IT IS 440 years to the day since Mary, Queen of Scots was arrested after writing a letter approving of a plot to kill her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. One of the many portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, during her time in captivity. The Babington plot, despite its original intentions, ended up providing the definitive opportunity for Elizabeth’s ministers to remove Mary permanently. I never plotted the destruction of the Queen,” Mary stated during the proceedings. Queen Elizabeth hesitated for months before finally signing the death warrant on 1 February 1587.