Sonnets by Mary, Queen of Scots?

The Casket Letters Discovered

On the 20th June 1567, a few days after Scottish rebels apprehended Mary, Queen of Scots, servants of James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, allegedly found a silver casket of . .

• eight letters
• two marriage contracts,* and 
• twelve sonnets 

. . in the possession of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell and third husband of Mary Queen of Scots.
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'John Guy writes of how the sonnets found in the casket “were said to be Mary’s own reflections on her adultery” with Bothwell and proof “that her consuming passion for Bothwell gave her a powerful motive for murder.” However, Guy points out that they are highly unlikely to be genuine as “they are extremely clumsy and would pass only with the greatest difficulty as the work of a native French speaker” and they do not fit with the “genre of courtly love poetry” with which Mary was familiar. He also points out that they can be read as religious poetry.'

*which apparently proved that Mary had agreed to marry Bothwell before his divorce.

My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots, John Guy (2004)

SEE: The Elizabeth Files

Mary, Queen of Scots