Page 13 - Oundle Life Sept 2022

one eyewitness ‘Her lips stirred up and down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off.’ Mary’s beloved dog had been hiding beneath her skirts and was only discovered when
the executioner disrobed her. Following the beheading, the dog lay down between Mary’s head and shoulders, refusing to move.
Mary’s executioner, a man named Bull, reportedly stayed at Castle Farm, which still stands in the village of Fotheringhay today, recognisable by its magnificent Gothic arch.
By the 1630s the castle had fallen into ruin and the stone was taken by locals and used for buildings in Oundle, most notably the Talbot Hotel. The only masonry left on-site is fenced off behind iron railings as a memorial to the tragic queen. A plaque on the railings reads ‘In Memory of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Beheaded in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay
Castle 8th February 1586/7.’
Mary was initially buried in Peterborough
Cathedral (where a memorial still marks the site of the former tomb) but was later moved to Westminster on the orders of her son, James VI of Scotland, who, after Elizabeth’s death, also became James I of England, as the Scottish and English crowns united. Mary Stuart’s son had become the first king of Great Britain, and the two queens and cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, lie together in perpetuity in Westminster Abbey.
Stuart Barker is a professional writer and author. He has a keen interest in local history and likes nothing better than riding round Northants visiting historical sites on his motorcycle.
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