FIRST EDITION: The Casket Letters Of Mary Stuart: A Study In Fraud And Forgery by H.F. Diggle

“These letters were the only proof that the Earls of Murray, Morton and Lenox, did ever pretend to have against the Queen and on them alone the whole stress of the cause resteth to this very day.” Goodall, Preface to “Queen Mary’s Letters,” 1754, Vol. 1, page 5. For nearly four centuries Mary Stuart has stood accused of conspiracy to murder, adultery and sham abduction during the last troubled year of her reign in Scotland. Paradoxically, not half a dozen writers have devoted their principal attention to the only evidence produced against her, and the failure of her many and able defenders lies in their failure to prove conclusively that this “evidence” was a deliberate fraud. The fraud cannot be proved by inferences drawn from matters external to the Letters, or from consideration of style and linguistic minutiae. Absolute proofs of fraud must be factual and physical it must be shown that the Queen could not have written, on the occasions alleged, statements which defy the realities of time and place and circumstance. It is my claim to have marshalled such proofs in the case of every important document. Many points I have raised appear to have gone unnoticed heretofore. I should like to express my thanks to Mr. J. Stuffins, of Harrogate Library and to Mr. E. Pearson, of the West Riding County Library for the help they have so kindly afforded me