Send us a text

Artwork    •    The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587, drawn by Robert Beale (1541-1601), Clerk of the Privy Council to Queen Elizabeth I, who wrote the official record of the execution to which he was an eyewitness. 

The evening before the execution he had read-out to Mary her death warrant and informed her that she was to be executed the following morning. 

Key to numbers: George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury and Henry Grey, 6th Earl of Kent are seated to the left (1 & 2) and Sir Amias Paulet, one of Mary's guards, is seated behind the scaffold (3)

 Music   1 •   Christum wir sollen loben schon, 1586     · Württemberg Chamber Choir. Lyricist: Martin Luther.  Composer: Lukas Osiander.

Martin Luther initially adapted his melody from the Latin hymn melodies associated with 'A solis ortus cardine' by Caelius Sedulius to make it suitable for his German verse. 

The chorale text and melody first appeared in print in Erfurt 'Enchiridion' in 1524.

Music   2 •  Miserere Mei.      Composer: Gregorio Allegri (c. 1582–1652) 

Composed for the Sistine Chapel Choir to be sung during the Tenebrae services of Holy Week.

"Miserere mei" is Latin for "Have mercy on me, O God," the opening words of Psalm 51. The phrase is most famously known from the Gregorio Allegri motet Miserere (c. 1630s), a sacred choral piece and known for its complex polyphony and use of a high, soaring vocal line.

There are some writings which Seethe, with a barely concealed anger, even after more than four centuries.

Two memoranda by Robert Beale, Clerk to the Privy Council under Queen Elizabeth the first, exemplify this; in them, he expresses his outrage at Elizabeth’s efforts to shift the blame for the death of Mary Queen of Scots.

After agreeing to the assassination of Mary, Elizabeth would later blame Secretary of State William Davison and the Privy Council, for executing the very death warrant, she had signed.