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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. In particular, the text of the letters was taken to imply that Queen Mary colluded with Bothwell in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley. Mary's contemporary supporters, including Adam Blackwood dismissed them as complete forgeries or letters written by the Queen's servant Mary Beaton.〔Blackwood, Adam, ''History of Mary Queen of Scots'', Maitland Club (1834), pp.82-8.〕 The authenticity of the letters, now known only by copies, continues to be debated. Some historians argue that they were forgeries concocted in order to discredit Queen Mary, and ensure that Elizabeth I supported the kingship of the infant James VI of Scotland, rather than his mother. ==Political background: the abdication and the letters== The Queen'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, was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle, and on 24 July 1567 abdicated. 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. At the end of July 1567, the Earl of Moray, who was in London, told Guzman 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.〔(''Calendar State Papers Spain (Simancas)'', vol.1 (1892), no.434 ) via British History Online〕 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 sciptas, in quibus Bothwellius ad necem regis mariti accelerandum hortata est."〕 According to the document called "Hay's Book of Articles," compiled by 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 (1900), p. 558, Hay's Articles〕 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 (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" to Elizabeth's officers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Casket letters」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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