A Queen’s Jewel Box: The 1566 inventory of Mary Queen of Scots’ jewellery

Speaker: Dr Alison Rosie, Registrar, National Register of Archives for Scotland
This talk was originally scheduled on 25 November 2021. Due to technical issues, the talk was pre-recorded on 14 January 2022, and shown to a live audience on 19 January 2022.

In 1854 an inventory of Mary Queen of Scots’ rich collection of jewellery, annotated in her handwriting with bequests to her relatives and courtiers, was discovered in General Register House. This talk will look at the contents of the inventory and what it says about Mary’s style during her personal reign and the personal networks she valued and relied on.

References for the slides:

Slide 1:
Left: Portrait of Mary Queen of Scot, C.1560-1592. ©National Portrait Gallery, London (https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/se...)
Right: Inventory of Mary Queen of Scots’ Jewellery, 1566. National Records of Scotland, E35/3/3-4 (https://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/n...)

Slide 2: Catalogue of records discovered in National Records of Scotland (then General Register House) in 1854. National Records of Scotland, SRO5/82 (
https://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/n...)
Slide 3: Inventory of Mary Queen of Scots’ Jewellery, 1566. National Records of Scotland, E35/3/3

Slide 4:
Left: Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne D’Ecosse, 1863. Image taken from ‘Inuentaires de la royne descosse douairiere de France. Catalogues of the Jewels, Dresses, Furniture, Books, and Paintings of Mary Queen of Scots. 1556-1569’ (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...)
Right: Original inventory of Mary’s Jewellery. National Records of Scotland, E35/3/4/8

Slide 5:
Original inventory of Mary’s Jewellery. National Records of Scotland, E35/3/3 and 4

Slide 6:
John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, 1527-1596. University of Aberdeen (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/4376/)

Slide 7:
Inventory of Mary Queen of Scots’ Jewellery, 1566. National Records of Scotland, E35/3/3

Slide 8:
Left: Susan Bertie, later Countess of Suffolk, 1567. The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge, Canterbury
Right: Elisabeth de Valois, Queen of Spain, 1567. Fitzwilliam Museum

Slide 9:
Left: Elizabeth of Austria, c.1571. The Louvre
Right: Elisabeth de Valois, 1560. Prado, Madrid (https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-c...)
Slide 10:
Left: Pomander, 1500-1600. RCIN 28182, Royal Collection Trust/ © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021 (https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/...)
Right: Scented beads, The Penicuik Jewels, National Museums of Scotland (https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-col...)

Slide 11:
Left: Languier. Vienna, Treasury of the Teutonic Order. Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...)
Right: Unicorn horn, The Danny Jewel. M.97-1917, Bryan Bequest, Victoria and Albert Museum (https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O7...)

Slide 12:
Left: Elisabeth de Valois, 1560. Prado, Madrid (https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-c...)
Middle: Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex. University of Cambridge
Right: Walters Gallery, Baltimore (https://art.thewalters.org/detail/201...)

Slide 13:
Left: James VI and I. National Galleries of Scotland
Right: Original inventory of Mary’s Jewellery. National Records of Scotland, E35/3/3

Slide 16:
Left: Henry, Lord Darnley. National Galleries of Scotland (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...)
Right: Original inventory of Mary’s Jewellery. National Records of Scotland, E35/3/3

Slide 17:
Left: Seton Necklace. Royal Collection Trust/ © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021
Right: George Seton, 5th Lord Seton, Master of the Queen’s Household. Scottish National Portrait Gallery (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...)

Slide 18:
Elizabeth of Bohemia. ©National Portrait Gallery, London (https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/se...)