Tudor Minute February 3, 1587: Mary Queen of Scots’ death warrant

Today in 1587 Elizabeth I’s privy council met at William Cecil’s rooms in Greenwich and decided to send Mary Queen of Scots’ death warrant, signed by Elizabeth, to Fotheringhay.

The Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent agreed to oversee the execution, and everyone decided to keep it a secret from Elizabeth until it was done. On February 1 Elizabeth had signed the death warrant and given it to her secretary, William Davison. She claimed that she had told him to keep the warrant until she had given her permission for him to share it. But he said that Elizabeth specifically said that she wanted the execution to take place as soon as possible because he was worried about plots to rescue her. The Privy Council decided to act before Elizabeth could change her mind.

That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th-century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.

Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.

She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).

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