Casket letters

The cassettes letters are eight letters, which is supposed to have, the Earl of Bothwell wrote to James Hepburn, the Mary Queen of Scots. They were the main evidence means the investigation of the Conference of York and Westminster from 1568 to 1569. Here attempted Scottish noblemen who had deposed Mary, before an English court of arbitration, the complicity of Mary in the murder of her husband Lord Henry Darnley prove. James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, claimed they were (supposedly for Francis II ) found in Edinburgh in a silver box engraved with a F, together with other documents ( including the marriage certificate of Mary and James Hepburn, and a poem ). Maria was not allowed to see the letters.

Although the letters were found after an examination of the handwriting and the content to be genuine, the court came to the conclusion that therefore the murder of Lord Darnley could not been proved. This, however, was purely political reasons, as Elizabeth I, neither an acquittal nor a conviction wished Mary.

The authenticity of the cassette letters is disputed among historians to this day. The originals were lost in 1584 and none of the numerous copies forms a complete set. Mary argued that it was not difficult to imitate her handwriting. It has also been suggested that the letters complete forgeries, that suspicious passages were inserted before the conference in York, or that the letters to Bothwell had been written by another person. Today it is impossible to reconstruct the case. It is certain that the letters of Mary Stuart's son King James VI. were destroyed.

• History of Scotland in the early modern period
• Maria Stuart