Sheffield’s Royal Guest

Written by Shannon Birds. Edited by Emma Ward

Little remains of the two grandest buildings of Tudor Sheffield. Castle market and a turret house are all you can see of what was Sheffield Castle and Manor Lodge. However, these two buildings are of major historical importance in Sheffield. To ask a Sheffielder of these buildings, you would be very unlucky not to receive a reply of “Mary Queen of Scots was kept there y’know.”

So what actually happened to Mary that would lead to her spending 14 of the 19 years she spent captive in Sheffield’s grandest abodes?

Mary was born on the 8th December 1542, and following her father’s death six days later, she became Queen Regnant of Scotland. Being impossible for her to rule at such a ripe age, regents ruled in her name and she was sent to France at the age of five, returning to Scotland aged 18.

Upon her return, Mary did not receive a welcome by the people. Whilst Mary was in France, Scotland became a largely Protestant country, meaning that her devout Catholic ways would not be accepted. Mary fled Scotland in haste in 1569- hoping that her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I would grant her refuge and support.

Ever conscious of her throne, Elizabeth considered Mary as a threat on many grounds. England, of course was a Protestant country, following the reformation acts of Elizabeth’s father, King Henry VIII. The issue was her mother. To marry Anne Boleyn, Henry needed to divorce his estranged wife, Catherine of Aragon. The pope was the only person able to grant this and upon his refusal, Henry disestablished the Catholic Church in favour of an Anglican Church headed by the king, therefore enabling him to marry. The importance of this was that Catholics saw the marriage as illegal due to god’s will being ignored- thus suggesting that Mary could have a strong claim to the throne if she was to declare Elizabeth as illegitimate. Also, the ongoing conflict between Catholics and Protestants added to Elizabeth’s concern as Mary was seen as a guiding light for the Catholics. Elizabeth took this threat very seriously and imprisoned Mary under the rule of George Talbot, the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury.

In 1570, Mary arrives in Sheffield and stays at Manor Lodge, the residence of the Earl and his wife Bess Hardwick. (Speaking as a Sheffield patriot, it’s not a terrible place to reside!) Although confined to the Manor and Castle grounds, Mary lived a relatively comfortable existence. Mary would spend most of her time embroidering with Bess and taking walks in the grounds. She had her own domestic staff, never less than 16 people, and her own chefs (who served her meals on silver platters!) On the journeys between Sheffield castle and Manor Lodge, she was accustomed to using 30 wagons to transport her belongings. Her rooms were beautifully decorated with tapestries and carpets and her bed linen changed daily! This is far from the gloomy cells in the Tower of London!

For Elizabeth, Sheffield was a convenient location to hold Mary as it was central; between London and Scotland and far enough from the sea an attempt to support her claim to the throne from abroad to be very difficult. Regardless of her comfortable imprisonment, Mary was determined to break free, claiming she was of no threat to Elizabeth. During her time in Sheffield, Mary wrote many letters to those who may support her campaign.

Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, appeared to be Mary’s saving grace. He had planned to marry Mary although Queen Elizabeth did not approve of such a match. Although this was so, the Duke stayed in touch with Mary by letter and helped her to plot against Elizabeth.

We all know how the unfortunate story ends. A letter that Mary had written was intercepted and in it were the implications that she planned to kill Elizabeth and take her throne- (whether or not the letter was real or a fabrication, is a whole other historical issue.)

Mary was beheaded for treason on the 8th February 1587 at the young age of 44.

Although Mary’s life was a rollercoaster ride anyway, her residence in Sheffield for 14 years from 1570 onwards is a hugely important historical event in Sheffield. As well as the steel industry, local Sheffielders often draw reference to Mary’s stay here. Although closed down, the pub on the Park Hill estate called the Scottish Queen was probably named after her- (it is positioned midway between Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor Lodge!) Furthermore, Norfolk Park, Shrewsbury Road and Talbot Street were all named after the key players of this remarkable story.

As mentioned before, if you were to go to Manor Lodge now, you would not see much more than a few bits of walls and the Turret House building. But be warned, don’t visit alone at night as her ghost is said to haunt the turret House...

← Back to Volume 5

← Back to Issue 2