The Bardon papers : documents relating to the imprisonment & trial of Mary Queen of Scots / edited for the Royal Historical Society by Conyers Read ; with a prefatory note by Charles Cotton.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Bardon papers : documents relating to the imprisonment & trial of Mary Queen of Scots / edited for the Royal Historical Society by Conyers Read ; with a prefatory note by Charles Cotton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Jan. 1585. Sir. Fra. Inglefeild wrote to the Q[ueene] of S[cottes] that he had imparted her said petition to the Kynge of Spayne and had therwith shewed that to the Kinge many dangers she then stoode in, and that if she perished, it colde not be but veraie sclanderous and infamus to his Cath[olik] Majestie, because he, beinge (after her) the nerest Catholik that was to be found of the blond royall, shold euer be subiect to the fals suspicion and collumpniacion of leaving and abandoning her to be devoured by his competitour, for makinge the waye more open to his clayme and intrest.1 A litle before Easter last Ballarde went over into Fraunce, and within a fortnight after Easter conferred with Cha[rles] Paget and Mendoza about forreyn invasion to be made into this realme, saienge nowe was the tyme, the Erie of Leyc[ester] being out of England with the chief capteynes and the dis- contentment of the people at home considered. But Cha. Paget said it wolde not prevaile so long as the Q[ueenes] Majestie lyved. But in thend it was resolued of invasion to be made, and therupon Ballard was dispatched into England to sounde the Catholikes for aide to the invasion, and for fytte portes and landing places for the invadours, and for to procure saffe deliuery of the Q[ueen] of S[cottes] at the tyme of the invasion, and tooke an oath there for performance of that he had in chardge.2 After Ballard retorned into England and came to London on Whitsondaie, being the xxiith of Maye. 1586 (Cotton MSS. App. 1, f. 146) which he says “ is in cipher and, I think, in French. ” No copy of it appears to be preserved. Xau's explanation referred to will be found in his Memoir to Queen Elizabeth, 10 Sept. 1586 (Labanoff, vii, p. 196 seq.). 1 Cf. Englefield to Mary, 2 Jan. 1584/5 in the Record Office (S.P. Mary Q. of S. xv, no. 4). It will be found in this case, as in the citations following, that Puckering has adhered to his sources with scrupulous accuracy. 3 Chas. Paget gives an account of Ballard’s visit in a letter to Mary of jg May, 1586 (Murdin p. 516).
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