Jérôme Pasquier

Jérôme Pasquier (1560–1605) was a French servant of Mary, Queen of Scots, involved in writing and deciphering coded letters.George Lasry, Norbert Biermann, Satoshi Tomokiyo, "Deciphering Mary Stuart’s lost letters from 1578–1584", Cryptologia, 47:2 (2023), p. 65.

Working for a captive queen

Pasquier is recorded as a groom of the chamber to Mary and master of her wardrobe. The other grooms were Bastian Pagez and Hannibal Stuart.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1915), p. 412 no. 439: Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, vol. 7 (London, 1844), p. 250. He was described as "young Pasquier".Alexandre Teulet, Relations Politiques, 4 (Paris, 1862), p. 204: John Morris, Letter-books of Amias Poulet (London, 1874), p. 272. Adam Blackwood described him as "commis et argentier", a clerk and treasurer or purse keeper.Alan Gordon Smith, The Babington Plot (Macmillan, 1936). The French ambassador also called him a steward or argentier.William Barclay Turnbull, Letters of Mary Stuart (London, 1845), p. 345: Alexandre Teulet, Relations Politiques, 4 (Paris, 1862), p. 92. Pasquier may have been recruited to Mary's service by Albert Fontenay, a brother of Mary's secretary Claude Nau. Fontenay mentioned his friends, Monsieur de l'Aubespine, Arnault, and Pasquier.Sheila R. Richards, Secret Writing in the Public Records (HMSO, 1974), p. 45.

Pasquier married Madeleine Champhoun, a daughter of Mary's French administrator Jean Champhuon, sieur du Ruisseau and Claude Nau's sister Claire. On 20 March 1586, at Chartley, Pasquier and Bastian Pagez witnessed a document in which Jacques Gervais, Mary's surgeon, placed his affairs in the hands du Ruisseau.J. Charavay, Catalogue d'une très belle collection de lettres autographes et manuscrits (Paris, 1855), p. 18 no. 202.

Pasquier worked with Mary's secretaries Claude Nau and Gilbert Curle managing Mary's correspondence.Nadine Akkerman & Pete Langman, Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade (Yale, 2024), pp. 89, 104, 278 fn. 65.John Morris, Letter-books of Amias Poulet (London, 1874), p. 249 Letters in cipher from the French ambassador London, Guillaume de l'Aubespine de Châteauneuf, were delivered to him.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1586-1588, vol. 9 (London, 1915), p. 249 no. 299. In May 1586, Mary said, and Gilbert Curle wrote, that she received an infinite number of letters in cipher. Curle translated Mary's French drafts or dictation into English and ciphered them. Nau was in charge of the French correspondence.Philip Yorke, Miscellaneous State Papers, vol. 1 (London, 1778), pp. 218, 223, 235-7: Annie Cameron, Warrender Papers, vol. 1 (SHS: Edinburgh, 1931), p. 214, 218.

In August 1584 Pasquier worked on the deciphering of a long letter to Mary and Claude Nau from Albert Fontenay, a half-brother of Nau, which describes his visit to Scotland and negotiations with James VI.William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots, 1547-1603, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1915), no. 237: William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1584-1585, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 271 no. 247. The letter describes the young king and his hobbies and has become an important source for his biography.Calendar of the manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury at Hatfield, vol. 3 (London, 1889), pp. vi, 47-62George Akrigg, Letters of King James VI & I (University of California, 1984), pp. 7-8. Pasquier also deciphered Fontenay's despatch of 24 November 1584 which includes the views of James VI on the "Enterprise of England", a plan to make an allegiance with Spain to invade England.Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1586-1588, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1915), pp. 74-5 no. 62, 90 no. 80 Pasquier deciphered a letter to Mary in Spanish from Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma in 1585.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1586-1588, vol. 9 (London, 1915), p. 227 no. 219.

Pasquier may have accompanied Nau to London in November 1584 when Nau acted as Mary's diplomat. They borrowed money from other members of the household.John Morris, Letter-books of Amias Poulet (London, 1874), p. 326. Pasquier said that he had first heard some details of the Throckmorton Plot (months after the events) during Nau's trip.Leo Hicks, An Elizabethan Problem (London, 1964), pp. 23–24: William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 8 (London, 1914), p. 659 no. 744. In June 1586, Nau sent Pasquier to Amias Paulet to complain that Mary's letters ought to be sent when they were ready and not depend on the opportunity of a bearer to take them. Nau was concerned about letters relating to Bess Pierrepont.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 8 (London, 1914), p. 448 no. 482.

In August 1571, before Pasquier joined her service, Mary mentioned her practice of writing cipher in a letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow. Outgoing cipher letters were composed from drafts (les minutes de chifres), but for reasons of security these drafts were usually burnt. Letters could be taken on the way, or her papers and coffers might be subject to a surprise search. She did not always keep or have time to make fair copies or "doubles" of the ciphered letters.William Barclay Turnbull, Letters of Mary Stuart (London, 1845), p. 213: Labanoff, Lettres, 3, pp. 349–350 By "chiffre", Mary usually meant the coded letter.

Arrested and questioned As the Babington Plot was investigated and revealed by Francis Walsingham, Pasquier was arrested on August 1586 with Mary's secretaries at the suggestion of Amias Paulet, who observed he was "half a secretary". He was first locked in a chamber, then was moved to the house of Mr Littleton and the lodging of Thomas Gresley of Drakelow at Chartley.Regis Chantelauze, Marie Stuart : son proces et son execution, d'apres le journal inedit de Bourgoing son medecin (Paris, 1876), pp. 477–478: TNA SP 53/19 f.51: Walsingham told Paulet to send Pasquier to London under "sure guard".Samuel Cowan, The last days of Mary Stuart and the journal of Bourgoyne her physician (London, 1907), pp. 37, 47, 72 Paulet arranged for him to be taken to the Tower of London on 29 August escorted by three men.John Morris, Letter-books of Amias Poulet (London, 1874), pp. 253, 272, 279. French diplomats in London heard a rumour the prisoner taken to the Tower was Bess Pierrepont, or Mary herself.Alexandre Teulet, Relations Politiques, 4 (Paris, 1862), pp. 52–60 : Thomas Wright, History of Scotland, 2 (London, 1852), pp. 222–223. This was not unprecedented, ten years before, in February 1575, a French diplomat heard that one of Mary's cipher clerks or messengers, a young man, had been taken to the Tower of London.Correspondence diplomatique de Bertrand de Salignac de la Mothe Fénélon, 6 (Paris, 1840), pp. 362, 376.

Pasquier was questioned by Owen Hopton, Edward Barker, and the code expert Thomas Phelippes twice in September 1586.John Hungerford Pollen, Queen Mary and the Babington Plot (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, pp. clxxxv-clxxxviiSamuel Cowan, The last days of Mary Stuart and the journal of Bourgoyne her physician (London, 1907), pp. 47-48, Cowan describes only the questions They showed him some examples of his code work. His responses are recorded in three surviving documents. Pasquier confessed to writing and transcribing coded letters for Mary. He said that Nau was in charge of the cipher keys or alphabets. The cipher work took place in Nau's chamber. Pasquier delivered completed ciphered and deciphered letters to Mary or Nau. He claimed not to remember the contents of the letters.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1585-1586, vol. 8 (London, 1914), pp. 659-660 nos. 743, 744; Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1586-1588, vol. 9 (London, 1915), pp. 47 no. 40, 54-57 nos 49-50 (SP 53/19 f.117 English), 89-90 no. 80 (TNA SP 53/20 f.11 French), 471 no. 378. He did remember encoding a letter in cipher for Mary in 1584 to send to the French ambassador Michel de Castelnau asking him to negotiate a pardon for Francis Throckmorton after his treason trial.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1586-1588, vol. 9 (London, 1915), p. 56 no. 50.

William Cecil wrote to Christopher Hatton discussing the idea of threatening Nau, Curle, and Pasquier so they would confirm Mary's crime and ensure their own escape.Conyers Read, Bardon Papers (London: Camden Society, 1909), pp. 42-43, citing BL Egerton 2124. Claude Nau mentioned that some significant letters, copied in French and English, were kept in chests belonging to Pasquier. One way of making a case against Mary was to find incriminating and treasonous material in her letters, but her distance from the material in cipher produced by her secretaries was a problem.Stephen Alford, The Watchers (Penguin, 2013), pp. 232-233: William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1586-1588, vol. 8 (London, 1915), p. 701 no. 764. Mary was able to deny writing to Anthony Babington with her own signature, and question the authenticity of any letters produced.Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres inédites de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1839), pp. 180-181. Conyers Read argues that the secretaries were interviewed to demonstrate the genuineness of deciphered letters and that Mary was the author of her letters.Conyers Read, Bardon Papers (London: Camden Society, 1909), pp. xxxviii-xxxix.

Walsingham sent news to the Scottish Court in September 1586 that Mary was to be moved to Fotheringhay, and that "the matters whereof she is guilty are already so plain and manifest (being also confessed by her two secretaries), as it is thought, they shall required no long debating".Letters and Papers Relating to Patrick Master of Gray (Edinburgh, 1835), pp. 110-111.

Pasquier's confession Pasquier signed a confession on 8 October 1586. He was described as Mary's "argentier". He related that he ciphered and deciphered letters, including to the Archbishop of Glasgow, to Albert Fontenay, Thomas Morgan, and to the French ambassadors in London, Castelnau and Châteauneuf. Nau gave Pasquier drafts or "minutes" of the letters that he had written. He knew little about the origins of the "Enterprise", a plan for Mary's Spanish or French allies to invade England and depose Elizabeth, but said that it was indefinitely postponed by changing political circumstances.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 9, pp. 89–90 no. 80, TNA SP 53/20 f.11. He thought that Mary was averse to plans to invade England, considering that she might have to renounce her claim to the throne in favour of her son James VI.Leo Hicks, An Elizabethan Problem (London, 1964), p. 142.

Pasquier and the evidence for Mary's secretariat presented at her trial Pasquier's evidence does not seem to have been directly used in Mary's treason trial.Conyers Read, Bardon Papers (London: Camden Society, 1909), p. 44. Walsingham and Phelippes focused on a letter sent to Babington written by Nau, the "bloody letter", and a cipher used to write to him found in her papers.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1586-1588, vol. 9 (London, 1915), p. 125-6 no. 121 (items 7-9, 12, 27). Phelippes acknowledged that Mary usually sent more letters every fortnight "than it was possible for one body well exercised therein to put in cipher and decipher".Stephen Alford, The Watchers (Penguin, 2013), p. 233.