Detection of the doeings of Marie Queene of Scottes touching the murther of her Husband... : manuscript, ca. 1572

Title page reads: "A Detection of the doeings of Marie Queene of Scottes touching the murther of her Husband and her Conspiracie; and Adulterie, and pretended with the Earle Bothwell And a deffence of the Trew Lords, mainteyners of the Kings graces actions and Authoritie. Translated out of the latten. which was written bie G B." With "Vera Copia" written in italic at head.
Paginated 1-176 in a contemporary or slightly later hand. Page 92 is blank.
Shoulder notes summarizing the main text and catchwords throughout.
Written primarily in secretary hand, with some sections in italic script.
Score marks on all three edges seem to have been made to indicate where rule lines should be placed on manuscript pages. Margins ruled in light brown ink.
This translation may have been produced by English councilors, specifically William Cecil and Thomas Wilson, who were assisted by their printer and publisher, the ardent Protestant John Day. Day paved the way for this English version by first printing Buchanan's Latin original (Detectio Mariae Reginae) with some additional material and three of the more incriminating Casket Letters. The revised pamphlet was presented as having been authored by Buchanan, but the additional material was actually written, with Cecil's knowledge, by Thomas Wilson, Marian exile, militant Protestant, and (from 1578) privy councilor and secretary of state. Wilson then translated both the Latin Detectio and his own additional material into what he referred to (in a letter to Cecil) as "handsome Scottish." This production, to which was appended all eight of the original Casket Letters, was printed in London, probably by John Day, in 1572.--Cf. Anne McLaren, Gender, Religion, and Early Modern Nationalism: Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and the Genesis of English Anti-Catholicism (The American Historical Review, vol. 107, no. 3, June 2002).