Mary Queen of Scots poignant letter months before her execution The letter, written on yellowed parchment now spotted with age, was written in Fotheringhay Castle in Northants in 1586 and despatched to Pope Sixtus V. Mary wrote in French: "Now, Holy Father, it hath pleased God to allow, because of my sins and those of the people of this unfortunate island, that after 20 years of imprisonment, I (the sole descendant of the house of England and Scotland to profess this faith) be shut up in a narrow prison and finally condemned by the ... heretical assembly of this country to die." She professed her allegiance to the Catholic faith and commended her soul to God. Within months she had been executed, her head chopped off with an axe. Dubbed by the English court the "monstrous Scottish dragon," Mary Stuart was considered to be the "bastard" daughter of Henry VIII and his "concubine" Anne Boleyn. After being arrested on Elizabeth's orders in Carlisle after a revolt by the Scottish lords, Mary spent 18 years in detention. She was eventually put on trial and charged with high treason for complicity in the Babington plot to kill the Queen. Found guilty, she was ordered to prepare herself for death. She was informed of the verdict and death sentence on Nov 23, 1586, and wrote to Sixtus V the same day. She was executed on Feb 8, 1587 - according to contemporary accounts, she stepped bravely up to the block. The executioner had to bring the axe down repeatedly before her neck was severed.