Mary, Queen of Scots | Autograph letter signed, to Catherine de Medici, pleading pardon for the Cardinal of Lorraine

Mary, Queen Of Scots

Autograph letter signed ("Votres tres humble & tres obeisante fille Marie"), to Catherine de Medici ("A La Royne de france madame ma belle mere")

pleading for the pardon of her uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, claiming that he has been falsely accused and that the Queen will never feel true peace if she does not show the same ability to administer justice as the King her son did to one who has served the crown so faithfully, apologising for the passion of her plea but explaining that it is caused by the fact that she has already lost one uncle and is about to lose another, and humbly requesting that the Queen grant an audience to her ambassador, two pages, folio, integral address leaf ("A la Royne de france madame ma belle mere"), Lislebourc [ie. Edinburgh], 12 March, [1563-67], locking slits, strengthened at fold and at outer margin

"...pource que lay entendu La meschansete que quelques uns on entrepris contre mon dit oncle ie prandray la hardiesse de vous suplier de prandre autre ordre pour lexecution de la iustice [...] et pardonnes moy si ie le vous dis que ie masure que vous naures iamays entier repos que vous ne montres la puissance du roy votre fils a fayre Justice principallem[ent] a ceulx qui ont tant fayt de service a sa couronne. pardonnes moy si ien ecris pasionnemant car iay desia perdu un oncle et presque l'autre..."

A LETTER BETWEEN TWO QUEENS. Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to her native Scotland after the death of her first husband, King François II, but retained close links with the French court - where, after all, she had spent half her life. She here attempts to intercede on behalf of her powerful uncle Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, with Catherine de' Medici, who ruled on behalf of her young son Charles IX. This was a period when the French elite was split by religion and royal weakness into violently opposed factions, which was to result in intermittent civil wars for the rest of the century. The Cardinal, like other members of the Guise family, represented the ultra-Catholic faction at court and so was frequently at odds with the crown and the Queen Mother who tried to mediate with the Huguenots. Mary refers in this letter to the death of her other uncle, the Duc de Guise, who was assassinated in February 1563. The letter must date before the collapse of Mary's rule in Scotland in 1567. For another view of the French court of the 1560s see the English Ambassador's letters (lot 75).

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS BY MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, ARE EXCEPTIONALLY RARE ON THE MARKET. WE HAVE NO RECORD OF ANOTHER SUCH LETTER HAVING BEEN OFFERED FOR SALE IN MORE THAN FORTY YEARS.