<\/p>
Born:<\/strong> 8 December 1542, Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian, Scotland<\/p>\n Died:<\/strong> 8 February 1587, Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, England. She was executed<\/p>\n Ruled:<\/strong> 1542\u201367<\/p>\n Parents:<\/strong> James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise<\/p>\n Spouses:<\/strong> Mary, Queen of Scots was married three times: to Francis, king of France (1558\u201360), Lord Darnley (1565\u201367), and the Earl of Bothwell (1567\u201378). Mary had one child with Lord Darnley in 1566, who went on to become James VI and I of Scotland and England.<\/p>\n What is Mary, Queen of Scots remembered for?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mary is perhaps best known for her involvement in an assassination plot against her cousin, Elizabeth I, in which she hoped to take the throne for herself. Mary is also known for her possible involvement in the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley, who was killed on 9 February 1567.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u00a0<\/p>\n Mary, Queen of Scots was born at Linlithgow Palace on 8 December 1542. She was the third and only surviving child of King James V of Scotland and his second wife, Mary of Guise. The Stewarts had reigned in Scotland since 1371, through a succession of precarious minorities, and James had been in desperate need of an heir.<\/p>\n James V fell seriously ill around the time of his daughter\u2019s birth. He appears to have succumbed to either cholera or dysentery,\u00a0contracted while he was on campaign against his uncle, Henry VIII<\/a>. This had culminated in a heavy defeat for the Scots at Solway Moss. James died on 14 December 1542, leaving the throne to Mary, who was just six days old.<\/p>\n She was born in a freezing winter. The snow lay so deep that it took the messenger bringing the news of her birth four days to reach Alnwick Castle in Northumberland. The English might have taken this opportunity to push their advantage but John Dudley, Henry VIII\u2019s commander in the north of England, counselled forbearance, writing: \u201cI thought it should not be to your majesty\u2019s honour that we soldiers should make war or invade upon a dead body or upon a widow or upon a young suckling his daughter.\u201d Soon enough, the English would be much less amenable.<\/p>\n Mary was crowned on 9 September 1543. She lived at Stirling Castle until she was five, protected by her clever and determined mother. Although Henry VIII proposed a marriage between Mary and his son, the future Edward VI<\/a>, the Scots prevaricated. Tudor ambitions to control Scotland led to the sack of Edinburgh by the English in 1544, but the violence was unavailing. Henry VIII died in 1547 and the following year the Scots sent Mary to safety in France, to the court of Henry II and his wife, Catherine de Medici<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mary remained in France until the summer of 1561. She grew up in opulent surroundings, well-educated and admired for her charm and personality. But she was a pawn in the hands of the French king, who hoped to use Mary\u2019s claim to the English throne as a means of enhancing his power in western Europe. In 1558, the year of Elizabeth\u2019s accession, Mary married Francis, Henry II\u2019s son and heir to the French throne. Dazzlingly bejewelled and dressed all in white, Mary outshone her delicate husband. The Venetian ambassador reported that \u201cthese nuptials were really considered the most regal and triumphant of any of any that have been witnessed in this kingdom for many years.\u201d It was a sharp contrast to the coronation of Elizabeth I in January 1559, who wore her sister Mary\u2019s hastily altered gown.<\/p>\n The triumph was short-lived. Henry II was killed in a jousting accident in 1559 and more tragedy followed, with Mary\u2019s mother and husband both dying in 1560. Mary no longer had a role in France. Scotland, meanwhile, was riven with religious rebellion; a group of Protestant nobles led by Mary\u2019s half-brother \u2013 James Stewart, the Earl of Moray \u2013 had risen against French domination. For the rest of her life, Mary\u2019s fate would be influenced by two key elements: her place in the English succession and the challenges she faced in Scotland.<\/p>\n The view that Mary knew nothing about Scotland and only spoke French is mistaken. Nevertheless, it was an unfamiliar country to which she returned. The majority of the Scottish population was still Catholic and well-disposed towards an energetic and personable young queen. The Scottish lords were more sceptical. Much has been made of the rivalry between Elizabeth and Mary, but in Scotland Mary had to contend with her half-brother, the Earl of Moray, who resented his sister.<\/p>\n During the years that she ruled Scotland, Mary faced down rebels and called parliament five times. She made a balanced choice of advisers on her privy council and attended its meetings regularly. Mary wanted to be a successful ruler in her native land. But she also wanted Elizabeth to recognise her claim to the English throne. The queens exchanged portraits and expressed an affection for each other that probably neither felt. Both were under pressure from their advisers to marry and produce heirs. Elizabeth had been embarrassed by the mysterious death of Amy Robsart, the wife of her favourite \u2013 Robert Dudley<\/a>, the future earl of Leicester \u2013 in 1560. Now she proposed him as a husband for Mary, an idea that the Scottish queen found insulting. Mary then made a decision that she hoped would give her an unassailable advantage: she would marry her cousin, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley.<\/p>\n Mary has been criticised for choosing Darnley but there was much to recommend him, especially dynastically. His parents were Margaret Dougla \u2013 daughter of Margaret Tudor<\/a> by her second marriage \u2013 and Matthew Stewart, earl of Lennox. This ancestry gave Darnley a claim to the thrones of both England and Scotland. Their union would strengthen Mary\u2019s position as heir presumptive to Elizabeth. The 19-year-old Darnley was tall, athletic, and handsome, with polished manners. He was also a Catholic. Mary and Darnley were married on 29 July 1565. What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n Alas, almost everything. Darnley was a spoilt brat with a vicious heart, out of his depth in the volatile nature of Scottish politics. The marriage had permanently ruptured the relationship of Mary and Moray while alienating other Scottish nobles. Darnley was also an accessory to the brutal murder of Mary\u2019s unpopular secretary, David Riccio (sometimes Rizzio), on 9 March 1566 \u2013 and stood by while his wife, then six months pregnant, was threatened with a pistol.<\/p>\n Despite the birth of a son in 1566, Mary\u2019s marriage was beyond repair and divorce was discussed. A more dramatic solution ensued. Darnley was murdered on the night of 9\u201310 February 1567, seemingly as a result of an explosion at the house where he was recovering from illness. The true cause of his death was far more sinister; he had actually been strangled.<\/p>\n How much, if anything, Mary knew beforehand about a conspiracy involving the earls of Morton and Bothwell to eliminate Darnley remains unclear. Given her reaction (a complete mental and physical breakdown) it seems unlikely that she had anticipated Darnley\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n Darnley\u2019s death compromised Mary\u2019s ability to govern, as well as casting a stain on her reputation. A dangerous power vacuum developed in Scotland and one man saw a way of capitalising on it. James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, was a Protestant lord with a history of service to the Scottish Crown. He was also ambitious, a ladies\u2019 man, and a violent brawler. Controversially acquitted of responsibility for Darnley\u2019s murder, he then decided to make his move. Gathering the key Scottish lords together, he persuaded them to sign a bond supporting his marriage to Mary, if she should \u2018happen\u2019 to choose him. This would bring unity and peace to Scotland, he claimed.<\/p>\n Bothwell\u2019s confidence was misplaced. Mary rejected him. Romantic novels and Hollywood films have depicted Mary as madly in love with Bothwell. The evidence does not support this interpretation. Desperate not to lose momentum, Bothwell kidnapped Mary as she returned from visiting her son in Stirling. He took her to his fortress at Dunbar and coerced her into having sex with him. Humiliated and alone, Mary reluctantly agreed to marry him. But by now the Scottish lords had turned against Bothwell, and he would take Mary down with him.\u00a0 Their forces were defeated at Carberry Hill in June, 1567. Bothwell escaped and died, insane, in a Danish prison in 1578. Shamefully treated, Mary suffered abuse and imprisonment in the island castle of Lochleven. There, she miscarried twins and had scarcely recovered when, on 24 July, 1567, she signed a document in which she abdicated in favour of her son. She had been threatened with death if she did not agree.<\/p>\n During the following year, Mary rallied and escaped captivity. But she could not regain her throne. Her supporters were defeated at the battle of Langside in 1568 and Mary, unable to face further imprisonment \u2013 or worse \u2013 decided to flee to England, where she believed that Elizabeth would offer her refuge and support.<\/p>\n Mary\u2019s arrival placed Elizabeth and her advisers in a quandary. There was sympathy from the English queen, but restoring Mary would be fraught with military and political obstacles. And Darnley\u2019s murder tainted Mary, unless she could be proved innocent. Her first trial was inconclusive, despite the revelation of the \u2018Casket Letters\u2019, a series of forgeries that appeared to show an adulterous relationship with Bothwell.<\/p>\n Mary lived under house arrest for the rest of her life, in a series of castles in the north and midlands of England. She and Elizabeth never met. Over the years, Mary became a focus for discontent against her cousin. European politics also began to influence her fate. Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570, releasing her subjects from obedience to her and thus condoning assassination attempts. In Scotland, civil war between Mary\u2019s supporters and those of her young son continued.<\/p>\n Despairing of release or any return to power, Mary was drawn further into plots against Elizabeth. But she was no match for Elizabeth\u2019s chief advisers, William Cecil<\/a> and Francis Walsingham. They watched carefully as the final conspiracy involving Mary took shape. The Babington Plot<\/a> of 1586 revealed Mary to have supported a Spanish invasion and Elizabeth\u2019s death so that she could become queen of England. At her trial for treason, Mary defended herself eloquently but to no avail. Found guilty in October, 1586, Parliament then petitioned for her execution on 12 and 24 November 1586.<\/p>\n Elizabeth hesitated for several months. She did not sign Mary\u2019s death warrant until 1 February. Aware that his sovereign had almost immediately regretted it, Cecil hastened to get the warrant delivered to Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, where Mary was living. She reacted calmly to the news that she would be executed the next morning, 8 February. 1587. During her last night she wrote to her brother-in-law, Henry III of France, regretting the mistake she had made in coming to England and castigating Elizabeth\u2019s treatment of her.<\/p>\nWho was Mary Queen of Scots?<\/h2>\n
Queen of Scots and Queen of France<\/h2>\n
Two queens in one isle, 1561\u20131565<\/h2>\n
Did Mary, Queen of Scots murder Lord Darnley?<\/h2>\n
Mary\u2019s third marriage and downfall, 1567\u20131568<\/h2>\n
Elizabeth and Mary, 1568\u20131587<\/h2>\n
Why did Elizabeth sign Mary, Queen of Scots\u2019 death warrant?<\/h2>\n