Thousands of English People Pledged to Execute Anyone Responsible for Elizabeth's Death
Then Mary Queen of Scots herself signed it.
The Rest Is History · Francis Drake Stole Spain’s Gold. Elizabeth I Chose to Keep ItAfter the Throckmorton Plot to invade England and replace Elizabeth was exposed, Elizabeth I's chief minister William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and her spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham drew up the Bond of Association.
Signed by the Privy Council at Hampton Court on Oct. 19, 1584, it said anyone responsible for Elizabeth's death would be barred from succeeding her, and would be put to death whether or not they knew of a plot against her. It did not name Mary Queen of Scots, but it was aimed solely at her, making extra-legal revenge into official policy.
Then it went out to the country, where thousands of English men and women signed it, the illiterate marking a cross. On Jan. 5, 1585, Mary herself signed it.
Questions people ask
Why did they need a pledge instead of just putting Mary on trial?
There was no clean legal case. Her letters were written by her secretaries, the main witness, Francis Throckmorton, had confessed under torture and then retracted it, and as a former queen of France and of Scotland she could argue she was not Elizabeth's subject. Burghley and Walsingham wanted her eliminated anyway, so the Bond created a political path around the legal problem.
What was the Throckmorton Plot?
It was a Catholic plan in 1583 for an invasion led by Henry, Duke of Guise, with 12,000 French troops landing in Catholic northwest England, backed by money from the pope and Philip II of Spain, and coordinated inside England by Francis Throckmorton. Walsingham's spies intercepted letters and arrested Throckmorton, who was tortured, confessed, and executed in 1584.
Did the Bond actually lead to Mary's death?
Not directly, but it set the precedent. Mary was finally tried and executed in 1587 after the Babington Plot, another assassination conspiracy in which Walsingham caught her approving Elizabeth's murder in coded letters. The Bond had already committed the political class to the idea that Mary should die if Elizabeth was killed.