Elizabeth I of England Plot of 1586, Elizabeth's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham and the royal council keenly assembled a case against her. At first, Elizabeth resisted calls for Mary's death. By late 1586, she had been persuaded to sanction her trial and execution on the evidence of letters written during the Babington Plot. Elizabeth's proclamation of the sentence announced that "the said Mary, pretending title to the same Crown, had compassed and imagined within the same realm divers things tending to the hurt, death and destruction of our royal person." On 8 February 1587, Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. After Mary's execution,
Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay commemorated annually by the Richard III Society by the placing of white roses in the church. The church contains a notable 15th-century painted pulpit donated by Edward IV carrying the royal arms, flanked by a bull for George of Clarence and a silver boar for Richard of Gloucester. The current 2 manual pipe organ is by Vincent Woodstock and dates from around 2000. A specification of the organ can be found on the British Institute of Organ Studies National Pipe Organ Register at D08348. Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay The Church of St Mary and All Saints,