In my blog Reign, I made a list of the historical untruths of this series. Now I’m about to tell the real life of Mary, Queen of Scotland. Sometimes it becomes such a bizarre story that you could doubt if it really happened that way … And yet it is…
Mary was born in Linlithgow Palace on December 8, 1542. She was the daughter of King James V and Mary of Guise. When she was six days old she became queen, due to her father’s death after the Battle of Solway Moss. She was crowned Queen on 9 September 1543.
Early engagement
When she was six months old, Henry VIII of England determined that Mary would later marry his son Eduard VI of England. The country suffered many attacks and eventually the situation became so dangerous that Scotland asked for help from France. This alliance was sealed with a marriage between Mary and the three-year crown prince Francis. Around her fifth, Mary traveled to the French court, where she grew up together with the children of Henry II and Catherine de Medici.
Queen of France
On April 24, 1558 she married with the dauphin Francis II of France
in the Notre-Dame of Paris. She was Queen of France for a period of seventeen months, until the untimely death of her husband on 5 December 1560. He died of a complicated ear infection. At the age of 18 she was already a widow. On August 19, 1561, Mary returned to Scotland.
Fight with Queen Elizabeth
Upon her return to Scotland, she declared herself the rightful successor of Queen Elizabeth of England. Her grandmother had after all been the oldest sister of Henry VIII. But Elizabeth refused to accept this.
Several marriage candidates were brought forward, but none was serious. Until February 1565 when she met her cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley again. Mary fell in love with the 1.80 m tall man. They married at Holyrood Palace on July 29, 1565.
Mary became pregnant in October 1565, but there were rumors that private secretary David Rizzio was the father and Darnley became jealous. On March 9, Protestants murdered Rizzio in the presence of the pregnant Mary at a banquet in Holyrood Palace. Mary later gave birth to her son James (future James V of Scotland and James I of England) on June 19, 1566 at Edinburgh Castle.
Death of Darnley and third wedding
Soon the marriage between Mary and Darnley turned out not to be a good match. Mary wanted to divorce, but as a Catholic Queen, that was not an option. At the end of January 1567, Mary ordered her husband to return to Edinburgh. He had been sick and recovered in the former abbey of Kirk o ‘Field. Mary visited him every day. In the night of February 9, 1567 an explosion erupted Kirk o ‘Field and Darnley was found dead in the garden. The Count of Bothwell was suspected of murder, but was acquitted on April 12.
A week later, Bothwell convinced 24 nobles and bishops to sign the Ainslie Tavern Bond, in which they consented in his marriage to the Queen Mary.
What followed could become a soap opera: on 24 April Lord Bothwell kidnapped her and brought her to Dunbar Castle. According to eyewitness James Melville or Halhill, he raped her. They returned to Edinburgh where they married for the Protestant church on 15 May. Interesting detail: Bothwell had separated from his first wife Jean Gordon, Countess of Bothwell, just 8 days before.
Both Catholics and Protestants found Mary’s remarriage, to the man accused of murdering her husband, inappropriate. After the Battle of Carberry Hill, Mary’s soldiers deserted her. Bothwell was given a safe conduct and the lords led Mary to Edinburgh. She was badly insulted by the crowd on the street. She was imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle on an island in the middle of Loch Leven.
Mary miscarried of twins between 20 and 23 July. On 24 July she was forced to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son James and her half-brother James Stewart, Earl of Moray, became regent. Bothwell was exiled, imprisoned in Denmark, went mad and died in 1578.
Imprisonment
On May 2nd 1568, Mary escaped from Loch Leven Castle. She attacked the army of Moray but was defeated and fled to England. On May 18 she was captured and imprisoned in Carlisle Castle.
Maria was expecting help from her cousin Elizabeth, but she starter an investigation about Darnley’s murder instead. In July 1568 Mary was transferred to Bolton Castle.
During a conference in York, evidence was shown about Mary’s guilt. Eventually it did not come to a sentence. Moray returned to Scotland as a regent and Mary remained locked up in England. As a Catholic relative of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England, Mary was a living threat to the English throne. Mary was locked up for almost twenty years in the remote castle Fotheringhay.
Execution
In 1587 her name was mentioned in the conspiracy of Babington (a plan to kill Elizabeth and replace her with Mary). There were letters confirming this. Secretary Francis Walsingham discovered the plan and gave Elizabeth a reason to execute Mary of Scotland. Elizabeth had a lot of trouble with this. But after a trial she was sentenced to death and beheaded.
Her execution was far from flawless. The executioner missed the first time and had to strike twice. When he finally picked up her head, she appeared to wear a wig and have short gray hair. Her wish was to be buried in France. Elizabeth refused this. She was buried in Peterborough Cathedral. Years later, in 1612, her son, the King of England & Scotland James I, arranged for her to be reburied in a chapel in Westminster Abbey … near her archrival Elizabeth I!
Reading tip
Mary, Queen of Scots and the murder on Lord Darnley by Alison Weir
Do you want to see more images of Mary, Queen of Scots? Have a look at my Pinterest board:
Bax of Things 