francis Walsingham

Tom Cassie

Servant of Thomas Phelippes

William Brooke, tenth baron Cobham

Lord warden of the Cinque Ports and constable of Dover Castle. Close friend and political ally of William Cecil

John Colville

Scottish Presbyterian minister and supporter of the Ruthven raid. Spied for Sir Francis Walsingham

Gilbert Gifford

Acted as courier for letters to and from Mary, queen of Scots, at the instigation of Sir Francis Walsingham

William Ruthven, earl of Gowrie

Former Lord High Treasurer of Scotland and chief instigator of the Ruthven Raid, the detention of King James VI in 1582. Executed for treason in 1584

George Heriot

Edinburgh goldsmith; later goldsmith to Queen Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI. Founder of George Heriot's school

John Maitland, first Lord Maitland of Thirlestane

Lord Chancellor of Scotland

Andrew Melville

Scottish reformer and principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews

Francis Mylles

Secretary and agent of Sir Francis Walsingham

Claude Nau

French secretary to Mary, queen of Scots. Accused by some of a part in her downfall. Sought to marry Bessie Pierrepoint, the granddaughter of the Countess of Shrewsbury

Sir Amias Paulet

Keeper of Mary, queen of Scots from April 1585 until her death in February 1587. Close friend of Thomas Phelippes

Thomas Phelippes

Principal cryptographer for Sir Francis Walsingham. Deciphered letters sent by and to Mary, queen of Scots. Son of William Phillips, cloth merchant and customer of wool for the port of London. Married Mary, in or before 1586; no surviving children. Identified with Thomas Phillips, MP for Hastings, 1584 and 1586. Served Sir Amias
Paulet and Henry Brooke, brother of Lord Cobham, in embassy to France

John Savage

Conspirator against Queen Elizabeth. Executed September 1586

George Talbot, sixth earl of Shrewsbury

Keeper of Mary, queen of Scots from 1569 to September 1584. Patron of the baths; built Buxton Hall

Laurence Tomson

Secretary to Sir Frances Walsingham. Puritan author and scholar. Married to Jane

Adrian Vanson

Official court portrait painter to King James VI from 1584. Married to Susanna of Colone. Made burgess of Edinburgh, on condition he take on apprentices

Sir Francis Walsingham

Principal Secretary and spymaster to Queen Elizabeth

Sir Andrew Wood of Largo

Crownar and sheriff of Fife. Comptroller until July 1587

Workman family

Painter burgesses of Edinburgh c.1554–1664

Glossary