Hello, my name's David Rundsenman and this is past, present, future, the History of Ideas

podcast. Today, in our series Politics on Trial, I'm going to be talking about the trial of a queen, Mary, Queen of Scots.

This is the story of the rivalry between two queens, Mary and Queen Elizabeth of England.

But it's also the story about the rivalry between both of those queens and the English state,

the men who claim to represent the state, who were the servants of

Queen Elizabeth, who thought their job was to protect Queen Elizabeth, but who also asserted

the right of the state to judge a queen. It's a story of plots and conspiracies of the secret state

and the workings of the secret state.

And all of that was revealed at the trial of Mary Queen of Scots as well.

Mary Queen of Scots was put on trial in October 1586 and she was executed just over three months later in February 1587.

But that pair of events was the culmination of a much, much longer story.

So this trial has a bigger and longer prehistory than any of the

ones I've talked about so far. The trial of Thomas Moore is pretty drawn out. It's the end of a long

story. But this was a two decades long story, at least. A two decades long story of rivalry between

Elizabeth and Mary, dating back to67, when Mary was effectively driven out

of Scotland, the place where she claimed to be the legitimate queen by her opponents and had to

throw herself on the mercy of her cousin Elizabeth in England. She hoped Elizabeth would support

her and support her in getting her thrown back. Elizabeth didn't.

Elizabeth effectively put her under house arrest and didn't really know what to do with her

from that point almost to the day that Mary was executed.

Elizabeth was in a quandary about Mary.

She saw that she was a threat, but at the same time she was extremely

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