The Rings of Queens Elizabeth and Mary

Let us now turn to the ring that Queen Elizabeth gave to the handsome, brave and open-hearted Devereux, Earl of Essex; and which was probably worn by him, when, on his trial, he was desired to hold up his right hand, and he said that he had, before that time, done it often at her majesty's command for a better purpose. The story of this ring has been discarded by some authors; but we see no reason to doubt it. We take our account from Francis Osborn's Traditional Memoirs on the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. "Upon this," says he, "with a great deal of familiarity, she presented a ring to him, which after she had, by oaths, endued with a power of freeing him from any danger or distress, his future miscarriage, her anger or enemies' malice could cast him into, she gave it him, with a promise that, at the first sight of it, all this and more, if possible, should be granted. After his commitment to the Tower, he sent this jewel to her majesty by the then Countess of Nottingham, whom Sir Robert Cecill kept from delivering it. But the Lady of Nottingham, coming to her death-bed and finding by the daily sorrow the Queen expressed for the loss of Essex, herself a principal agent in his destruction, could not be at rest till she had discovered all and humbly implored mercy from God and forgiveness from her earthly sovereign; who did not only refuse to give it, but having shook her as she lay in bed, sent her, accompanied with most fearful curses, to a higher tribunal." This reads like truth; and what a picture it presents! Mark the fury of such an over-bearing, half-masculine Queen; and, the repentant passiveness of the dying Countess!

Dr. Birch, in his Memoirs, says: the Queen observed, "God may forgive you, but I never can."

We are inclined to believe that Elizabeth swore pretty roundly on this occasion, as it is known she could; and that there was a violence on the occasion is even shown by Dr. Birch: he says--"The Countess of Nottingham, affected by the near approach of death, obtained a visit from the Queen, to whom she revealed the secret; that the Queen shook the dying lady in her bed, and thence-forth resigned herself to the deepest melancholy."

The melancholy continued; and this haughty woman was soon smitten; refusing to rest on a bed, from a superstition that it would be her death couch, she became almost a silent lunatic, and crouched upon the floor. There sat she, as did another queen, who cried--

"Here I and sorrow sit,

Here is my throne;"

neither rising nor lying down, her finger almost always in her mouth, her eyes open and fixed on the ground. But her indomitable will did not leave her in her death hour. She had declared she would have no rascal to succeed her; and when she was too far gone to speak, Secretary Cecil besought her, if she would have the King of Scots to reign after her, to show some sign unto them. Whereat, suddenly heaving herself up, she held both her hands joined together, over her head, in manner of a crown. Then she sank down, and dozed into another world.

The Chevalier Louis Aubery de Maurier, who was many years the French Minister in Holland, and said to have been a man of great parts and unsuspected veracity, gives the following story of the Essex ring:

"It will not, I believe, be thought either impertinent or disagreeable to add here what Prince Maurice had from the mouth of Mr. Carleton, Ambassador from England in Holland, who died Secretary of State, so well known under the name of my Lord Dorchester and who was a man of great merit. He said that Queen Elizabeth gave the Earl of Essex a ring in the height of her passion for him, ordering him to keep it, and that whatever he should commit she would pardon him when he should return that pledge. Since that time, the Earl's enemies having prevailed with the Queen, who besides was exasperated against him for the contempt he showed for her beauty, which, through age, began to decay, she caused him to be impeached. When he was condemned, she expected that he should send her the ring; and would have granted him his pardon according to her promise. The Earl finding himself in the last extremity, applied to Admiral Howard's lady, who was his relation, and desired her, by a person whom she could trust, to return the ring into the Queen's own hands. But her husband, who was one of the Earl's greatest enemies and to whom she told this imprudently, would not suffer her to acquit herself of the commission; so that the Queen consented to the Earl's death, being full of indignation against such a proud and haughty spirit who chose rather to die than to implore her mercy. Some time after, the Admiral's lady fell sick and being given over by her physicians, she sent word to the Queen that she had something of great consequence to tell her before she died. The Queen came to her bedside, and having ordered all the attendants to withdraw, the Admiral's lady returned her, but too late, that ring from the Earl of Essex, desiring to be excused that she did not return it sooner, having been prevented doing it by her husband. The Queen retired immediately, being overwhelmed with the utmost grief; she sighed continually for a fortnight following, without taking any nourishment; lying abed entirely dressed and getting up an hundred times a night. At last she died with hunger and with grief, because she had consented to the death of a lover who had applied to her for mercy. This melancholy adventure shows that there are frequent transitions from one passion to another and that as love often changes to hate, so hate, giving place sometimes to pity, brings the mind back again into its first state." Sir Dudley Carleton, who is made the author of this story, was a man who deserved the character that is given of him and could not but be well informed of what had passed at court. The Countess of Nottingham was the daughter of the Lord Viscount Hunsdon, related to the Queen and also, by his mother, to the Earl of Essex.

The story of the ring and the relations of the Queen's passion for the Earl of Essex were long regarded by many writers as romantic circumstances. But these facts are now more generally believed. Hume, Birch and other judicious historians give credit to them. Dr. Birch has confirmed Maurice's account by the following narrative, which was often related by the Lady Elizabeth Spelman, a descendant of Sir Robert Cary, Earl of Monmouth, whose acquaintance with the most secret transactions of Queen Elizabeth's court is well known:

"When Catharine, Countess of Nottingham, wife of the Lord High Admiral and sister of the Earl of Monmouth, was dying, (as she did, according to his Lordship's own account, about a fortnight before the Queen,) she sent to her majesty, to desire that she might see her in order to reveal something to her majesty, without the discovery of which she could not die in peace. Upon the Queen's coming, Lady Nottingham told her that, while the Earl of Essex lay under sentence of death, he was desirous of asking her majesty's mercy, in the manner prescribed by herself, during the height of his favor: the Queen having given him a ring which, being sent to her as a token of his distress, might entitle him to her protection. But the Earl, jealous of those about him and not caring to trust any one with it, as he was looking out of the window one morning, saw a boy, with whose appearance he was pleased, and, engaging him, by money and promises, directed him to carry the ring, which he took from his finger and threw down, to Lady Scroope, a sister of the Countess of Nottingham and a friend of his lordship, who attended upon the Queen and to beg of her that she would present it to her majesty. The boy, by mistake, carried it to Lady Nottingham, who showed it to her husband, the Admiral, an enemy of Lord Essex, in order to take his advice. The Admiral forbid her to carry it or return any answer to the message; but insisted upon her keeping the ring.

"The Countess of Nottingham having made the discovery, begged the Queen's forgiveness, but her majesty answered, 'God may forgive you, but I never can;' and left the room with great emotion. Her mind was so struck with this story that she never went to bed, nor took any subsistence, from that instant: for Camden is of opinion that her chief reason for suffering the Earl to be executed was his supposed obstinancy in not applying to her for mercy."

Miss Strickland considers that the story of this ring should not be lightly rejected.

There are two rings extant claiming to be the identical one so fatally retained by Lady Nottingham. The first is preserved at Hawnes, Bedfordshire, England and is the property of the Reverend Lord John Thynne. The ring is gold, the sides are engraved and the inside set with blue enamel; the stone is a sardonyx, on which is cut, in relief, a head of Elizabeth, the execution being of a high order. The second is the property of a Mr. Warner, and was given by Charles the First to Sir Thomas Warner, the settler of Antigua, Nevis, etc. It is a diamond set in gold, inlaid with black enamel at the back and sides.

And now let us turn to one of Elizabeth's victims, who had her talent and was her contrast: for Mary of Scotland was womanly and beautiful. So charming was she in the mind of the French poet Ronsard that he tells us France without her was as "a ring bereft of its precious pearl." The nuptial ring of Mary, Queen of Scots, on her marriage with Lord Darnley, is extant. It is, in general design, a copy of her great seal, the banners only being different, for, in the great seal they each bear a saltier surmounted by a crown. (In her great seal made when Dowager of France, after the death of Francis the Second, the dexter banner is St. Andrew's Cross, the sinister the Royal Arms of the Lion.) The ring part is enamelled. It is of most beautiful and minute workmanship. An impression is not larger than a small wafer. It has the initials M. R.; and on the interior is a monogram of the letters M. and A., Mary and Albany: Darnley was created Duke of Albany.

A use of the arms of England by Mary came to the knowledge of and gave great offence to Elizabeth and Burghley; and the latter obtained a copy of them so used, which copy is now in the British Museum. It is endorsed by Burghley, "False Armes of Scotl. Fr. Engl. Julii, 1559." The following doggrel lines are underneath the arms:

"The armes of Marie Quene Dolphines of France

The nobillist Ladie in earth for till aduance,

Off Scotland Quene, and of England also,

Off Ireland als God haith providit so."

A letter has been discovered in the handwriting of Mary herself which presents the monogram of M. and A. that is upon the ring. This epistle is in French; and the following is a translation:

"Madam, my good sister, the wish that I have to omit nothing that could testify to you how much I desire not to be distant from your good favor, or to give you occasion to suspect me from my actions to be less attached to you than, my good sister, I am, does not permit me to defer longer the sending to you the bearer, Master of my Requests, to inform you further of my good will to embrace all means which are reasonable, not to give you occasion to be to me other than you have been hitherto; and relying on the sufficiency of the bearer, I will kiss your hands, praying God that he will keep you, Madam my good sister, in health and a happy and long life. From St. John's Town, this 15th of June.

"Your very affectionate and faithful

"Good Sister and Cousin,

"To the Queen of England, "Marie R."

"Madam my good Sister

"and Cousin."

The history of the ring bearing the arms of England, Scotland and Ireland, (and which is said to have been produced in evidence at the trial of the unfortunate Mary as a proof of her pretensions to the crown of England,) is curious. It descended from Mary to her grandson Charles the First, who gave it on the scaffold to Archbishop Juxon for his son Charles the Second, who, in his troubles, pawned it in Holland for three hundred pounds, where it was bought by Governor Yale; and sold at his sale for three hundred and twenty dollars, supposed to the Pretender. Afterwards it came into the possession of the Earl of Ilay, Duke of Argyll. It was ultimately purchased by George the Fourth of England, when he was Prince Regent. This is sometimes called the Juxon ring.

It appears by Andrews's continuation of Henry's History of Great Britain,(P. 184, (note.)) that Mary had three wedding rings on her marriage with Darnley: "She had on her back the great mourning gown of black, with the great mourning hood," (fit robes for such a wedding!) "The rings, which were three, the middle a rich diamond, were put on her finger. They kneel together and many prayers are said over them," etc., etc. Rings of Mary of Modena have been mistaken for those of Mary of Scotland.

There is a ring at Bolsover Castle containing a portrait of Mary.

A word more of Elizabeth and Mary. Aubrey says, "I have seen some rings made for sweethearts, with a heart enamelled held between two right hands. See an epigram of George Buchanan on two rings that were made by Elizabeth's appointment, being layd one upon the other showed the like figure. The heart was two diamonds, which joyned, made the heart. Queen Elizabeth kept one moietie, and sent the other as a token of her constant friendship to Mary, Queen of Scots; but she cut off her head for all that." Aubrey, who also quotes an old verse as to the wearers of rings: Miles, mercator, stultus, maritus, amator,--here alludes, it is presumed, to a diamond ring originally given by Elizabeth to Mary as a pledge of affection and support and which Mary commissioned Beatoun to take back to her when she determined to seek an asylum in England. The following is one of Buchanan's epigrams on the subject of the ring, described by Aubrey:

"Loquitur adamas in cordis effigiem sculptus, quem Maria Elizabethae Angl. misit:" (The diamond sculptured into the form of a heart and which Mary sent to the English Elizabeth, says:)

"Quod te jampridem videt, ac amat absens,

Hoec pignus cordis gemma, et imago mei est,

Non est candidior non est hoec purior illo

Quamvis dura magis non image firma tamen."

These lines we thus render in verse:

"This gem is pledge and image of my heart:

A heart that looks and loves, though not in view.

The jewel has no clearer, purer part--

It may be harder, but is not more true."

The sentiment in this epigram must have been gathered from expressions made by Mary herself: for, at a time when she was at Dumferline and desired and hoped for an interview with Elizabeth, she received, through the hands of Randolph, a letter from the English Queen, "which first she did read and after put into her bosom next unto her schyve." Mary entered into a long private conversation with Randolph on the subject of their proposed interview; and asked him, in confidence, to tell her frankly whether it were ever likely to take effect. "Above any thing," said she, "I desire to see my good sister; and next, that we may live like good sisters together, as your mistress hath written unto me that we shall. I have here," continued she, "a ring with a diamond fashioned like a heart: I know nothing that can resemble my good will unto my good sister better than that. My meaning shall be expressed by writing in a few verses, which you shall see before you depart; and whatsomever lacketh therein, let it be reported by your writing. I will witness the same with my own hand, and call God to record that I speak as I think with my heart, that I do as much rejoice of that continuance of friendship that I trust shall be between the queen my sister and me and the people of both realms, as ever I did in any thing in my life." "With these words," continues Randolph, "she taketh out of her bosom the Queen's Majesty's letter; and after that she had read a line or two thereof, putteth it again in the same place, and saith, 'If I could put it nearer my heart I would.'"

Mary's sad going to England, makes us remember Wordsworth's sonnet:

"--; but Time, the old Saturnian seer,

Sighed on the wing as her foot pressed the strand,

With step prelusive to a long array

Of woes and degradations, hand in hand,

Weeping Captivity and shuddering Fear,