Elizabeth I vs The Catholics: Killing the Queen of Scots (Part 6)

**Tom Holland** (0:03)
Hello, everyone. And before today's show, I have incredibly exciting news for you about a live show. On Friday, the 4th of September, Dominic and I will be at The South Bank to do something that we have not done before. So you will be the first people to hear it. We are telling the story of what is the ultimate Victorian adventure. The date is 1868 The location is Abyssinia, and the Emperor of Abyssinia has been writing letters to Queen Victoria, who rather rudely has not replied to them.
So the Emperor of Abyssinia, annoyed about this, has kidnapped a number of British subjects. In response, Britain sends an expedition to rescue the captives. And it is no exaggeration to say, it is massive.
On this expedition, 13,000 soldiers, 40,000 animals, including 44 elephants, and the British even put down a railway line to transport everything. It's an incredible story full of jaw-dropping events, ludicrous characters, lots of moustaches, lots of general Victorian shenanigans. And as I say, it is the first time that we have ever done it on The Rest Is History. I don't want to blow our trumpet, but I think it's going to be an absolute Rest Is History classic. So if you want to get a ticket for the ultimate Victorian adventure at the Southbank in London on Friday, the 4th of September, you know where to go. therestishistory.com.

**Dominic Sandbrook** (1:59)
The affairs being thus prepared, and forces in readiness both without and within the realm, then shall it be time to set the six gentlemen to work, taking order that on the accomplishing of their design I may be suddenly transported out of this place, and that all your forces in the same time be on the field to meet me, as we await the arrival of the foreign aid, which then must be hastened with all diligence. So that is an extract from one of the most consequential letters in all British history. It was written on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots, brought up, educated in France, hence the accent. It was written actually by one of her secretaries, and it was written on the evening of the 17th of July, 1586 It was then transcribed into a secret code, and then early the following morning, it was sent to a young Catholic gentleman whose name was Anthony Babington. And at the end of the letter, there was a PS which read as follows, fail not to burn this present quickly.
And you can understand why somebody put that PS in there, because what is in this letter could not be more sensitive, more incendiary, because what Mary is doing there, Tom, she's giving the green light, isn't she, to something that has been mooted for so many years, the operation to overthrow her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England, and take the throne herself.

**Tom Holland** (3:35)
Yes, and it is projected that this will be combined with an armed uprising in England itself, and that this uprising will release Mary from her captivity. It will be coordinated with an invasion from France. And Elizabeth's fate, Mary does not explicitly say what this is to be, but her meaning is clear, because 17 days earlier, this young Catholic gentleman, Anthony Babington, had written a letter to Mary and had proposed in this letter, the assassination of the woman he described as the usurper, in other words, Elizabeth. So he'd written, there be six noble gentlemen, all my private friends, who for the zeal they bear to the Catholic cause and your majesty's service will undertake that tragical execution, in other words, the assassination. So Mary, you know, after 17 days to write her reply, she has been mulling over what she should say, mulling it over and over in her mind. But now at last she has made up her mind. And that's the significance of that otherwise kind of enigmatic phrase. Then shall it be time to set the six gentlemen to work.
In other words, get the assassination squad out there.
Let them kill Elizabeth.

**Dominic Sandbrook** (5:01)
So this is the sixth episode that we've done in this series on the golden age of Elizabeth I, the rivalry with Spain. The war in the shadows, but also the war at sea with Sir Francis Drake and all of this. A Mary Queen of Scots has been this presence throughout the whole series. She's been in captivity, but she hasn't really been sent to stage.
Now we did a previous series about Mary Queen of Scots, which listeners can look up. We did that in 2025 if they're interested. Let's pull back the camera and talk about exactly who she is. She is Elizabeth's cousin.