The Casket letters were eight letters and some sonnets said to have been written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Earl of Bothwell, between January and April 1567. They were produced as evidence against Queen Mary by the Scottish lords who opposed her rule.Jane Dawson, "The relation between James Stewart, Regent Moray and John Knox", Steven J. Reid, Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Boydell, 2024), p. 178. The texts were thought to imply that Queen Mary colluded with Bothwell in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley. Mary's contemporary supporters, including Adam Blackwood, dismissed the letters as complete forgeries or letters written by the Queen's servant Mary Beaton.Adam Blackwood, History of Mary Queen of Scots (Maitland Club: Glasgow, 1834), pp.82-8. The authenticity of the letters, now known only by copies, continues to be debated. Some historians argue that they were concocted as forgeries to discredit Queen Mary.J. H. Pollen, Papal Negotiotions with Mary Queen of Scots (Edinburgh: SHS, 1901), 531-535.Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots (Delacorte Press, New York, 1969), 393-406.
Political background
Mary's's husband, Lord Darnley, was killed in mysterious circumstances at the Kirk o'Field in Edinburgh on 10 February 1567, and she married the Earl of Bothwell on 15 May 1567. Bothwell was widely thought to be the main suspect for Darnley's murder. The Earl of Moray, Mary's half-brother, and the 'Confederate Lords' rebelled against Queen Mary and raised an army in Edinburgh.
Mary surrendered at the Battle of Carberry Hill on 15 June 1567 and was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle. On 24 July 1567 she abdicated.Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", David Como and Michael Questier, Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), p. 46. Her infant son was crowned as James VI of Scotland on 29 July 1567 and Moray was made Regent of Scotland.
At this time rumours spread that Mary had abdicated because of the discovery of letters which incriminated her. The letters were reportedly discovered on 20 June.Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", David Como and Michael Questier, Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), p. 46. At the end of July 1567, the Earl of Moray, who was in London, told Guzmán de Silva, Spanish ambassador to England, that he had heard of the finding of a letter in Mary's own handwriting to Bothwell which implicated her in the murder of Lord Darnley. He had not revealed this to Queen Elizabeth.Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", David Como and Michael Questier, Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), p. 65.Calendar State Papers Spain (Simancas), vol.1 ( London, 1892), no. 434 via British History Online
Discovery of the casket The casket of letters was said to have been in Edinburgh Castle, and given by the keeper John Balfour to Bothwell's messenger Thomas Hepburn of Auldamstocks. It was then obtained by Mary's political opponents.Thomas Thomson, History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, 2 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1842), p. 367. By the end of August 1567, Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London, had heard that letters in Mary's handwriting urging Bothwell to hurry up with the killing of Darnley had been found in a box of Bothwell's papers, and the Bishop sent this news to the Reformer Henry Bullinger in Geneva.H. Robinson, ed., Zurich Letters, 1558-1579, Epistolae Tigurinae (Cambridge 1842), 197-8 in English, 117 Latin, "Fama est, in scriniis Bothwellii inventas fuisse literas ipsiusmet Reginae manu scriptas, in quibus Bothwellius ad necem regis mariti accelerandum hortata est."
According to the document called "Hay's Book of Articles," compiled by Alexander Hay for the Confederate Lords in November 1568, which narrates events from Darnley's murder to Moray's Regency, the casket and letters were found and made known before Queen Mary agreed to abdicate, and public opinion after their discovery had brought her to that decision.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 558. The articles state that the Earl of Bothwell while planning his escape from Scotland, sent his servant, or "chalmerchild" George Dalgleish, to fetch the letters from Edinburgh Castle, so that the "ground of the cause should never come to light".John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scots and her accusers, 1 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1869), p. 548. However, after recovering the letters, Dalgleish was captured by Mary's enemies, among them James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton.Tricia A. McElroy, 'John Leslie and Mary, Queen of Scot's defence', Steven J. Reid, Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Boydell, 2024), 235: Joseph Bain, Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 558.
In September 1568, the Earl of Morton officially handed the casket, "ane silver box owergilt with gold", and letters to Regent Moray.John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 641.John Duncan Mackie, "Queen Mary's Jewels", Scottish Historical Review, 18 (Glasgow, 1920), p. 86. Morton declared he had not altered the contents of the casket and Moray promised to kept them intact and available to Morton and the Confederate Lords in order that they could explain their actions in future; "quhen-so-evir thai sal haif to do thair-with, for manifesting of the ground and equitie of their procedingis."John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scots and her accusers, 1 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1869), p. 341: John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1545-1569, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1879), p. 641.
Morton gave testimony about the discovery of the casket in December 1568. He said that on 20 June 1567, Dalgleish had offered, under the threat of torture, to take his captors to a house in Potterrow, Edinburgh.HMC 5th Report: Manuscripts of Alexander Malet (London, 1883), pp. 308-9: T.F. Henderson in Casket Letters, pp. 90–104 & appendix A, and in Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, vol. 2, pp. 730–731.Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", David Como and Michael Questier, Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), p. 46. Under a bed, they found a silver box engraved with an "F" (perhaps for Francis II of France), containing the Casket letters and a number of other documents, including the Mary-Bothwell marriage certificate.Joseph Bain, Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, vol. 2, pp. 569-571, 730-1.
Moray convened his Privy Council on 4 December 1567. They made and signed a statement in preparation for the Parliament to enact Mary's abdication, which stated the letters demonstrated Mary's involvement in the murder; in so far as by diverse her previe letters writtin and subscrivit with hir awin hand and sent by hir to James erll Boithvile chief executor of the said horrible murthour,... it is maist certain that sche wes previe, art and part (complicit) and of the actuale devise (plot) and deid of the foir-nemmit murther of her lawful husband the King our sovereign lord's father.CSP. Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 398 no. 632.
Mary escaped from Lochleven and made her way to England in May 1568. Her status was uncertain, as she had been accused of crimes and misrule. Elizabeth I of England ordered an inquiry into the question of whether Queen Mary should be tried for the murder of Darnley, as accused by the Scottish Lords who had deposed Queen Mary the year before. Moray came to England and showed the casket letters or copies of the letters to Queen Elizabeth's officers at conferences at York and Westminster.
Conference at York, Westminster, and Hampton Court
Nearly a year later, in October 1568, the Earl of Moray produced the Casket letters and the "Ainslie Tavern Bond" at a conference in York, headed by Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.Jade Scott, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots (London: Michael O'Mara Books, 2024), p. 97: John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scotland and her Accusers, 1 (Edinburgh, 1869), pp. 387–443.Retha M. Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), pp. 173–174.
Moray produced the schedule of accusations known as the "Book of Articles" on 6 November 1568 at Westminster, and showed the casket letters again on 7 and 8 December.John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scotland and her Accusers, 1 (Edinburgh, 1869), pp. 522, 549.Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", David Como and Michael Questier, Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), p. 43. The letters were contained in "a small gilded coffer of not fully one foot long, being garnished in many places with the Roman letter F set under a royal crown".Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", David Como and Michael Questier, Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), pp. 44, 52: Antonia Fraser, Mary, Queen of Scots (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), p. 426: John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scotland and her Accusers, 1 (Edinburgh, 1869), p. 550.
On 8 December, Moray showed the commissioners seven papers written in French in the "Roman hand" or italic, including a "sonnet" beginning, "O Dieux ayez de moy". Moray claimed the papers showed his sister's love for Bothwell and her involvement in Darnley's murder. Copies and translations into English were made of these texts by clerks including John Somers.Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), p. 64. A marriage contract between Mary and Bothwell made at Seton Palace on 5 April 1567 was exhibited. This document may have been a contemporary forgery.John Guy, My Heart is My Own: Mary, Queen of Scots (London, 2004), p. 400: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 580 no. 921: HMC 6th Report: Leconfield (London, 1877), p. 306: HMC 5th Report: Duke of Sutherland (London, 1876), p. 213.British Library Add MS 48027 f.277, copy of the Seton marriage contract The next day, the Earl of Morton submitted a signed declaration about the finding of the casket by the Earl of Morton.Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", David Como and Michael Questier, Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), p. 52: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 571 no. 913, 576 no. 916.
On 10 December Moray, the Bishop of Orkney, the Commendator of Dunfermline and Patrick Lord Lindsay signed a document swearing the letters were in Mary's handwriting, and on 12 December at Hampton Court, Moray's secretary John Wood showed this statement to the Lord Keeper, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Bedford, the Earl of Leicester, the Lord Admiral, William Cecil, Ralph Sadler, and Walter Mildmay.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 578-9.
The letters, sonnets, divorce and marriage contract were examined at Hampton Court on 14 December 1568, and the handwriting compared with Mary's letters to Queen Elizabeth.Simon Adams, "The Casket Letters: Controversy and Conspiracy", David Como and Michael Questier, Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere, 1500–1850 (Boydell, 2025), p. 52. The evidence produced by the Scottish Earls, who were now sworn to secrecy by the English Privy council, was perhaps bewildering; the whole writings lying altogether upoun the counsel table, the same were showed one after another by hap [chance], as the same did ly on the table, than with any choyse made, as by the natures thereof, if time had so served might have been.Goodall, Examination, Volume 2, p. 256-259.