International Womens' Day: Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, letterlocking and rival royals

The Elizabeth and Mary exhibition at the British Library has just finished but don't worry if you missed out because I'm here with another museum vlog to show you around :) We talk about how Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots have been presented in pop culture, and we look at all the fascinating letters and books that the curators dug from the library's depths. And what is this new study of letterlocking? It's only the complex methods used to seal letters to stop them from falling in front of the wrong eyes.

 

 

 

[00:25] Elizabeth and Mary exhibition digital tour https://www.bl.uk/events/elizabeth-and-mary-royal-cousins-rival-queens-digital-tour

[05:30] Mary, Queen of Scots, film poster, 1971, dir. Charles Jarrott

[05:48] Mary of Scotland, film poster and clips, 1936, dir. John Ford

[06:20] Mary Queen of Scots, film posters, 2018, dir. Josie Rourke

[07:32] Sir Melville's autograph memoirs, c. 1600, British Library, Additional MS 37977, ff. 33v-34r

[07:36] Nicholas Hilliard, Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, miniatures, c. 1576-1585

[07:38] Letter from Mary, Queen of Scots to Elizabeth I, 15 March 1566, The National Archives, SP 52/12/38

[07:44] Letter from Mary, Queen of Scots to Elizabeth I, 25 December 1571, British Library, Cotton MS Caligula C iii, f. 246v

[07:51] Kirk o'Field, 'Birds-eye view of the murder scene of Lord Darnley', February 1567, The National Archives, MPF 1/366

[08:03] Elizabeth I, Death warrant for Mary Queen of Scots, February 1587

[08:22] Letter from Mary, Queen of Scots to Sir Francis Knollys, 1 September 1568, British Library, Cotton MS Caligula C ii, f. 218r

[9:00] Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry III, King of France, 8 February 1587, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ MS. 54.1.1

[09:20] Unidentified author to the city consuls, Paris, Musée de La Poste, Vivarez Collection, MP 6048, 16 December 1638

[09:25] Catherine de’ Medici to Raimond de Beccarie, Monsieur de Fourquevaux (1570). MIT Libraries, DC111.A2.C38 1570, f. 1vr

[09:50] Last letter written by Mary Queen of Scots to her brother-in-law, Henri III of France, 8 February 1587, National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 54.1.1

[09:53] Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, Jennifer Pellecchia, Alison Wiggins, Andrea Clarke, and Alan Bryson, 'The Spiral-Locked Letters of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots', British Library, 2021, 7 https://www.bl.uk/eblj/2021articles/pdf/ebljarticle112021.pdf

[10:00] Letterlocking: Mary Queen of Scots’ last letter, a spiral lock, England (1587), 30 March 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzPE1MCgXxo

[11:00] Elizabeth I to Henri III, King of France, 1573, Austin, TX, Harry Ransom Center, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscript Collection, Letters of British Royalty, HR 57

[11:07] Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, Jennifer Pellecchia, Alison Wiggins, Andrea Clarke, and Alan Bryson, 'The Spiral-Locked Letters of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots', British Library, 2021, 27 https://www.bl.uk/eblj/2021articles/pdf/ebljarticle112021.pdf

[11:06] Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, Jennifer Pellecchia, Alison Wiggins, Andrea Clarke, and Alan Bryson, 'The Spiral-Locked Letters of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots', British Library, 2021, 25 https://www.bl.uk/eblj/2021articles/pdf/ebljarticle112021.pdf

[11:11] Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry III, King of France, 8 February 1587, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ MS. 54.1.1

[11:30] Cipher used by Mary, Queen of Scots to communicate with Anthony Babbington, 1586, National Archives, SP 12/193/54 f. 123r

[11:38] Letter from Arthur Gregory to Sir Francis Walsingham, 1586, British Library, Harley MS 286, f. 78r

[11:42] The 'Gallows Letter', letter from Mary, Queen of Scots to Anthony Babbington, 17 July 1586, National Archives, SP 53/18/53

[11:50] Forged postscript by Sir Francis Walsingham on Mary, Queen of Scots' letter, 3 August 1586, British Library, Cotton MS Appendix L, f. 144r

[12:04-10] Jana Dambrogio, Amanda Ghassaei, Daniel Starza Smith, Holly Jackson, Martin L. Demaine, Graham Davis, David Mills, Rebekah Ahrendt, Nadine Akkerman, David van der Linden and Erik D. Demaine, 'Unlocking history through automated virtual unfolding of sealed documents imaged by X-ray microtomography', Nature Communications, 2 March 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21326-w