Who really killed Mary, Queen of Scots?

It was 2010 when Aussie-born Cambridge University historian John Guy took the phone call that would rock his world. On the line was Sotheby’s in London. The famed auction house had just been given a cache of newly discovered Queen Elizabeth I documents that they thought the Tudor expert might like to peruse before they went under the hammer. “Intrigued, I hurried down to New Bond Street. Breathtakingly, 43 documents in pristine condition, more than half signed by Elizabeth or her leading courtiers, were laid out on the desk,” John tells me with renewed excitement. He had no expectations but what he found was explosive.

“The rules were the usual ones in these circumstances: no notes, no photos, as these were properties up for sale. All shed fresh light on the penultimate phase of Mary’s 19-year imprisonment in England, many illustrating a mounting obsession over the possibility of her escape, as the threat of foreign invasion grew. But one thrilling letter changes our view of history.”