On this day in 1587, the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, former monarch of Scotland from 1542-1567, was executed at Fotheringhay Castle at the order of Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was Mary’s cousin.
Mary, Queen of Scots, was born to Mary of Guise and James V of Scotland. Her father, James V, was the son of Margaret Tudor; Margaret Tudor was the sister of King Henry VIII, and Henry was the father of Queen Elizabeth I. Although Mary and Elizabeth don’t relate to each other as immediate cousins, the most common term for their relationship is cousins.
Mary was born in 1542, and was made queen of Scotland at just 6 days old due to the death of her father. Despite this, it was her mother who took over as regent of Scotland, in order to prevent her daughter’s great-uncle, King Henry VIII, from attempting to take the crown of Scotland. At the age of four, Mary was arranged to marry King Henry’s son, Edward, though that arrangement was quickly thwarted by the Catholics of Scotland, many of whom refused to allow their monarch to be married to the Protestant English prince. The arrangement was made null, infuriating Henry, who, in response, initiated raids into Scotland which have come to be known as the ‘Rough Wooing’. Taking advantage of her mother’s French heritage and the Catholic alliance between Scotland and France, at the age of five, Mary was betrothed to the four year old prince of France, Francis. In 1858, 11 years later, Mary and Francis were married. The next year Francis was crowned king of France, making Mary Queen-Consort of France and Queen of Scotland. Though, sadly a year after his crowning, Francis died of an infection, making Mary a widow at 18.
Mary returned to Scotland, and four years later, she married her half cousin, the Protestant Henry Stuart. When Mary returned to Scotland, she found it had transitioned from a Catholic nation into one that had begun to incorporate Protestant beliefs. This religious shift was in part due to the works of John Knox, a minister and Scottish religious leader, who gained fame through his ideas of political reformation throughout Scotland. Having been born a Catholic, Mary found that she had to balance the two conflicting sects of Christianity in order to maintain the power of her rule. In a shocking turn of events, her husband, Henry Stuart and a group of Protestant nobles, murdered one of Mary’s aids, an Italian man named David Rizzio. The act was presumably committed due to Rizzio’s influence with Mary, an influence the power hungry Stuart would have grown to become jealous of. Events only worsened when Henry Stuart was found mysteriously murdered at his home. This caused quite the outrage, especially since three months after the murder of Henry Stuart, Mary married James Hepburn, the man who had been suspected of Mary’s previous husband’s murder.
The Scottish nobility, in their anger, outlawed James Hepburn and forced Mary to abdicate the throne in favor of her son, James. She was then imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. It was only a year later when Mary was able to escape her imprisonment, making her way into England, in order to seek the protection of her close relative and the Queen of England, Elizabeth I. Elizabeth was wary of claims that Mary was the rightful heir to the English throne, a claim that was only bolstered through Mary’s lineage from the Tudor family. Elizabeth was unwavering, and upon Mary’s arrival in England, she was arrested and imprisoned on Elizabeth’s orders.
Mary was imprisoned for 18 years, moved around from castle to castle at Elizabeth’s convenience. Throughout this period, the Catholics of England, burdened by the Protestant reign of Elizabeth, plotted her assassination in order to hand the title of Queen to the imprisoned Mary. In 1586, Elizabeth’s spymaster found letters in Mary’s possession that proved she was in correspondence with the Catholic lords who were planning to assassinate Elizabeth. She was brought to trial later that year and found guilty of treason. In 1587, at Fotheringhay Castle, Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed. In her final breaths she recited a prayer in Latin before forgiving the executioner. And so was the rise and fall of Mary, Queen of Scots. A mighty figure in British history, her presence, alongside that of Elizabeth I, will always be remembered as that of a woman who endeavored to reign.
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