[243] Differing interpretations persisted into the 18th century: William Robertson and David Hume argued that the casket letters were genuine and that Mary was guilty of adultery and murder, while William Tytler argued the reverse. [111] The cause of her illness is unknown. But by February 1567, tensions had thawed enough for Mary to name Elizabeth protector of her infant son, the future James VI of Scotland and I of England. [192] Norfolk continued to scheme for a marriage with Mary, and Elizabeth imprisoned him in the Tower of London between October 1569 and August 1570. Her last words were, In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum ("Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"). Mary Queen of Scots: Directed by Josie Rourke. [114], At Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh, at the end of November 1566, Mary and leading nobles held a meeting to discuss the "problem of Darnley". [27], In May 1546, Beaton was murdered by Protestant lairds,[28] and on 10 September 1547, nine months after the death of Henry VIII, the Scots suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Pinkie. [217] On 1 February 1587, Elizabeth signed the death warrant, and entrusted it to William Davison, a privy councillor. Her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I held her. [139] On 24 July, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son James. A queer historian assesses the historical accuracy of the gay stuff in the Mary Queen of Scots movie. Margaret was Henry VIII's older sister so Mary was Henry VIII's great-niece. Bothwells noble friends had previously pressed her to marry him and he, too, had told her she needed a strong husband who could help unify the nobles behind her. After eighteen and a half years in captivity, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586 and was beheaded the following year at Fotheringhay Castle. She was known as Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Roman Catholicism in England. According to most contemporaries, they were close and affectionate with one another even as children. She issued a proclamation accepting the religious settlement in Scotland as she had found it upon her return, retained advisers such as James Stewart, Earl of Moray (her illegitimate paternal half-brother), and William Maitland of Lethington, and governed as the Catholic monarch of a Protestant kingdom. Mary's contemporary supporters, including Adam Blackwood, dismissed them as complete forgeries or letters written by the Queen's servant Mary Beaton. In doing so, the English queen avoided falling under a mans dominionand maintained the possibility of a marriage treaty as a bargaining chip. [196] To discredit Mary, the casket letters were published in London. Queen of Scotland (r. 15421567) and Dowager Queen of France, Consorts to debatable or disputed rulers are in, Sadler to Henry VIII, 23 March 1543, quoted in, Sadler to Henry VIII, 11 September 1543, quoted in, A dispensation, backdated to 25 May, was granted in Rome on 25 September (, Confession of James Ormiston, one of Bothwell's men, 13 December 1573, quoted (from. [26] In May 1544, the English Earl of Hertford (later Duke of Somerset) raided Edinburgh, and the Scots took Mary to Dunkeld for safety. Among them was the Duke of Norfolk,[172] who secretly conspired to marry Mary in the course of the commission, although he denied it when Elizabeth alluded to his marriage plans, saying "he meant never to marry with a person, where he could not be sure of his pillow". [191], In May 1569, Elizabeth attempted to mediate the restoration of Mary in return for guarantees of the Protestant religion, but a convention held at Perth rejected the deal overwhelmingly. [193] Early the following year, Moray was assassinated. Two days later, he forced his way into her chamber as she was about to disrobe. [29], King Henry II of France proposed to unite France and Scotland by marrying the young queen to his three-year-old son, the Dauphin Francis. [162] Other documents scrutinised included Bothwell's divorce from Jean Gordon. Instead, Elizabeth placed Maryan anointed monarch over whom she had no real jurisdictionunder de facto house arrest, consigning her to 18 years of imprisonment under what can only be described as legally grey circumstances. Also, Bothwell showed Mary an agreement the nobles had signed which indicated they were prepared to accept him as their overlord. [126] Elizabeth wrote to Mary of the rumours: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, I should ill fulfil the office of a faithful cousin or an affectionate friend if I did not tell you what all the world is thinking. Elizabeth forbade her attendance anyway. [124][125] Bothwell, Moray, Secretary Maitland, the Earl of Morton and Mary herself were among those who came under suspicion. explains, Marys story is one of murder, sex, pathos, religion and unsuitable lovers. Add in the Scottish queens rivalry with Elizabeth, as well as her untimely end, and she transforms into the archetypal tragic heroine. [142], On 2 May 1568, Mary escaped from Loch Leven Castle with the aid of George Douglas, brother of Sir William Douglas, the castle's owner. June; Mary of Guise passes away in Scotland December; Mary's husband, Francis, Mary's husband, passes away 1561 Mary returns to Scotland 1562 Northern campaign and visit to Inverness; aged 19 1563 Mary visits Inveraray,Dunure Castle, Dumfries, and Peebles; aged 20 1564 Mary hunts near Blair Atholl, Tayside; aged 21 He was the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and was the father of James VI of Scotland, who succeeded Elizabeth I of England as James I. Jenn Scott of the Stewart Society tells the story . 14. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine [203] In April, Mary was placed in the stricter custody of Sir Amias Paulet. She also had an infant son to consider. Mary would go back to claim her throne in Scotland, leaving Charles Franciss younger brother who was only 10 years old at the time-to inherit his brothers title and position as king. The sensational life of Mary Stuart is on the . According to Janet Dickinson of Oxford University, any in-person encounter between the Scottish and English queens wouldve raised the question of precedence, forcing Elizabeth to declare whether Mary was her heir or not. Marys second husband was Henry Stuart Lord Darnley, her cousin. 8 Dec 1542. Darnley's parents, the Earl and Countess of Lennox, were Scottish aristocrats as well as English landowners. She was thought to be dying. He was superficially charming and, unlike most men, taller than the queen. [201] Elizabeth also rejected the association because she did not trust Mary to cease plotting against her during the negotiations. Perceiving Mary as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. Bastardized following the 1536 execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, she spent her childhood at the mercy of the changing whims of her father, Henry VIII. As biographer Antonia Fraser explains, Marys story is one of murder, sex, pathos, religion and unsuitable lovers. Add in the Scottish queens rivalry with Elizabeth, as well as her untimely end, and she transforms into the archetypal tragic heroine. [198], Mary sent letters in cipher to the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau, scores of which were discovered and decrypted in 20222023. 3 [58] On 11 June 1560, their sister, Mary's mother, died, and so the question of future Franco-Scots relations was a pressing one. [200], In 1584, Mary proposed an "association" with her son, James. [138] Between 20 and 23 July, Mary miscarried twins. [127], By the end of February, Bothwell was generally believed to be guilty of Darnley's assassination. The pair exchanged regular correspondence, trading warm sentiments and discussing the possibility of meeting face-to-face. Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart, was born into conflict. Its unsurprising that the tale of these two queens resonates with audiences some 400 years after the main players lived. [6] She was the great-granddaughter of King Henry VII of England through her paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor. , a Protestant reformer who objected to both queens rule, may have declared it more than a monster in nature that a Woman shall reign and have empire above Man, but the continued resonance of Mary and Elizabeths stories suggests otherwise. Mary, Queen of Scots was queen of France and Scotland. He ignored the edict. Under the Third Succession Act, passed in 1543 by the Parliament of England, Elizabeth was recognised as her sister's heir, and Henry VIII's last will and testament had excluded the Stuarts from succeeding to the English throne. Mary was misled into thinking her letters were secure, while in reality they were deciphered and read by Walsingham. Robbie provides the foil to Ronans Mary, donning a prosthetic nose and clown-like layers of white makeup to resemble a smallpox-scarred Elizabeth. Henry commented: "from the very first day they met, my son and she got on as well together as if they had known each other for a long time". [121] On the night of 910 February 1567, Mary visited her husband in the early evening and then attended the wedding celebrations of a member of her household, Bastian Pagez. [123] There were no visible marks of strangulation or violence on the body. Mary certainly believed that Darnley, angry because she had denied him the crown matrimonial, wanted to kill her and the child, thus becoming King of Scots. [146] On 18 May, local officials took her into protective custody at Carlisle Castle. Vivacious, beautiful, and clever (according to contemporary accounts), Mary had a promising childhood. [194] Elizabeth's principal secretary William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and Sir Francis Walsingham watched Mary carefully with the aid of spies placed in her household. In July, Elizabeth sent Sir Henry Sidney to cancel Mary's visit because of the civil war in France. Mary replied, "I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles. Mary was accused of involvement in the murder, the prime suspect was the Earl of Bothwell, who within weeks would be Mary's husband. [170] In contrast, Weir thinks it demonstrates that the lords required time to fabricate them. [241] After the accession of James I in England, historian William Camden wrote an officially sanctioned biography that drew from original documents. 7. All too frequently, representations of Mary and Elizabeth reduce the queens to oversimplified stereotypes. BROWSETHE HISTORY SCOTLAND LIBRARY, Company Registered in England no. [212] She told her triers, "Look to your consciences and remember that the theatre of the whole world is wider than the kingdom of England. During her childhood, Scotland was governed by regents, first by the heir to the throne, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and then by her mother, Mary of Guise. George Lasry, Norbert Biermann, Satoshi Tomokiyo, Two of the commissioners were Catholics (, Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland, abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son James, Cultural depictions of Mary, Queen of Scots, "National Records of Scotland; Hall of Fame A-Z - Mary Queen of Scots", "Elizabeth and Mary, Royal Cousins, Rival Queens: Curators' Picks". Francis and Mary knew each since before they married Mary grew up in the French royal court after her father, King James V of Scotland died when she was only 5 days old. Marys third and final marriage began and ended with controversy. She was concerned that the killing of a queen set a discreditable precedent and was fearful of the consequences, especially if, in retaliation, Mary's son, James, formed an alliance with the Catholic powers and invaded England. His death occurred soon after an unsuccessful rebellion in the North of England, led by Catholic earls, which persuaded Elizabeth that Mary was a threat. [202], In February 1585, William Parry was convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth, without Mary's knowledge, although her agent Thomas Morgan was implicated. But the two never actually met in person, a fact some historians have drawn on in their critique of the upcoming film, which depicts Mary and Elizabeth conducting a clandestine conversation in a barn. [188] She was occasionally allowed outside under strict supervision,[189] spent seven summers at the spa town of Buxton, and spent much of her time doing embroidery. [137] The following night, she was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle on an island in the middle of Loch Leven. At the same time, shes quick to point out that the portrayal of Mary and Elizabeth as polar oppositesCatholic versus Protestant, adulterer versus Virgin Queen, beautiful tragic heroine versus smallpox-scarred hagis problematic in and of itself. [233] Elizabeth's vacillation and deliberately vague instructions gave her plausible deniability to attempt to avoid the direct stain of Mary's blood. [8], A popular tale, first recorded by John Knox, states that James, upon hearing on his deathbed that his wife had given birth to a daughter, ruefully exclaimed, "It cam wi' a lass and it will gang wi' a lass! In July of 1565, she wed a cousin named Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, a weak, vain, and unstable young man; like Mary, he was also a grandchild of Henry VIIIs sisterMargaret. If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content. [150] Mary's clothes, sent from Loch Leven Castle, arrived on 20 July. Bothwell died a prisoner at DragsholmCastle in Denmark in 1578. [250] Mary's courage at her execution helped establish her popular image as the heroic victim in a dramatic tragedy.[251]. Only four of the councillors were Catholic: the Earls of Atholl, Erroll, Montrose, and Huntly, who was Lord Chancellor. [226] As she disrobed Mary smiled and said she "never had such grooms before nor ever put off her clothes before such a company". The arrests caused anger in Scotland, and Arran joined Beaton and became a Catholic. [151] A commission of inquiry, or conference, as it was known, was held in York and later Westminster between October 1568 and January 1569. Over 50 dagger wounds were counted on his body. [169] Mary had been forced to abdicate and held captive for the better part of a year in Scotland. [99] Mary broadened her privy council, bringing in both Catholics (Bishop of Ross John Lesley and Provost of Edinburgh Simon Preston of Craigmillar) and Protestants (the new Lord Huntly, Bishop of Galloway Alexander Gordon, John Maxwell of Terregles and Sir James Balfour). How Mary dealt with this incident sealed her fate. [92] Mary's insistence on the marriage seems to have stemmed from passion rather than calculation; the English ambassador Nicholas Throckmorton stated "the saying is that surely she [Queen Mary] is bewitched",[93] adding that the marriage could only be averted "by violence". Did you know that Mary Queen of Scots had three husbands? Elizabeth refused to name a potential heir, fearing that would invite conspiracy to displace her with the nominated successor. "[213] She protested that she had been denied the opportunity to review the evidence, that her papers had been removed from her, that she was denied access to legal counsel and that as a foreign anointed queen she had never been an English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason. Afterwards, he held her head aloft and declared "God save the Queen." As John Guy writes in Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart (which serves as the source text for Rourkes film), Mary is alternately envisioned as the innocent victim of mens political machinations and a fatally flawed femme fatale who ruled from the heart and not the head. Kristen Post Walton, a professor at Salisbury University and the author of Catholic Queen, Protestant Patriarchy: Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Politics of Gender and Religion, argues that dramatizations of Marys life tend to downplay her agency and treat her life like a soap opera. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is often viewed through a romanticized lens that draws on hindsight to discount the displeasure many of her subjects felt toward their queen, particularly during the later stages of her reign. Ultimately, Guy argues, If Elizabeth had triumphed in life, Mary would triumph in death., The queen herself said it best: As she predicted in an eerily prescient motto, in my end is my beginning.. Mary, unwilling to cause further bloodshed and understandably terrified, followed his suggestions. [184] She needed 30 carts to transport her belongings from house to house. On 24 April 1567, Bothwell, with a force of 800 men, kidnapped Mary whilst she was riding between Linlithgow and Edinburgh. A Huguenot uprising in France, the Tumult of Amboise, made it impossible for the French to send further support. Mary's husband, Francis II, ruled in France for only a little over a year, dying in December 1560. [130], Between 21 and 23 April 1567, Mary visited her son at Stirling for the last time. Darnley was murdered a few months after they were married, and Mary later married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. Mary, once the fragile last hope of the Stuart dynasty, was just 23 years old and had fulfilled one of a monarchs greatest duties providing a healthy son and heir. Not only had Darnleys arrogant behaviour during the early months of the marriage angered many of the Scottish nobles, but it had also incurred the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was angry to see Darnley, as her English subject, marry the Queen of Scots, who was herself in line to the throne of England. [223], The executioner Bull and his assistant knelt before her and asked forgiveness, as it was typical for the executioner to request the pardon of the one being put to death. Mary as queen: 10 July 1559 . Mary, Queen of Scots' pampered childhood That same year, another ginger-haired princess was born on December 8 at Linlithgow Palace in Scotland. [19][17], Beaton wanted to move Mary away from the coast to the safety of Stirling Castle. [109] The ride was later used as evidence by Mary's enemies that the two were lovers, though no suspicions were voiced at the time and Mary had been accompanied by her councillors and guards. Darnley shared a more recent Stewart lineage with the Hamilton family as a descendant of Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran, a daughter of James II of Scotland. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. Mary's great uncle Henry VIII of England wanted to trap her in a marriage with his Protestant heir Edward, the future Edward VI. [131] On 6 May, Mary and Bothwell returned to Edinburgh. [18] Cardinal Beaton rose to power again and began to push a pro-Catholic pro-French agenda, angering Henry, who wanted to break the Scottish alliance with France. [53] Two of the Queen's uncles, the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine, were now dominant in French politics,[54] enjoying an ascendancy called by some historians la tyrannie Guisienne. The original letter is in French, this translation is from. 2572212 | VAT registration No. She also offered to join an offensive league against France. Mary Queen of Scots, 1543 - 1567, d. 1587. [75] In late 1561 and early 1562, arrangements were made for the two queens to meet in England at York or Nottingham in August or September 1562. France recognised Elizabeth's right to rule England, but the seventeen-year-old Mary, still in France and grieving for her mother, refused to ratify the treaty. Regent Arran resisted the move, but backed down when Beaton's armed supporters gathered at Linlithgow. Mary was born on 8 December 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, to King James V and his French second wife, Mary of Guise. Not only was she a female monarch in an era dominated by men, she was also physically imposing, standing nearly six feet tall. [77] Her own attempt to negotiate a marriage to Don Carlos, the mentally unstable heir apparent of King Philip II of Spain, was rebuffed by Philip. [149] In mid-July 1568, English authorities moved Mary to Bolton Castle, because it was farther from the Scottish border but not too close to London. [61] Her mother-in-law, Catherine de' Medici, became regent for the late king's ten-year-old brother Charles IX, who inherited the French throne. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when her father died and she inherited the throne. Just 6 days . [65] Scotland was torn between Catholic and Protestant factions. [87] They married at Holyrood Palace on 29 July 1565, even though both were Catholic and a papal dispensation for the marriage of first cousins had not been obtained. [181] Elizabeth considered Mary's designs on the English throne to be a serious threat and so confined her to Shrewsbury's properties, including Tutbury, Sheffield Castle, Sheffield Manor Lodge, Wingfield Manor, and Chatsworth House,[182] all located in the interior of England, halfway between Scotland and London and distant from the sea. Mary's life and subsequent execution established her in popular culture as a romanticised historical character. [229] Cecil's nephew, who was present at the execution, reported to his uncle that after her death, "Her lips stirred up and down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off" and that a small dog owned by the queen emerged from hiding among her skirts[230]though eye-witness Emanuel Tomascon does not include those details in his "exhaustive report". Unlike her Scottish counterpart, whose position as the only legitimate child of James V cemented her royal status, Elizabeth followed a protracted path to the throne. Mary Queen of Scots was married three times, to: Francis II of France (1558-1560) Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1565-1567) The brief brush with freedom Guy refers to took place in May 1568, when Mary escaped and rallied supporters for a final battle. [115] Divorce was discussed, but a bond was probably sworn between the lords present to remove Darnley by other means:[116] "It was thought expedient and most profitable for the common wealth that such a young fool and proud tyrant should not reign or bear rule over them; that he should be put off by one way or another; and whosoever should take the deed in hand or do it, they should defend. Many of her other descendants, including Elizabeth of Bohemia, Prince Rupert of the Rhine and the children of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, were interred in her vault. In 1548, she was betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin of France, and was sent to be brought up in France, where she would be safe from invading English forces during the Rough Wooing. The nobles demanded that Mary abandon Bothwell, whom they had earlier ordered her to wed. She refused and reminded them of their earlier order. [248] There is no concrete proof of her complicity in Darnley's murder or of a conspiracy with Bothwell. Such accusations rest on assumptions,[249] and Buchanan's biography is today discredited as "almost complete fantasy". It condemned Buchanan's work as an invention,[242] and "emphasized Mary's evil fortunes rather than her evil character". Pope Gregory XIII endorsed one plan in the latter half of the 1570s to marry her to the governor of the Low Countries and illegitimate half-brother of Philip II of Spain, John of Austria, who was supposed to organise the invasion of England from the Spanish Netherlands. "[117] Darnley feared for his safety, and after the baptism of his son at Stirling and shortly before Christmas, he went to Glasgow to stay on his father's estates. But in June of 1560, Marys mother died in Scotland at the age of 45. [134] The marriage was tempestuous, and Mary became despondent. Even the one significant later addition to the council, Lord Ruthven in December 1563, was another Protestant whom Mary personally disliked. [34] Janet, Lady Fleming, who was Mary Fleming's mother and James V's half-sister, was appointed governess. [214], She was convicted on 25 October and sentenced to death with only one commissioner, Lord Zouche, expressing any form of dissent. [43], Mary was eloquent, and especially tall by 16th-century standards (she attained an adult height of 5 feet 11 inches or 1.80 m);[44] while Henry II's son and heir, Francis, stuttered and was unusually short. [72] In this, she was acknowledging her lack of effective military power in the face of the Protestant lords, while also following a policy that strengthened her links with England. [38] Her future sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Valois, became a close friend of whom Mary "retained nostalgic memories in later life". Mary's father, James V, King of Scotland died on 14 December 1542 following the Battle of Solway Moss. By the 1580s, she had severe rheumatism in her limbs, rendering her lame. Marys mother Marie de Guise had arranged the marriage when Mary and Francis were infants, and so Mary was brought up knowing she would one day be queen of France and Scotland. Bothwell fled to Denmark, where he died in captivity 11 years later. Her husband, Francois II, King of France had died unexpectedly, and . When Mary left for Scotland, she travelled with the children of Scotland's nobility, including the 'Four Maries,' the women who would stay with her throughout her later imprisonment and execution. [64], As a devout Catholic, she was regarded with suspicion by many of her subjects, as well as by the Queen of England. He was imprisoned in Denmark, became insane and died in 1578. The castle was the site of the birth of King James VI, also James I of England from 1603, to Mary Queen of Scots in 1566. [154] As evidence against Mary, Moray presented the so-called casket letters[155]eight unsigned letters purportedly from Mary to Bothwell, two marriage contracts, and a love sonnet or sonnets. In 1561, Mary returned to Scotland, attempting to reassert her power there. With Angela Bain, Richard Cant, Guy Rhys, Thom Petty. [71], Modern historian Jenny Wormald found this remarkable and suggested that Mary's failure to appoint a council sympathetic to Catholic and French interests was an indication of her focus on the English throne, over the internal problems of Scotland. Defeated once and for all, the deposed queen fled to England, expecting her sister queen to offer a warm welcome and perhaps even help her regain the Scottish throne. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Elizabeth was the illegitimate product of an unlawful marriage, while Mary, the paternal granddaughter of Henry VIIIs older sister Margaret, was the rightful English heir. [128] Lennox, Darnley's father, demanded that Bothwell be tried before the Estates of Parliament, to which Mary agreed, but Lennox's request for a delay to gather evidence was denied. [78] Elizabeth attempted to neutralise Mary by suggesting that she marry English Protestant Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Janet Dickinson paints the Scottish queens relationship with Elizabeth in similar terms, arguing that the pairs dynamic was shaped by circumstance rather than choice. At the end of that month, July 1567, James was crowned king and James Stewart, the Earl of Moray, Marys half-brother, became Regent. Her height emphasized Marys seemingly innate queenship: Enthroned as Scotlands ruler at just six days old, she spent her formative years at the French court, where she was raised alongside future husband Francis II. A Brief History of Steamboat Racing in the U.S. Texas-Born Italian Noble Evicted From Her 16th-Century Villa. In the summer of 1567, the increasingly unpopular queen was imprisoned and forced to abdicate in favor of her son. [215] Nevertheless, Elizabeth hesitated to order her execution, even in the face of pressure from the English Parliament to carry out the sentence. Yet, in the eyes of many Catholics, Elizabeth was illegitimate and Mary Stuart was the rightful queen of England, as the senior surviving legitimate descendant of Henry VII through her grandmother, Margaret Tudor. Mary I, also called Mary Tudor, byname Bloody Mary, (born February 18, 1516, Greenwich, near London, Englanddied November 17, 1558, London), the first queen to rule England (1553-58) in her own right. Telling the queen that he had kidnapped her for her own safety, Mary was either raped by Bothwell or agreed to consummate her relationship with him (accounts vary) and on 15 May the pair were married at Holyrood Palace.

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