The Casket Letters

In June, 1567, Mary Queen of Scots was captured by Scottish rebels. A few days later, servants of James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, claimed to have found a silver casket in the possession of a retainer of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. In the casket were eight letters and some sonnets. Contemporaries, and historians since, have disagreed as to their authenticity.

One letter (if genuine) seems to back up the charge that Mary and Bothwell together planned the murder of Mary's first husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley.

By December of 1568, Mary was a prisoner of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, who found Mary an inconvenient competitor for the crown of England. Elizabeth appointed a commission to investigate the charges of Mary and the rebel Scottish lords against each other. On December 14, 1568, the casket letters were given to the commissioners.

The casket contents were returned to Morton, who was himself executed in 1581. The casket letters disappeared a few years later. Some historians suspect that King James VI of Scotland (James I of England), son of Darnley and Mary, may have been responsible for the disappearance.

The letters were at the time subject to controversy. Were the casket letters forgeries or authentic? Their appearance was very convenient for the case against Mary. That controversy continues today, and is unlikely to be resolved. As historians still contend over Mary's role in planning Darnley's murder, other more circumstantial evidence is weighed.