Mary, Queen of Scoffs: jailed monarch ate only the best, papers reveal

Newly discovered official accounts show that, while a prisoner of Elizabeth I, her cousin lived a life of luxury

She was executed as a Roman Catholic threat to the English throne, but during her long years of imprisonment by her Protestant cousin, Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots was still treated as a queen, previously unpublished documents reveal.

The British Library has acquired official financial accounts for the 1580s which detail the finest foods and other luxuries given to the Scottish queen during her captivity at Wingfield Manor in Derbyshire and Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire.