February 8, 1537
True Crime Historian
Richard O Jones
4.4 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
February 8, 1587.
The Great Hall has been transformed into a theater of death. A scaffold, two feet high and covered in black cloth, stands in the center. A fire crackles in the hearth, fighting the winter chill, but it does little to warm the blood of the three hundred spectators crowded into the room.
They are waiting for a woman who has been a prisoner for nineteen years. A woman who was Queen of France at sixteen, Queen of Scotland at birth, and who—according to the government of Elizabeth I—is now a condemned traitor.
When she enters the hall, she doesn't look like a criminal. She walks with a limp, yes, ravaged by rheumatism, but her head is high. She wears black satin over velvet, a long white veil flowing to the ground, and a rosary hangs from her waist. She looks every inch the anointed sovereign.
But in less than an hour, the illusion of majesty will be shattered by the clumsy swing of an axe. This isn’t just a political execution; it is the first time in history a crowned monarch will be legally tried and put to death by another. And it will go horribly, famously wrong.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today in true crime history, the Queen's Head, the botched execution of Mary Stewart, |
| 0:10.0 | February 8, 1587. |
| 0:14.0 | It is the morning of Wednesday, February 8, 1587, the location is Fothering Hay Castle in Northamptonshire, England. The Great Hall |
| 0:23.8 | has been transformed into a theater of death. A scaffold, two feet high and covered in black |
| 0:29.6 | cloth, stands in the center. A fire crackles in the hearth, fighting the winter chill, but it does |
| 0:35.6 | little to warm the blood of the 300 spectators crowded into the room. |
| 0:40.2 | They are waiting for a woman who has been a prisoner for 19 years, a woman who was Queen of France at 16, |
| 0:47.0 | Queen of Scotland at birth, and who, according to the government of Elizabeth I, is now a condemned traitor. |
| 0:53.8 | When she enters the hall, |
| 0:55.0 | she doesn't look like a criminal. She walks with a limp, yes, ravaged by rheumatism, but her head is high. |
| 1:02.0 | She wears black satin over velvet, a long white veil flowing to the ground and a rosary hangs |
| 1:07.9 | from her waist. She looks every inch the anointed sovereign, but in less than an |
| 1:12.5 | hour the illusion of majesty will be shattered by the clumsy swing of an axe. This isn't just a |
| 1:18.4 | political execution. It is the first time in history a crowned monarch will be legally tried and put to |
| 1:24.5 | death by another, and it will go horribly, famously wrong. To understand the |
| 1:30.5 | crime, we have to understand the trap. In the world of true crime, we often talk about sting |
| 1:36.2 | operations. But what happened to Mary, Queen of Scots, wasn't just a sting. It was the sting |
| 1:42.4 | operation that invented the modern surveillance state. |
| 1:46.0 | By 1586, Mary Stewart had been imprisoned in England for nearly two decades. She was the guest |
| 1:52.4 | who couldn't leave, the Catholic alternative to the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. As long as Mary lived, |
| 1:58.8 | Elizabeth was in danger. Every Catholic plot, every Spanish threat, every whisper of rebellion in England eventually led back to Mary. But Elizabeth I was paralyzed. She couldn't just execute her cousin without proof. She needed a smoking gun, or, more accurately, a smoking letter. Enter Sir Francis Walsingham. If you're a fan of |
| 2:21.2 | spy thrillers, Walsingham is the grandfather of them all. He was Elizabeth's spymaster, a man who believed |
... |
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