Mary Queen of Scots Elizabeth welcomed Mary to England and
refused to turn her over to the Scottish government. She then
persuaded both parties to present their cases before an English
tribunal, first at York and then at Westminster (1568–69). At
the inquiry Murray presented the famous Casket Letters, poems
and letters allegedly written by Mary to Bothwell that
supposedly proved her share in the plot against Darnley. Mary
insisted that parts of the letters were forgeries, and the
available evidence suggests that this was the case. In any
event, the judgment was that the abdication and Murray's regency
were legal, but that Mary's complicity in Darnley's murder was
unproven (as it remains). Mary became a prisoner of the English
government, living for the next 16 years in the lenient custody
of the earl of Shrewsbury and then under the stricter
surveillance of Sir Amias Paulet. She schemed ceaselessly to
regain her liberty and was party to a succession of plots that
would have raised her to the English throne wi