MURDAC. You’re going to pay them? You’re going to pay England?

JAMES. I can’t afford a war with England. Not until I’m safe on my throne.

MURDAC. You’re doing this for money!?

JAMES. I’m doing it because I have finally learned all the job of a king.

MURDAC. Jesus, don’t make me beg you, man… not all my boys…

JAMES. Too many Stewarts. It has to be done.

MURDAC. No. It doesn’t. It doesn’t. You know. James, you know better.

JAMES. I am the King of Scots, and I know my work, better than you, I will sit on this throne until I die, Murdac Stewart.

MURDAC. They will hate you till you die. Everyone would have understood if you’d cut me down in hot blood, slaughtered my sons in front of my eyes and screamed your rage at me. They’d’ve feared you for that. They might even have loved you in the end. But you’re slaughtering me like a moneylender robbed of his interest. You’re hacking my neck so it’ll bleed gold for you. You’re a cowardly little coin pusher, robbing his cousin’s corpses. They’ll despise you to death and beyond.

JAMES. Arrest Duke Murdac.

The GUARDS move to take him

MURDAC. You won’t have a friend in the whole country when I’m gone.

JAMES. I never had a friend. I have the Queen.

(To the GUARDS.) Take him away.

MURDAC pulls off the ring and gives it to JAMES.

MURDAC. Your ring, Your Majesty. The token of your solemn vow.

The execution is prepared. JOAN hurries out to watch. ISABELLA is brought out under guard. She follows JOAN. She drops to her knees.

ISABELLA. Queen Joan. Your Highness… please… please…

JOAN turns to her.

Save my boys, Your Majesty. Save them or let me die with them.

JOAN. No. You did this! You did it to yourself! Your eggs are all broken, Isabella. You’ve smashed them all. And there are your little chicks. There they all are. Look. You look now.

The execution. JOAN, JAMES and ISABELLA watch.

Outside Stirling Castle

Song.

Man is a withering weed,

Woman is just smoke,

His skin’s a sack filled up with ash,

She’s a jar of dying coals.

Like meat they’ll dry,

Like meat they’ll hang,

Like meat they’ll stink,

They’ll be rubbed out…

So… why are you wearing those jewels lady why the gorgeous gown?

Why are you wearing gold my lord?

Why are you wearing that crown?

A deafening bang as the axe falls. ISABELLA gives JOAN one deadly, desperate look.

The execution is over, JOAN and JAMES still stand looking down.

JOAN. Did you watch? Did you keep your eyes open?

JAMES. Yes. Everyone was watching me.

JOAN. Me too. I forced them wide, wide open, I didn’t even dare blink.

I was shaking, but the wind was making all the folds of my dress tremble anyway so I just kept my hands tight clasped in my sleeves. No one saw me shiver, did they?

JAMES. No. No one saw.