00:07:10.180She's exactly who I thought she was, which was reassuring and like exciting.
00:07:14.480but yeah so in the one letter she wrote this gentleman who will be called between us
00:07:18.880la tour and that's why i sent allison so i was like this gentleman between us known as wd-40
00:07:25.340councilman jeremy jam so exciting so exciting so just to recap because perhaps if you're not just
00:07:37.460binging all these episodes in a day like some sort of person who has 12 hours in a row last time we
00:07:43.460were talking about, Mary went to England. There was this fake show trial that ended with her1.00
00:07:48.760being found neither guilty nor innocent of Darnley's murder. And so she's just in a holding
00:07:53.120pattern. But basically, there was the Norland Rebellion. There was no obvious connection
00:07:58.620between that. But the Rodolfi plot kind of made it seem like, oh, and this is probably like,
00:08:04.020did Cecil get Rodolfi to do all this? Because basically, Mary was no longer being held captive
00:08:08.360because she might have killed Darnley. She's not captive because by her perhaps involvement in the
00:08:13.220Rodolfi plot, she had maybe tried to kill Elizabeth. So it's just like, Cecil had reason
00:08:18.520to keep her there now indefinitely. Elizabeth refused to condemn her. Parliament kept trying
00:08:24.780to force Elizabeth to treat Mary as a common subject and put her on trial. But Elizabeth0.99
00:08:28.280always refused that because Mary was a queen. She was not Elizabeth's subject. This would0.98
00:08:33.380undermine Elizabeth, like the authority of queens in general. But she did agree if Mary did anything
00:08:39.380again. Like they're really fencing her in with these like, if anyone thinks that Elizabeth might
00:08:44.380die, if someone else does a rebellion, even if it wasn't Mary, she'll be liable. Like if she did
00:08:49.540anything ever again, she could be tried by a set of nobles is what Elizabeth decided. So Cecil is
00:08:56.600just like, okay, like I really need to get indisputable evidence to get Elizabeth, this
00:09:01.900person who just like will never commit to anything to actually agree to find Mary guilty of something.
00:09:08.920So like the laws are set up so that it can be the flimsiest evidence possible. But Elizabeth personally is not going to give him the go ahead unless she's sure. So they still do. They can't just like wave their hands and say she's guilty. They still need something, not for legal reasons, but for convince the queen so she'll pull the trigger reason.
00:09:30.180exactly and so they needed like cecil and walsingham need mary to be complete like clearly
00:09:35.940complicit in a plot to murder elizabeth and the evidence has it can't just be casket letters0.91
00:09:40.760erotic fan fiction it needs to be like mary writing in a letter like hell yeah let's kill liz0.97
00:09:46.040like they need that meanwhile mary at this point disenchanted with the legal quote-unquote system1.00
00:09:53.300which i presume she hadn't for a while so she needed to scheme her way out of this on her own0.94
00:09:57.440Like, before she'd been like, I'm just going to wait until Elizabeth, like, sees my son.
00:39:31.780George Buchanan the writer of the erotic fan fiction like that's who he's with he's like if
00:39:39.400you watch the Doctor Who episode where Ellen Cumming plays adult James he it's the best Lana
00:39:45.960agrees it's the best casting it's just like bisexual realness but Scottish person but the0.91
00:39:53.620trauma he shows in this kind of like whimsical episode of just like how he was raised to hate0.51
00:39:59.040his mother and how he absorbed that and how that transfers into a hatred and mistrust of women
00:40:04.260and people like it's real like this is like the root of some like the king james bible would0.79
00:40:11.580perhaps be very different had mary raised him all of the witch panics of the 1700s like this is the
00:40:18.540whole thing yeah no it's a real canon so he's being raised there mary is sending letters and
00:40:24.480Gifts, including hand-embroidered items, a book of poems and her own handwriting.
00:40:29.900She had different gifts she wanted to send him, little toy guns and things, and just like none of them were sent to him.
00:40:35.800Toy guns, like the one he used to kill my brother.
00:40:40.480She also, notably, so she created in her like embroidery frenzy, a set of bed hangings that basically tell the story of their family tree and of her life and of his life.
00:40:51.600so it's got the emblems of the royal dynasties that they are both connected to um the house0.95
00:40:55.980like geese the valois the stewart lorraine along with in her way like she's doing spy shit she's
00:41:02.920embroidering with these like meaningful images where you're just like oh look a cat but then
00:41:07.440you learn like what it means so these hangings also have like her experience of captivity was
00:41:12.180illustrated through illustrations of a bird in a cage a lion in a net a porcupine among sea rocks
00:41:17.960or on a more hopeful theme, an apple tree growing on a thorn with the motto, her cause increased by
00:41:25.180captivity. I love her inclusion of little like really meaningful phrases with images. Like
00:41:32.900she's really got an eye anyway. So through it, all of this, like this is still happening. She's
00:41:39.160scheming. She's doing all this stuff, but like, again, like check in with her various health1.00
00:41:43.300issues so like she's not thriving mentally or physically she's not allowed to move um she can't
00:41:51.520go outside like mentally she's going been going through it for several years her hair was turning
00:41:56.820gray with stress and illness um she had it cut off to try and help her headaches like maybe her0.63
00:42:02.720hair was hurting her head mary seaton worked her magic with wigs and stuff i love mary seaton
00:42:09.500And Mary Seaton is like, I love, I love that Mary Seaton was there for.
00:42:14.480When we get down to talking about the supporting performance, like Mary Seaton.
00:53:30.480This, I promise, all leads back to Mary.
00:53:32.440But she writes about this, so I had to learn about it.
00:53:34.560So Esme Stewart was a cousin of Darnley's, like, surname Stewart. So he's also tall and hot, like Darnley. He's 37 years old, an adult man. And when he arrived in Scotland, little 13-year-old bisexual baby BJ is just like, who is this tall, hot person?
00:53:51.000oh my god i love that baby's first crush he is it's like how people claimed mary acted when she0.67
00:54:01.300met darnley but actually like james was like this when he met esme so within a few months
00:54:07.420bj had he like esme was his main advisor he gave him titles including he's the new lord darnley
00:54:15.100which is a title not a name but i we use it like a name perfect so he called so he makes esme the
00:54:22.420new lord darnley and also the new earl of lennox which was his grandfather's title so when mary
00:54:27.620writes about him she calls him the earl of lennox and that's how the cryptographers are able to date
00:54:31.700one of the letters because esme they know when he was named the earl it was just there's just one
00:54:36.880july where he was the earl they're like so that must be this year of this letter so like that was0.94
00:54:40.660how they solved that anyway so the asshole lords very much still on the scene in scotland they're0.76
00:54:46.480upset about this because they didn't want anyone else influencing him other than them also esme0.96
00:54:50.920used to be catholic but had converted to be protestant but they're like he used to be catholic
00:54:55.400anyway it's just a bunch of guys named james signing documents being chaotic at one point
00:55:03.360they were threatening esme to the point that esme and 24 his armed followers had to barricade0.86
00:55:08.280themselves overnight against the asshole lords who i guess were like but we have the paperwork0.98
00:55:11.980we're gonna murder you or whatever it was old as time meanwhile bj giving esme jewels he had0.98
00:55:19.160inherited from his mother i don't know if it's the turtle but i feel like if that was there0.82
00:55:24.060he'd be like i understand that this turtle jewel has significance esme you are my ritual turtle
00:55:30.260yeah so then a new scottish man this is like the years are passing by and titles are being
00:55:38.080inherited by different people so i was doing so much it's like is this the same guy no it's his0.93
00:55:41.820son so a new guy called james stewart not hollywood icon jimmy stewart another fucking james stewart0.87
00:55:48.340some other guy from some other branch of the family anyway he publicly accused so0.90
00:55:53.920customer jeremy jam is still around he's just not the regent anymore but this guy other james stewart
00:56:00.080hollywood icon jimmy stewart wearing a mustache in disguise i don't know he publicly excused jeremy
00:56:05.400jam of having been involved in the darling murder like he said this in parliament or something
00:56:09.540so jeremy jam was arrested and taken into custody it's like despite the fact that like everyone here
00:56:15.260was complicit in the darling y'all did this every single one of you probably this other james stewart
00:56:20.000too anyway so later he confessed that bothwell had told him about the plan but jeremy jam swore
00:56:25.860he hadn't been personally involved but he was found guilty and was executed by an early version
01:10:37.500Because they know if she has people around who she can trust, then she's going to get secret messages out and she's going to go find an army somewhere because she can.
01:10:44.480There's this sweet moment in one of the letters where she writes to Castlenow thanking him for sending her a portrait of James, her son.
01:10:50.600She asks, who was it painted by and when?
01:10:52.720Because she finds it looks different from other portraits she had already received, which is just heartbreaking.
01:10:56.820Because she's just like, what does he look like?
01:10:58.380Is this more accurate than the other one?
01:18:45.300He had been manipulated into doing this.
01:18:46.900And the significance of him was to confirm the extent of the Spanish involvement in seeking to overthrow Elizabeth.0.96
01:18:52.980So he didn't really have, this is called the Throckmorton plot, but it's just kind of like Throckmorton is a dumbass, is what happened.0.92
01:19:01.900Yes, the Throckmorton got caught plot.0.94
01:19:07.480But he does have the most memorable name of anyone involved in this plot, so I understand why they did that.
01:19:12.120I understand, yeah, no, Throckmorton is a great name.1.00
01:19:13.820But still, Mary and her allies, like, they're on their shit.0.99
01:19:18.060So even after Thrako 2.0 was arrested, another guy was able to carry Mary's confidential letters for, like, another year after this, like, without being caught.0.99
01:29:50.920no and also elizabeth like james had been raised to hate mary and to think she she had killed0.88
01:29:57.200darnley and then she was a whore and etc but also elizabeth had bought his loyalty with money
01:30:02.160and also the vague promise that he would be her heir so he sacrificed mary to improve his chances0.93
01:30:08.060of becoming king of england next mary wrote to elizabeth i am so grievously offended at my heart
01:30:14.040at the impiety and ingratitude that my child has been constrained to commit against me
01:30:19.640And her household staff had decreased because Amias Pollitt was not going to pay Mr. Best
01:30:25.480levels of money to keep her living. I'm guessing there's no more 16 course meals.
01:30:30.980So she's just at like the betrayal she felt at what James did. Like she was,
01:30:36.780it was quite a period of time where she's just with Amias Pollitt, not able to do anything.
01:30:40.380And then James betrays her. So she's at like emotionally, physically a really low point,
01:30:45.080which is where Cecil and Walsingham wanted her, because that would make her desperate and willing0.99
01:30:49.060to go along with a plot that previously she might have thought was pretty stupid. Which brings us to0.99
01:30:54.600Tony Babs, Anthony Babington. So to recap from last time, so at age 10, he'd become a ward to
01:31:02.940Mr. Best and he'd been a page in that household. So he met Mary. Then he went, or do you want to,
01:31:07.360what do you know about him? Tell us, Tony Babs is in your book. What do you know about him?
01:31:10.240I know him mostly in the context of the plot, but he is a nobleman of like medium quality. He's not like particularly powerful. He was, yeah, came through as a page in the house and then he's kind of making his way in the world. He's not destitute, but he's not like a rich and powerful person who is really helpful to have on your side necessarily.
01:31:32.180He's also played in the movie Elizabeth the Golden Age by Eddie Redmayne. So that's who I picture.
01:39:36.840So when Gilbert Gottfried showed up and he was like, hey, I'm your new household servant and I'm able to smuggle letters in and out between you and your supporters.
01:56:52.580So Mary is taken to Fatheringay Castle, and she's told she's going to be put on trial.
01:56:57.200Because remember, even though she's a queen now, there's a thing where it's like, these like 17 specific to her laws are like, well, if Mary...
01:57:04.380The Mary Queen of Scots specifically can be put on trial law was passed seven years ago.
02:04:53.680And so Elizabeth went to Amias Pollitt and was like, can you like quietly poison her food so she can just kind of like die of like, quote unquote, national, like natural causes?
02:05:03.380And Amias Pollitt, to his credit, was like, I'm a Puritan.
02:23:47.220Because you all heard me get extremely excited about Ryan Phillippe because I think that
02:23:51.200role is so interesting. And I was like, okay, what would it be like if that person
02:23:55.760was also a dumbass gay disaster? That is what I did.1.00
02:23:59.980Exactly. And then for people who want to keep up with you and what you're up to, you have a website?
02:24:07.820I do. Alisonepstein.com. That website also links to my sub stack, which is Dirtbags Through the Ages, which features many of the assholes we've discussed in this Mary Queen of Scots series, as well as numerous others and why they suck.
02:24:21.420And if people want to go back and listen, you've been on numerous episodes of this podcast,
02:24:25.800but the very first appearance you did was when A Tip for the Hangman first came out and you were
02:24:29.760talking about Christopher Marlowe. So if you want to go back and hear you sort of explain more about
02:24:35.120the book and about Christopher Marlowe and what bits of history you took to extrapolate to be
02:24:41.800like, what if he was Ryan Phillippe? Like we talk about that there. If you scroll back in your
02:24:46.440vulgar history on your pod catcher you can see that and i usually have notes in front of me but
02:24:52.960this document i didn't have notes so i'm going to try to remember off the top of my head
02:24:55.660so on instagram i'm on instagram at vulgar history pod i'm on tiktok at vulgar history
02:25:01.060and if you want transcriptions which are being done by aveline malik from the wordery you can
02:25:06.420get transcriptions of the most recent episodes at vulgar history.com just click on the episode you
02:25:11.100want. And like Evelyn is like slowly going through some of these episodes, like today's
02:25:16.180are incredibly long. So she does what she can. Anyway, we're slowly adding transcripts to
02:25:21.540episodes. And so if the one you want to read doesn't have a transcription, just check back
02:25:26.660because it'll be there shortly. And Patreon, I'm at patreon.com slash Anne Foster Writer.
02:25:33.500That's where you can get early ad free access to this podcast. Vogue or Peace Theater episodes
02:25:37.280featuring allison and also our friend lana uh talking about various costume dramas from history
02:25:43.180i do think i'm gonna this isn't finalized and it's just a proposal but i think the three of us
02:25:49.260should watch the saoirse ronan mary queen of scots movie i think that would be very interesting
02:25:54.800i think we we have to at this point i feel like there has to be at least one mary queen of scots
02:26:01.040film and that's gonna be the easiest one to find and i think it will be interesting for me because
02:26:06.240i watched that when it came out but now that i know who so many of the men are i'll be like
02:26:10.320that's that guy oh my god hollywood i've been jimmy stewart like instead of just like i don't
02:26:13.900know who all these men are so i'll just focus on mary i'll be like that guy that guy scotch
02:26:17.980mackie it's a douglas oh my god a douglas yeah i think that will be a thing i will yell in that
02:26:23.960movie anyway so that's coming up and is that everything oh merch yes most importantly the
02:26:31.080new merch that i have the um a cat named hepburn merch which is inspired by mary's own cat
02:26:36.940embroidery so uh which is but instead of a ginger cat representing elizabeth and a shapeless blob
02:26:43.300of a mouse representing mary's psychological devastation it's a tortoiseshell cat who looks
02:26:49.380happy who represents my cat hepburn who has been walking in and out of this recording this whole
02:26:53.300time and a cute little mouse who's happy and they're friends so it's a very different vibe
02:26:57.860from Mary's Embroidery. Anyway, you can get that on a t-shirt, a sticker, a pin, a mug,
02:27:03.440what I got for myself, a pillow just to have a real Mary, Queen of Scots, trees and cushion
02:27:07.920vibe. Anyway, you can get that out at vulgarhistory.com slash store where it's best for
02:27:13.480American people. And then vulgarhistory.redbubble.com is if you're in another country,
02:27:18.520the shipping is better at that website. Alison, you've dedicated so many hours of your life