In November 2007, British Minister of State for Culture Margaret Hodge placed a temporary export bar on the document, following a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). The Committee recommended that the manuscript is so closely connected with British history and national life that its departure would be a misfortune, and awarded a starred rating to the document. This effectively provided a last chance to raise the money to keep the document in the country.

Lambeth Palace Library took up this challenge and has purchased the document for £72,485.50 (US$141,500) thanks to the combined generosity of the Friends of the National Libraries, the Friends and Trustees of Lambeth Palace Library, the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and the National Heritage Memorial Fund. All of the funding has come from bodies concerned with heritage, without depleting resources available for the Church's mission.

Dr. Richard Palmer, the Lambeth Librarian, said: "The Library is delighted to have played its part in saving this document for the nation. The warrant is now reunited with the papers with which it belongs and accessible for the benefit of all."

Mary Queen of Scots -- with her claims to the crowns of England and Scotland, her beauty and charisma, her marriages and love affairs, and years of imprisonment -- has long been a heroine in the popular imagination. Her execution on February 8, 1587, after great agonizing by her cousin Elizabeth I, is one of the best known events in British history.

Robert Beale, principal clerk to the Privy Council of the time, was responsible for bearing the warrant to the commissioners who were instructed to 'repair to our Castell of Fotheringhaye where the said queene of Scottes is in custodie and cause by your commaundement execution to be don uppon her person.' Elizabeth I signed the warrant, but claimed afterwards that she had given no instruction for its enactment. The original warrant disappeared in the recriminations which followed. This copy, which includes Beale's annotation, was delivered by him to Henry Grey, sixth Earl of Kent, one of the two commissioners tasked with organizing the execution. It was accompanied by a covering letter to the Earl from the Privy Council which has long been part of the collections of Lambeth Palace Library. These two documents, which played a central role in the drama, are now reunited in the Library's care.

Lambeth Palace Library is one of England's oldest public libraries. Its entire collections are designated by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council as outstanding in national and international importance. The Library holds significant archives relating to Mary Queen of Scots, including papers not only of Henry Grey, but of George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, who was for many years custodian of the Queen in her captivity and the second commissioner responsible for her execution. The Library also holds the sermon which was to have been preached at the execution, but which Mary declined to hear. An illustrated subject guide to these sources on the Queen is accessible on the Library's website here.

Lambeth Palace Library is freely open to the public for research. The copy of the warrant will now be available for research and exhibition, including loans for exhibitions on both sides of the Scottish border.