The last letter of Mary, Queen of Scots
This letter was written at 2am while she was in captivity and had just been told she was going to be executed a few hours later. She wrote a letter to her French brother-in-law and asked him to look after her staff. She was worried about them and asked him to make sure they were paid. I get shivers when I read or think about it. But what is incredible about that letter is that it was in French military hands. It then went to a Catholic college in Paris before The Advocate’s Library – which became the National Library – made a bid for it to be in Scotland because it was part of Scottish history.