587. Mary, Queen of Scots: Murder Most Foul (Part 4)

I know not how to utter what I conceive of the pitiful and lamentable estate of this poor queen, whomever before I esteemed so worthy, so wise, so honourable in all her doings, and at this present do find so altered with affection towards the Lord Darnley, that she hath brought her honour in question, her estate in hazard, her country to be torn in pieces. Ah all men here stand in suspense. Sir Tom, that was a letter written on the twenty first of may, fifteen sixty five, by Sir Thomas Randolph, the English ambassador to Scotland.

Now Sir Thomas Randolph is the bloke who has been sent to the Scottish court by William Cecil, and as we discovered last time he is Elizabeth I's chief minister and he is a man committed to destroying the life and career of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. But he's gone a bit native, has he, or has he fallen for her charms? Yeah, I think he has fallen for her charms. Men, unless they're William Cecil, do tend to fall for her charms. And when he first arrived at the court and met Mary, he wrote back to Cecil saying, I've never found myself so happy, nor never so well treated.

So I I mean I wonder what Cecil made of that. And he was particularly smitten by uh Mary Beaton, who was the prettiest of the four Marys, Mary Queen of Scots squad. And this was despite the fact that there was a 20-year age gap between them. So he's complaining about Mary's infatuation with Darnley, but I mean he's definitely a man for an embarrassing infatuation. himself.

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