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Extremely rare print series depicting the execution of Mary Stuart in 1587

GARDINER, William Nelson.
Execution de Marie Stuart, Reine d'Ecosse, en sept estampes gravées.

With seven full-page stipple-engraved plates (ca. 200 x 250 mm) printed in brown by W.N. Gardiner after the designs of J.F. Rigaud.

London, (Tebaldo Monzani, 1791). Oblong folio. Contemporary light-brown polished calf with decorated gilt spine, covers with decorated gilt border along the edgess, front cover with gilt green morocco inlay with title lettered in gold, decorated gilt binding edges, pastedowns and first and last flyleaf of paper decorated in eighteenth-century style with a pattern of red dots and trefoils. With seven full-page stipple-engraved plates (ca. 200 x 250 mm) printed in brown by W.N. Gardiner after the designs of J.F. Rigaud. (4) pp. with title and explanatory text.

Extremely rare complete print series depicting in highly melodramatic, almost romantic fashion the execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire on 8 February 1587, including the scenes immediately before and after the beheading, including her burial. The seven plates are preceded by 4 pages in letterpress with the title and 3 pp. explanatory text in French. Each plate (the measurements of the scenes are ca. 160 x 215 mm) has a 3 to 7-line English explanation engraved underneath. Four of the plates are dated 20 April 1790, the remaining three 1 May 1791.

They show:
(1): Mary Stuart in her chapel praying to God and bidding adieu to all worldly concerns. In the doorway sheriff Thomas Andrews enters with many attendants to fetch her.
(2): 'Mary. Queen of Scotts, going to the place of execution' (caption on the plate), her steward Melvil falling upon his knees.
(3): The Dean pressing her to change religion.
(4): Mary Stuart laying herself down on the ground, and stretching forth her neck on the block.
(5): Mary Stuart's head, after two strokes is severed from the body and is being shown to the people in the hall.
(6): The chief mourner, the countess of Bedford attended by all the Lords and Ladies, her train being borne, proceeded through the church to the choir. With four lines of a song which was sung during the procession.
(7): The descent of the coffin. The body was received by the bishop of Peterborough and the deacon and chapter. In the presence of the attending Scots the coffin was laid in a vault. The bishop of Peterborough performed the funeral service and the bishop of Lincoln preached the sermon, after which the anthem engraved underneath the explanation was sung: 'Go sorrows sigh, and falling tear ...' (6 lines) .

Queen Elizabeth I felt threatened by the marriage of Mary Stuart to her cousin Darnley. Both were claimants to the English throne, being direct descendants of Margaret Tudor, the elder sister of Henry VIII. Their children would inherit both parents' claims, and thus, be next in line for the English throne. After a variety of accusations the Catholic Queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart was put on trial for treason by a court of about 40 noblemen, including Catholics, after being implicated in the Babington Plot and after having allegedly sanctioned the attempted assassination of Elizabeth. Mary denied the accusation and was spirited in her defence.
Mary was ultimately convicted of treason, and was sentenced to beheading on 8 February 1587. She was only told the day before she was executed that it would be the next day. She had spent the last hours of her life in prayer and also writing letters and her will. The scaffold that was erected in the great hall of the castle and was three feet tall and draped in black. It was reached by five steps and the only things on it were a disrobing stool, the block, a cushion for her to kneel on, and a bloody butcher's axe that had been previously used on animals.
The executioners and her two servants helped remove a black outer gown, two petticoats, and her corset to reveal a deep red chemise - the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic Church. As she disrobed she smiled faintly to the executioner and said, "Never have I had such assistants to disrobe me, and never have I put off my clothes before such a company." She was then blindfolded and knelt down on the cushion in front of the block. She positioned her head on the block and stretched her arms out behind her. Not long after Mary's death, the Spanish Armada sailed to England to depose Elizabeth, but it sailed into a North Sea storm, and retreated without ever touching English soil. The traditional view that Mary's execution was the trigger for Spain sending the Armada is now disputed.

The publisher of the series is Tebaldo Monzani (1762-1839) an Italian music-seller, publisher and instrument-maker in London. Monzani appears to have first published the plates, printed in black and in a slightly different form, in the beginning of 1791: A representation of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in seven views, which included music composed for each view by Willoughby Bertie, Earl of Abingdon. The present series apparently is a re-issue with an explanatory text in English under each engraving (the same texts which appear in letter-press at the beginning of the aforementioned book) by Abindon, and preceded by three pages of explanatory texts in French which are translations of the captions to each engraving. It may be that this publication was intended for export to the continent.

The topic of the beheading of a king was very actual and relevant at the time when this work was published in view of the fate of the French king, Louis XVI, who had been captured in 1791 by the revolutionary French government after attempting to escape France and who would be executed in 1793. It certainly also is a waring to the English: no revolution in England, please!
Moreover, the life and fate of Mary Queen of Scots had become a source of historical debate within late 18th-century Britain, in particular her alleged complicity in the murder of her first husband, Lord Darnley, which appeared to be confirmed by the infamous Casket letters written to Lord Bothwell.
The topic of the beheading of a king was very actual and relevant at the time when this work was published in view of the fate of the French king, Louis XVI, who had been captured in 1791 by the revolutionary French government after attempting to escape France and who would be executed in 1793. It certainly also is a waring to the English: no revolution in England, please!
Moreover, the life and fate of Mary Queen of Scots had become a source of historical debate within late 18th-century Britain, in particular her alleged complicity in the murder of her first husband, Lord Darnley, which appeared to be confirmed by the infamous Casket letters written to Lord Bothwell.

The engravings in this work are after paintings by John Francis Rigaud (Turin 1742 - Packington Hall, 1810), painter of portraits, history and decorative pieces. Born in Italy of French descent, he was mainly active in England. After a two-year stay in Rome (1768-70) he moved to London in 1771. Rigaud made a career out of decorative painting in the country houses of the nobility and in producing depictions of classical, literary and historical subjects. The plates were engraved by William Nelson Gardiner (Dublin 1766- London 1814). Gardiner studied at the Dublin Academy and later made his way to London. He worked for the famous engraver Francisco Bartolozzi. Gardiner worked also on the engravings for Sylvester Harding's editions of Shakespeare and Memoirs of Count de Grammont.

Fine copy wityh ownership's entry of E.(?) Gerken written in pencil on title.- (Plates 4-7 with faint waterstain in lower corner not affecting the plates; binding sl. used with small stain on front cover).

ESTC N471985; KVK (mentions copies in the National Library of Scotland and Dessau (Germany); Benezit VIII, p. 764 (on Rigaud) & IV, p. 615 (on Gardiner).

Related Subjects: 18th Century England Engravings History

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