Contemporary copy of the warrant for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

Item date: 1587
Grant Value: £5,000
Item cost: £72,485
Item cost pre-decimal: NULL
Item date acquired: 2007
Item institution: Lambeth Palace Library
Town/City: London

Henry Grey, Earl of Kent, was one of two principal commissioners for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. The original warrant for the execution, bearing Queen Elizabeth's signature, disappeared at the time, unsurprisingly in view of the Queen's rage when she learned that the execution had been carried out: she contended that although she had signed the warrant, she had not authorised its enactment. The present copy, a two-page folio document, was delivered by Robert Beale, Clerk of the Council, to the Earl of Kent, together with the Privy Council letter ordering him to proceed with the execution. The document was acquired by Lambeth Palace Library after an export licence was withheld.

Item Provenance
A stray from the papers of Henry Grey, 6th Earl of Kent (1541-1615), which form part of the Fairhurst Collection in Lambeth Palace Library. Sotheby's, 16 December 1996, lot 42; Ira and Larry Goldberg, Beverly Hills.