Gilbert Curle

Gilbert Curle or Curll (died 1609) was a Scottish secretary who served Mary, Queen of Scots during her captivity in England.

England

Little is known of Curle's family background, but he seems to have been from an Edinburgh family. According to the confession of Nicholas Hubert ''alias'' French Paris, Mary wanted Curle in her service to replace Alexander Durhamin 1567 shortly before the murder of Lord Darnley. Mary distrusted Durham.

Gilbert Curle was with Mary, Queen of Scots in England in September 1568, acting as her secretary for the Scots language and six months later was made a valet of her chamber. By the 1580s Mary's correspondents often added postscripts to their letters addressed to Curle.

In December 1581 Mary asked for six horses for riders to attend her. She was allowed four horses for her men to accompany her coach, and they were not allowed to carry pistols, called " daggs". The appointed riders were Andrew Melville, Claude Nau, Gilbert Curle, and Bastian Pagez.

One of his sisters, Elizabeth Curle, joined him in the queen's household.

Marriage at Tutbury Castle

Curle corresponded with Thomas Baldwin. In order to disguise the meaning of his letters, Curle wrote about a "merchant of London" to mean Elizabeth I, Mary was a "merchant of Newcastle", and Francis Walsingham was the "merchant's wife".

Curle married Barbara Mowbray, one of Mary's gentlewomen. She was a daughter of John Mowbray, Laird of Barnbougle in West Lothian, near Cramond Island, and Elizabeth Kirkcaldy, a sister of William Kirkcaldy of Grange. Grange had been a commander in the Marian Civil War and was executed in July 1573.

The marriage was discussed in October 1584 at Wingfield, and Ralph Sadler notified Francis Walsingham that they had written to the Laird of Barnbougle for permission to marry, and Mary had asked him to speed the letter.

Meanwhile, Curle was taken from Wingfield to view Tutbury Castle and examine the accommodation in advance of Mary moving there. He reported the lodgings were in a poor state. Sadler wrote to Walsingham that Curle's report was misleading, and he had lied "like a false Scot". Sadler and John Somer admitted that Curle had justly noted that the glazing was in disrepair in the great tower, but they suspected Mary's household were reluctant to move for "secret causes".

A great deal of furnishings were needed for Tutbury. John Somer was "every day assaulted" by Nau and Curle with daily requests for horses for Mary. He said the weather was too cold for riding and she could always borrow horses. Somer thought that Mary intended to send Curle as a messenger to Scotland, and he provided a sketch of the secretary's character for William Cecil. Curle was not so quick-witted or prompt as Nau, French-like, but with a shrewd melancholy wit, and not so pleasant in speech and utterance, and suspect enough. Mary liked him for his fidelity and secrecy.

Curle and Mowbray's wedding was held at Tutbury Castle on 23 October 1585. Mary had previously promised the couple a gift of 2000 French crowns, and they transferred the sum to Mary's French secretary and treasurer, Claude Nau. This transaction was witnessed by Andrew Melville, the Master of the Household, and Sebastian Megalli, the queen's almoner. Mary later made a will at Sheffield Manor in 1577, mentioning the sum of 4,000 Francs promised to the couple.

Barbara's sister Geillis or Gillis Mowbray came to England from Barnbougle too late for her sister's wedding. Geillis was sent from London to Derby, and arrived at Tutbury on 9 November. Her position at first was maid to Curle's sister Elizabeth. Geillis was an ancestor of the Clerk of Penicuik family, and it is thought that Mary gave her jewels, known today as the "Penicuik jewels" and displayed at the National Museum of Scotland.

Barbara Curle was pregnant in May 1586. They had eight children in total. Curle was arrested before their daughter was born in August 1586. Mary wanted her christened with her name, but there was no priest, so she made a form of baptism herself.

Arrest and exile

Curle and Claude Nau were arrested and interrogated on 4 August 1586, suspected of involvement in the Babington plot. Francis Walsingham asked Mary's keeper Amias Paulet to move her from Chartley Castle and detain the two secretaries. Mary was taken to Tixall, and Barbara Curle had her baby while she was away.

Evidence against Mary and her secretaries had been gathered by the code-breaker Thomas Phelippes. Phellipes had written to Walsingham in July that he hoped Nau and Curle would be hanged.

His mother Elizabeth Curle wrote from Barnbougle to the Scottish ambassador in London, Archibald Douglas, asking for his help. Curle was imprisoned, and his sister Janet Curle wrote to him, hoping that Queen Elizabeth would release him. At this difficult time, Curle also received a demand for payment from Mary's Italian banker Timothy Cagnioli. Cagnioli was married to Jonet Curle, probably Gilbert's sister. In May 1594 there was a rumour that the rebel Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell had been secretly lodged in Janet Curle's house on the Castle Hill in Edinburgh.

When Mary's household moved to Fotheringhay, Gilbert Curle's wife Barbara, his sister Elizabeth, and sister-in-law Geillis Mowbray, and his servant Lawrence, a Scotsman, remained at Chartley. At Fotheringhay, Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth Curle helped Mary onto the scaffold and Kennedy tied her blindfold. Jane and Elizabeth had been chosen for this duty by Mary herself. Later, Kennedy told the Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza that she had blindfolded Mary at the execution, rather than Elizabeth Curle, because she had precedence of noble birth.

After his release he went to France and then settled in the Spanish Netherlands. A note made around 1589 indicates that Geillis Moubray, who had returned to Scotland, her husband Sir James Lyndsey, and her sister Jean Mowbray received pensions from Spain paid in gold ducats.

He died on 3 September 1609, possibly in Madrid. Barbara died in Antwerp on 31 July 1616, and her sister-in-law Elizabeth Curle died on 29 May 1620.

Barbara Mowbray's son Hyppolytus Curle and Elizabeth Curle had a monument made in the church of St Andrew Antwerp which includes a portrait of Queen Mary. The monument was made by Robert and Jan De Nole and the portrait was painted on copper by Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569-1622).

Hippolytus Curle gave an encaustic or enamelled "Agnus Dei", depicting St Ignatius of Loyala on one side, to the Scots College at Douai, now lost, with the memorial portrait of Mary which is kept by Blairs College Museum in Aberdeen.

Elizabeth Curle and the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots

An inventory taken of the queen's goods at Chartley in August 1586 mentions that Elizabeth Curle had several lengths of silk, linen and other suchlike items, not included in the inventory, and many various everyday objects of little value.

After the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587 an inventory was made of her jewels. Several pieces were listed as in the custody of Gilbert's sister Elizabeth, including; a chain of coral and gold musk or pomander beads set with pearls; a chain of small pearls; a chain of amber with small pearls and other beads; a gold "book" enamelled, with the portraits of Mary, Darnley, and James VI; a gold ring set with a ruby; a diamond ring; a ring of mother of pearl set with a blue sapphire; a gold enamelled spear; a gold tree with a queen on top and a boy pulling the branches; a silver looking glass; 12 biliards and an ivory ball.

Mary had asked Elizabeth to give Barbara Curle a gold ensign depicting one of Aesop's fables and two rings, one with a diamond. She was to give Curle's youngest child two rings, one set with five little opals, and a small chain of coral and mother of pearl.

Elizabeth Curle had custody of Mary's chamber plate, including two little silver flagons, two mazer cups mounted with silver gilt, and a little silver bell. She also had two more looking glasses, two large watches, and a smaller watch. She had 200 French crowns for one of her sisters, and 100 crowns for Gilbert Curle's servant Lawrence.

She also had several items from the queen's wardrobe, including a silk camlet gown, a black petticoat edged with sheepskin, a russet satin doublet, and a beaver felt hat. She was keeping for Barbara Curle the queen's cloak of figured velvet lined with shag, and a white satin doublet, and for Curle's child, a satin kirtle, and another white satin kirtle.A. Labanoff, ''Lettres de Marie Stuart'', vol. 7 (London, 1842), p. 268.

References

External links

Letter from Bess of Hardwick to Gilbert Curle, 1574: Bess of Hardwick's Letters

Will of Agnes Mowbray (d. 1575), a sister of Barbara Mowbray, National Records of Scotland

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curle, Gilbert
16th-century Scottish people
Court of Mary, Queen of Scots
1609 deaths
People from Edinburgh