This is my opinion, but it seems to me that the fascination of {368} mystery has lent the documents undue importance.

Had they never been found Mary's guilt would have been established by circumstantial evidence.
Mary was confined for a short time in the castle of Lochleven, but contrived to escape.

As she approached Glasgow she risked a battle, [Sidenote: May, 1568] but her troops were defeated and she fled to England.

Throwing herself on Elizabeth's mercy she found prison and finally, after nineteen years, the scaffold.

An inquiry was held concerning her case, but no verdict was rendered because it did not suit Elizabeth to degrade her sister sovereign more than was necessary.
Not for the murder of her husband, but for complicity in a plot against Elizabeth, was Mary finally condemned to die.