Episode overview

Killing The Queen of Scots: Elizabeth I vs The Catholics (Part 5)

The Rest Is History · 13 August 2026 · 1h 6m · 1 Egleze moment

What happened in this episode?

In this instalment, hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook recount how Elizabethan intelligence chief Sir Francis Walsingham and chief minister William Cecil, Lord Burghley, moved to destroy Mary, Queen of Scots after the Babington Plot of 1586. They describe Mary’s restricted captivity at Chartley Manor and the clandestine letter channel allegedly created via beer barrels, which Holland says was ultimately controlled by Walsingham’s cryptanalyst Thomas Phelippes through a turned courier, Gilbert Gifford. The hosts argue that intercepted and deciphered correspondence—particularly a letter interpreted as endorsing the mobilisation of “six gentlemen” for an assassination—provided the “watertight” evidence sought under the 1585 Act for the Queen’s Safety.

The episode then shifts to Mary’s trial at Fotheringhay, staged beneath Elizabeth’s empty throne, where Mary initially rejects the court’s jurisdiction and later alleges her letters were tampered with. Holland quotes Walsingham’s carefully worded denial and Burghley’s blunt reply that he is “the enemy of the enemies of Queen Elizabeth”. After conviction, the hosts emphasise Elizabeth’s reluctance to authorise a public execution, including claims she sought a private killing and had Walsingham press Mary’s jailer Sir Amias Paulet to “shorten the life” of “that queen”—a request Paulet refused. They also describe Burghley and a Privy Council cabal sending the warrant onward regardless.

The closing section recounts the execution on 8 February 1587 and Mary’s deliberate martyrdom staging, before linking her death to the geopolitical escalation that culminated in the Spanish Armada the following year.

What are the key points?

Mary’s coded correspondence was allegedly intercepted through a beer-barrel channel controlled by Walsingham’s agents, with Thomas Phelippes decrypting and resealing letters.
The hosts say the 1585 Act for the Queen’s Safety provided a legal route to try and execute any claimant implicated in plots against Elizabeth.
Mary challenged the legality of being tried in England, but attended after being warned her absence would look like guilt.
Mary accused Walsingham of letter tampering; Holland quotes Walsingham’s response as a deliberately ambiguous denial.
After conviction, Holland says Elizabeth wanted Mary removed without directly authorising execution, including pressing Paulet to “shorten the life” of “that queen”, which he refused.
The Privy Council, led by Burghley, is described as sending the signed warrant to Fotheringhay despite Elizabeth’s continued hesitation.
Mary’s execution is portrayed as carefully staged for Catholic martyrdom, with the hosts tying the fallout to the path towards the 1588 Armada.

Which topics are covered?

History

How is this page sourced?

Programme: The Rest Is History
Published: 13 August 2026
Duration: 1h 6m
Original episode: Open the original source ↗

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Walsingham’s cryptanalyst ran a double-agent ‘beer barrel’ letter trap, hosts say

at 25:02 · Attributed speaker claim

Gifford's approach to Mary had been a setup supervised by Phillips. And it's Phillips as well who had recruited the brewer. So basically, you know, he's holding all the strings. And he has been opening all the correspondence between Babington and Mary. He's been decrypting what Babington may have written or what Mary may have written, reading it through, and then he is another of his many talents is that he's able to reseal letters that he's opened and make it look as though they have never been opened.

Tom Holland describes an intelligence operation in which Elizabeth I’s spymaster Francis Walsingham allegedly ‘turned’ courier Gilbert Gifford and used cryptanalyst Thomas Phelippes to intercept Mary’s coded correspondence. Holland says Phelippes supervised a concealment method using beer barrels, decrypted the letters, and resealed them to avoid detection as the messages continued to their recipients.

Read this moment → Check original at 25:02 ↗