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You are here: UK History > Royal History > Scottish Monarchy > Mary Queen of Scots
Mary Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14th December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. There is some debate as to whether she was the first Scottish Queen, as some historians discount Margaret of Norway.
Quick Facts:
Born: 8th December 1542
Died: 8th February 1587
Reign: 14th December 1542 – 24th July 1567
Parents: James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise
Predecessor: James V
Successor: James VI
Spouse: Francis II of France, then Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and then James Hepburn 4th Earl of Bothwell
Children: James VI/I
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when her father died and she ascended the throne. During her childhood, Scotland was...Read More
Mary Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14th December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. There is some debate as to whether she was the first Scottish Queen, as some historians discount Margaret of Norway.
Quick Facts:
Born: 8th December 1542
Died: 8th February 1587
Reign: 14th December 1542 – 24th July 1567
Parents: James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise
Predecessor: James V
Successor: James VI
Spouse: Francis II of France, then Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and then James Hepburn 4th Earl of Bothwell
Children: James VI/I
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when her father died and she ascended the throne. During her childhood, Scotland was governed by regents, first by James Hamilton, the Earl of Arran, then her mother, Mary of Guise.
Mary was born on 8th December 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, her father was on his deathbed at the time. She was said to have been born prematurely, possibly because of the stress of an ongoing war with England and was not only the great niece of Henry VIII in England but was also related to the very influential Guise family in France.
She was made queen six days after her birth and as such, Scotland was ruled by regents until she came into her majority. King Henry VIII of England took the opportunity of the various regents to propose a marriage between his son, Edward, and the new queen Mary. Negotiations were ongoing and the Treaty of Greenwich was signed which promised that when Mary turned ten, she would marry Edward and move to England, becoming a ward of Henry VIII. The treaty provided that the two countries would remain legally separate and, should they not have children, the union would dissolve.
Cardinal Beaton wanted to push a pro Catholic and French agenda, which angered Henry and also wanted to move Mary to the safety of Stirling Castle. Her regent resisted the move but eventually backed down and allowed Mary and her mother to be moved to Stirling under the protection of 3,500 armed men. More of the Scottish nobles began to rebel against the Treaty of Greenwich and it was formally rejected in December prompting what became known as the Rough Wooing, where Henry VIII embarked on a military campaign to impose marriage with his son on Mary. There were a number of English raids on Scotland and Mary was taken to Dunkeld for safety. Not long after this, Beaton was murdered and Mary’s guardians turned to the French for aid. King Henry II of France proposed to unite France and Scotland by marrying the new queen and his three year old son, the Dauphin. Mary’s regents agreed and now aged five, Mary was sent to France where she spent the next 13 years.
Mary went to France accompanied by her own court, which included four girls her own age all named Mary, (Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston) known to historians as the “Four Marys” and two of her illegitimate half brothers. Mary Fleming’s mother, Lady Fleming, was the queen’s aunt and was appointed as their governess.
Mary flourished at the French court and was a favourite of everyone except the French Queen. She was fluent in several languages including French, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Greek, her lessons also included falconry, horsemanship and needlework and she was considered by all to have been a pretty child and later, a striking woman. She was known to have been very eloquent and especially tall for the time. This was in contrast to her husband, Francis, who spoke with a stutter and was unusually short.
In 1958, Mary signed a document bequeathing Scotland and her claim to the English crown to the French should she die without issue, though how willing she was to sign this is debated. She married the Dauphin at Notre Dame soon after.
In November 1558, Henry VIII’s daughter Elizabeth became queen. In the eyes of many English catholics, Elizabeth was deemed illegitimate and that the true heir to the throne was Mary Stuart. She was afterall the senior surviving legitimate descendant of Henry VII through her grandmother, Margaret Tudor. Henry II of France declared his son and daughter in law as the true King and Queen of England and the strength of Mary’s claim would continue to be a contentious issue between her and Elizabeth.
When Henry II died, following injuries sustained in a joust, Francis, who was 15 and Mary, who was 16, became the new knig and queen of France. In Scotland, power rested with Mary’s mother with the backing of her Guise relatives. In June 1560, Mary of Guise died, creating a pressing issue on the future of Franco-Scottish relations. Under the terms of a treaty signed by regents, France and England agreed to withdraw troops from Scotland. France agreed to recognise Elizabeth I’s right to rule in England but Mary, now 17, stuck in France and mourning her mother, refused to sign the treaty.
King Francis II died on 5th December of the same year. Mary was said to be grief stricken and lost her position in court after her mother in law became the regent for the late king’s ten year old brother. Mary departed France for Scotland nine months later, however, having lived in France since the age of five, she had little idea of the complex political situation in her homeland. As a devout catholic, she was regarded with suspicion by the protestant nobles and her English counterpart. Her half brother, the Earl of Moray, was a leader of the protestants and there was ongoing tension between the protestant and catholic nobles.
Mary tried to keep the peace by tolerating the protestants and kept her brother on as her chief advisor. Her privy council was also dominated by protestants, with only four of them being catholic. Not long after her return to Scotland, Mary sent a representative to England to put forward her case as heir to the English throne. Elizabeth refused to name a potential heir, however she did assure Mary that she had the best claim. The pair arranged to meet, but cancelled because of the outbreak of a civil war in France.
Mary soon turned her attention to finding a new husband, looking to the various European royal families. Several nobles put forward suggestions, including Elizabeth I, who proposed that she marry Robert Dudley the 1st Earl of Leicester, who was rumoured to be her own lover and was a protestant, with the view that she would be able to control Mary through Dudley. A French poet also had designs on the queen, even hiding under her bed in an attempt to woo her. He was banished but would ignore this and attempted to break into her rooms. Mary had him tried for treason and beheaded.
Mary’s second marriage was to her English-born half cousin, Henry Stuart, the Lord Darnley. The pair had first met when Mary was in mourning. Lord Darnley’s parents were not only Scottish aristocrats but also English landowners and had sent their son to France to make the queen’s acquaintance and to pass on their condolences. It is suspected that they were hoping for a potential match. Both Mary and Darnley were grandchildren of Margaret Tudor and both had claims on the English throne through the Tudor lineage.
They met for a second time in 1565 in Scotland, where Mary was said to fall in love with Darnley. The pair married at Holyrood Palace on 29th July 1565, even though both were Catholic and a papal dispensation for the marriage of cousins had not been obtained. Although her advisors had nominated Darnley as a potential match for Mary, Elizabeth I felt threatened by the marriage, mostly because any child of theirs would have a strong claim on her throne. Elizabeth also claimed that they should have sought her permission to marry, as Darnley was an English subject and her cousin.
Mary’s marriage to Darnley caused her brother, the Earl of Moray to join with other Protestant lords in open rebellion. Mary returned to Edinburgh to raise troops and in what became known as the Chaseabout Raid, would follow the lords around Scotland without either engaging in direct combat. The Earl of Moray eventually left Scotland, seeking refuge in England.
It didn’t take long for the marriage between Mary and Darnley to sour. He began to grow arrogant demanding that he be made a co-sovereign of Scotland, with the right to keep the throne for himself should he outlive Mary, rather than being King Consort. Mary continued to refuse him and their marriage became strained, though the pair had conceived by October 1565.
While Mary was pregnant, Darnley, entered into a conspiracy with a number of protestant lords to murder her private secretary, David Rizzio, one of Mary’s closest advisors. On 9th March, Darnley allowed the conspirators entry into Holyrood Palace and murdered Rizzio in front of the pregnant Mary and her guests during a dinner party. Darnley, once realising that the nobles were not going to give him what he wanted, returned to Mary’s favour and the pair left Holyrood together, taking refuge in Dunbar Castle before returning to Edinburgh, where Mary relented and allowed some of the protestant rebels, including her brother to return to her council.
Mary and Darnley’s son, James, was born on 19th June in Edinburgh Castle, though by this time, their marriage was all but over. A few months later, Mary made a journey to visit the Earl of Bothwell, who was recovering from a battle. This was later used as evidence by Mary’s enemies that the pair were lovers, even though Mary was accompanied by several councillors and guards and no one reported there being anything between the pair.
Mary met with leading Scottish nobles at the end of November that year to discuss the issue of Lord Darnley. Divorce was discussed but it is believed that the lords had their own plans to remove him. Darnley was said to have been in fear of his life and after the baptism of his son, moved onto his father’s estates. The following January, Mary asked him to return to Edinburgh, he was ill on arrival and recuperated in a house within the city walls. Mary visited him daily and many believed that the pair were reconciled. On 9th February, Mary visited her husband and then attended a wedding for a member of her household. In the early hours of the morning, an explosion devastated the home that Darnley was staying in. His body was discovered in the garden, apparently smothered as there were no visible marks on his body. The Earls of Bothwell, Moray and Morton, along with Mary, were suspected of killing him. By the end of the month, the Earl of Bothwell was generally believed to have been behind Darnley’s assassination, Mary agreed to have him tried, but after a seven hour trial, he was acquitted and Bothwell began his campaign to marry Mary.
Between 21st and 23rd April, Mary made the trip to Stirling Castle to visit her son, it would be the last time she would see him. On her way back to Edinburgh, she was abducted by Lord Bothwell and his men and taken to Dunbar Castle. During her captivity, Mary claimed that he had taken liberties with her before forcing her into a marriage at Holyrood Abbey in a Protestant ceremony. The divorce between Bothwell and his previous wife had only been granted 12 days before.
The marriage proved to be deeply unpopular, and Bothwell quickly fell out of favour with his former supporters. Many were shocked that Mary would marry the man she accused of killing her husband. 26 Scottish nobles turned against Mary and Bothwell and raised their own army. The pair confronted the lords at Carberry Hill on 15th June but there was no battle. Bothwell was given a safe passage from the field and the lords took Mary to Edinburgh where she was denounced as an adultress and murderer. The following night she was imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle on an island in the middle of Loch Leven. It was here that Mary miscarried twins. On 24th July, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one year old son, James, with her brother, the Earl of Moray being made regent. Bothwell was exiled, he was imprisoned in Denmark where he died in 1578.
Mary managed to escape from Loch Leven Castle with the aid of the castle’s owner and raised an army, meeting with her brother for the Battle of Langside. Defeated, Mary fled south, crossing the border into England on a fishing boat in May. She landed in Cumberland, staying overnight before being taken into protective custody.
Mary initially expected Elizabeth to help her regain her throne, however Elizabeth was wary of being an ally because there was still a question over Mary’s involvement in Darnley’s murder. In mid-July, Mary was moved to Bolton Castle, so she was further from the Scottish border, but also a fair distance from London. She did retain some support in Scotland, with a civil war breaking out against Moray.
As a queen, Mary refused to acknowledge the power of any court to try her and refused to attend the inquiry into Darnley’s murder, but did send representatives. As evidence against Mary, her brother presented the so-called ‘casket letters’ which included 8 unsigned letters which he claimed were from Mary to Bothwell. He claimed that these letters discussed Darnley’s murder and their marriage. Mary denied writing them and insisted that they were forgeries. The authenticity of the letters continue to be debated, many of the letters have been destroyed. Elizabeth concluded that nothing was proven against either Mary or the Scottish lords. Elizabeth did not wish to convict or acquit Mary of murder. In the end, Moray returned to Scotland as regent and Mary remained in custody in England.
In January 1569, Mary was moved to Tutbury Castle and placed in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury and Bess of Hardwick. It was here that Elizabeth believed that Mary had serious designs on her throne and so she was confined to a series of homes that were a considerable distance from London, Scotland and the coast.
Mary was however, permitted her own domestic staff and was allowed to keep her own personal affects. She continued to live as a royal with her own chefs and retained fine clothes and quarters. She was however a prisoner and was under constant supervision. Her health began to fail during this time and she was rendered lame by the 1580s.
In May 1569, Elizabeth did attempt to restore Mary in return for a guarantee of a Protestant religion in Scotland, but nobles in Perth rejected the deal. At the same time, Mary was involved in a number of conspiracies against Elizabeth, including one where the Duke of Norfolk attempted to marry her, resulting in Elizabeth imprisoning him in the Tower of London. Moray was assassinated and English troops were forced to intervene in the Scottish civil war, at this time Elizabeth was increasingly convinced that Mary was plotting against her and stationed several spies in her houses.
A plot was uncovered that planned to replace Elizabeth with Mary, with the help of the Spanish and the Duke of Norfolk, Norfolk was executed.
On 11th August 1586, after being implicated in the Babington Plot, Mary was arrested while out riding and taken to Tixall Hall in Staffordshire. Evidence against her included letters which had been intercepted and deciphered, claiming that Mary had sanctioned the assassination of Elizabeth.
Mary was moved to Fotheringhay Castle where she underwent trial for treason. Mary denied all charges but was convicted on 25th October and sentenced to death. Elizabeth was hesitant to carry out the order of execution but eventually on 1st February, she signed the death warrant, entrusting it to a councillor. In later years, she said that she did not approve it to be sent or carried out. Her chief advisor, William Cecil decided to carry out the sentence regardless.
Mary was told she would be executed on 7th February 1587. It is said that she spent the last hours of her life in prayer, writing her will and letters to the King of France. She divided up her belongs and distributed them among her staff.
The scaffold was erected in the castle’s great hall and stools were provided for the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who were to attend. Mary’s execution did not go smoothly, the first blow missed and struck the back of her head rather than her neck. After removing her head, the executioner was said to hold it aloft to show the Earls, however, it slipped from his grasp revealing that Mary had been wearing a wig. When the news reached Elizabeth, she became indignant and claimed that she had been disobeyed. This gave her plausible deniability in the assassination of a fellow royal.
Mary had requested to be buried in France, which was refused. She was buried in a Protestant service at Peterborough Cathedral. Her son had her exhumed in 1612 and reinterred in Westminster Abbey opposite the tomb of Elizabeth.
Her son James VI would later also inherit the English throne on the death of Elizabeth I becoming James VI and I and bringing about the union of Scotland and England.
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