Chapter XIII: Westminster

"It appertaynes to ye duty we owe to our dearest
mother that like honour should be done to her body,
and like monument be extant to her as ourselves have
already performed to our deare sister ye late Queen
Elizabeth."--James VI. 28th Sept. 1612.

Sixteen years after the ceremony we have described in the last chapter James, now King of England, at last desired to show some mark of respect to his mother's memory, and Sir William Dethick was again intrusted with this mission.

On the 14th of August 1603 he was sent to Peterborough with "a rich pall of velvet, embroidered with the arms of the mighty princess Mary Queene of Scotts." He was also the bearer of letters to the Bishop of Peterborough to ask leave to place it on the coffin, which, being obtained, the pall was "by him caryed and laid uppon and over the corps of the said late Queene, assisted by many knights and gentlemen." A large concourse of people were present at the ceremony. The Bishop preached a sermon suitable to the occasion in the morning, and in the afternoon the Dean "preached of the same." In the interval there was a splendid banquet. "Then the Queene of Scotland," says our authority quaintly, "was most royally and sumptuously (re)enterred by the said gentee on the 14th August."[200]

[Footnote 200: Harl. MSS., 293, p. 211.]

_Medallion containing
Miniature of Mary Queen of Scots
and Relics
now in the possession of Lady Milford._]

Nine years later James, after erecting the well-known monument to Queen Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey, determined to do the same honour to his mother. He therefore addressed the following letter to the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough:[201]--

[Footnote 201: _History of Fotheringay._ By some confusion of dates the year 1587 is here given instead of 1603.]

TO THE DEAN AND CHAPTER OF PETERBOROUGH.[202]

[Footnote 202: _Antiquities of Fotheringay_, p. 59. Noble's
_Hist. of the College of Arms_, p. 200.]

To our trusty and well-beloved the Dean and Chapter
of our Cathedral Church of Peterborough; and in their
absence, to the Right Reverend Father in God, the Bishop
of Peterborough, and to such of the Prebendaries and other
officers of the Church as shall be found there.

JAMES R.

Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well, for that we
think it appertains to the duty we owe to our dearest
mother that like honour should be done to her body and
like monument be extant of her, as others, hers, and our
progenitors have been used to be done, and ourselves
have already performed to our dear sister the late Queen
Elizabeth, we have commanded a memorial of her to be made
in our Church of Westminster, the place where the kings and
queens of this realm are usually interred: and for that
we think it inconvenient that the monument and her body
should be in several places; we have ordered that her said
body, remaining now interred in that our cathedral church
of Peterborough, shall be removed to Westminster, to the
Reverend father in God, our right trusty and well-beloved
servant the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, bearer
therof; to whom we require you (or to such as he shall
assign) to deliver the corps of our said dearest mother,
the same being taken up in as decent and respectful manner
as is fitting. And for that there is a Pall now upon the
hearse over her grave which will be requisite to be used
to cover her said body in the removing therof, which may
perhaps be deemed as a fee that should belong to the
Church; we have appointed the said reverend father to pay
you a reasonable redemption for the same, which being done
by him, we require you that he may have the pall to be used
for the purpose aforesaid.[203] Given under our signet at
our honour of Hampton Court, the eight and twentieth day
of September in the tenth year of our reign of England,
France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the six and fortieth.

[Footnote 203: The same as sent nine years before. Oh, royal economy!]

Here follows a memorandum to this effect:--

These Letters were delivered to the Right Reverend father
in God, the Lord Bishop of Peterborough, and to me, Henry
Williamson, one of the Prebends of the said Cathedral
Church, in the absence of the Dean and the rest of our
Prebends, and the contents therof were executed the fourth
day of October, in the year aforesaid,

(signed) W.K.

Although no doubt the removal of the body was effected with great solemnity and state, no detailed record of the ceremony has been discovered. The beautiful tomb in Westminster is too well known to need description. In it we see, as remarks one of Mary's latest historians, if not a memorial of filial piety, at least a mark of James's taste for art.[204] The effigy of the Queen seems to have been taken from a contemporary portrait, possibly from the fine picture still in the possession of the Earl of Morton, but neither this fact nor the name of the sculptor can now be known.

[Footnote 204: Chantelauze, p. 433.]

Our task is now concluded. At the foot of Queen Mary's tomb we lay this small tribute to her memory.