Instead, worried that Mary wanted to . It was reached by two or three steps, and furnished with the block, a cushion for her to kneel on, and three stools for her and the earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who were there to witness the execution. [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. Mary's illegitimate half-brother, the Earl of Moray, was a leader of the Protestants. Now, first-time director Josie Rourke hopes to offer a modern twist on the tale with her new Mary Queen of Scots biopic, which finds Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie stepping into the shoes of the legendary queens. The versions of Mary and Elizabeth created by Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie may reinforce some of the popular misconceptions surrounding the twin queensincluding the oversimplified notion that they either hated or loved each other, and followed a direct path from friendship to arch rivalrybut they promise to present a thoroughly contemporary twist on an all-too-familiar tale of women bombarded by men who believe they know better. Bothwell died a prisoner at DragsholmCastle in Denmark in 1578. [67] She summoned him to her presence to remonstrate with him but was unsuccessful. [45] On 4 April 1558, Mary signed a secret agreement bequeathing Scotland and her claim to England to the French crown if she died without issue. Regardless of whether sexual attraction, love or faith in Bothwell as her protector against the feuding Scottish lords guided Marys decision, her alignment with him cemented her downfall. This legendary statement came true much later not through Mary, but through her great-great-granddaughter Anne, Queen of Great Britain. But he never seemed to care for Mary and sought far more power than she was willing to give him. [108] In October 1566, while staying at Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders, Mary made a journey on horseback of at least four hours each way to visit the Earl of Bothwell at Hermitage Castle, where he lay ill from wounds sustained in a skirmish with border reivers. The marriage of Mary Queen of Scots: 24 April 1558. Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 - 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart [3] or Mary I of Scotland, [4] was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. [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". [198], Mary sent letters in cipher to the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau, scores of which were discovered and decrypted in 20222023. [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. At that moment, the auburn tresses in his hand turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground, revealing that Mary had very short, grey hair. [127], By the end of February, Bothwell was generally believed to be guilty of Darnley's assassination. 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. Mary replied, "I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles. Her last words were, In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum ("Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"). 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. Widowed following the unexpected death of her first husband, France's Francis II, she left. [234] Davison was arrested, thrown into the Tower of London, and found guilty of misprision. Mary's guardians, fearful for her safety, sent her to Inchmahome Priory for no more than three weeks, and turned to the French for help. In France, Mary . Robbie provides the foil to Ronans Mary, donning a prosthetic nose and clown-like layers of white makeup to resemble a smallpox-scarred Elizabeth. Think you that I could love my own winding-sheet?. Regent Arran resisted the move, but backed down when Beaton's armed supporters gathered at Linlithgow. [135], Twenty-six Scottish peers, known as the confederate lords, turned against Mary and Bothwell and raised their own army. She joined with Moray in the destruction of Scotland's leading Catholic magnate, Lord Huntly, in 1562, after he led a rebellion against her in the Highlands. A post-mortem revealed internal injuries, thought to have been caused by the explosion. [91] Their children, if any, would inherit an even stronger, combined claim. [207] From these letters it was clear that Mary had sanctioned the attempted assassination of Elizabeth. 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. Rejoice don't weep These words of comfort were spoken by Mary to one of her servants as she faced execution. Not only was she a female monarch in an era dominated by men, she was also physically imposing, standing nearly six feet tall. The murder 25 years later of Henry Lord Darnley, her consort and the father of the infant who would become King James I of England and James VI of Scotland, remains one of history's most notorious unsolved crimes. Upon his death in 1547, she was named third in the line of succession, eligible to rule only in the unlikely event that her siblings, Edward VI and Mary I, died without heirs. [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. On 24 July 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son. Mary Queen of Scots was executed by beheading at the age of 44 on the orders of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England. [57] Instead, the Guise brothers sent ambassadors to negotiate a settlement. He had a violent temper and, despite his differences from Darnley, shared the deceased kings proclivity for power. [230], When the news of the execution reached Elizabeth, she became indignant and asserted that Davison had disobeyed her instructions not to part with the warrant and that the Privy Council had acted without her authority. 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. On 1 July 1543, when Mary was six months old, the Treaty of Greenwich was signed, which promised that, at the age of ten, Mary would marry Edward and move to England, where Henry could oversee her upbringing. The nobles who had plotted with Darnley now felt betrayed by him; after all, they had captured the queen and her potential heir, murdered her dear friend, and were in a position to demand anything. Her husband, Francois II, King of France had died unexpectedly, and . On her way back to Edinburgh on 24 April, Mary was abducted, willingly or not, by Lord Bothwell and his men and taken to Dunbar Castle, where he may have raped her. James went along with the idea for a while, but eventually rejected it and signed an alliance treaty with Elizabeth, abandoning his mother. She later charged him with treason, but he was acquitted and released. [176] In Fraser's opinion, it was one of the strangest "trials" in legal history, ending with no finding of guilt against either party, one of whom was allowed to return home to Scotland while the other remained in custody. The French fleet sent by Henry II, commanded by Nicolas de Villegagnon, sailed with Mary from Dumbarton on 7 August 1548 and arrived a week or more later at Roscoff or Saint-Pol-de-Lon in Brittany.[33]. 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. Here are 10 facts about Mary Queen of Scots. A royal residence, a vital stronghold and an iconic structure, Edinburgh Castle is one of the most famous castles in the world. 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. [79] She sent an ambassador, Thomas Randolph, to tell Mary that if she married an English nobleman, Elizabeth would "proceed to the inquisition of her right and title to be our next cousin and heir". GB 638 3492 15, Copyright 2023 Warners Group Publications Plc. [206] In a successful attempt to entrap her, Walsingham had deliberately arranged for Mary's letters to be smuggled out of Chartley. [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. [3] Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [129] A week later, Bothwell managed to convince more than two dozen lords and bishops to sign the Ainslie Tavern Bond, in which they agreed to support his aim to marry the queen. 1559 - 1560. 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. [90] Although her advisors had brought the couple together, Elizabeth felt threatened by the marriage because as descendants of her aunt, both Mary and Darnley were claimants to the English throne. ), Mary was a Catholic queen in a largely Protestant state, but she formed compromises that enabled her to maintain authority without infringing on the practice of either religion. [231] Items supposedly worn or carried by Mary at her execution are of doubtful provenance;[232] contemporary accounts state that all her clothing, the block, and everything touched by her blood was burnt in the fireplace of the Great Hall to obstruct relic hunters. Mary and Bothwell confronted the lords at Carberry Hill on 15 June, but there was no battle, as Mary's forces dwindled away through desertion during negotiations. [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. In 1559, Henry II of France, died at the age of 40. The council was dominated by the Protestant leaders from the reformation crisis of 15591560: the Earls of Argyll, Glencairn, and Moray. [124][125] Bothwell, Moray, Secretary Maitland, the Earl of Morton and Mary herself were among those who came under suspicion. She was considered a pretty child and later, as a woman, strikingly attractive. Men say that, instead of seizing the murderers, you are looking through your fingers while they escape; that you will not seek revenge on those who have done you so much pleasure, as though the deed would never have taken place had not the doers of it been assured of impunity. Facts about the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. The nobles demanded that Mary abandon Bothwell, whom they had earlier ordered her to wed. She refused and reminded them of their earlier order. [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. Why Mary wed Darnley remains a mystery. In the immediate aftermath of Darnleys murder, he met with Mary about six miles outside of Edinburgh. In the end, Moray returned to Scotland as regent and Mary remained in custody in England. [62] Mary returned to Scotland nine months later, arriving in Leith on 19 August 1561. [118] At the start of the journey, he was afflicted by a feverpossibly smallpox, syphilis or the result of poison. 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. Marys blood claim was worrying enough, but acknowledging it by naming her as the heir presumptive would leave Elizabeth vulnerable to coups organized by Englands Catholic faction. Today, assessments of Mary Stuart range from historian Jenny Wormalds biting characterization of the queen as a study in failure to John Guys more sympathetic reading, which deems Mary the unluckiest ruler in British history, a glittering and charismatic queen who faced stacked odds from the beginning. [201] Elizabeth also rejected the association because she did not trust Mary to cease plotting against her during the negotiations. [14] Arran, with the support of his friends and relations, became the regent until 1554 when Mary's mother managed to remove and succeed him. In 1561, Mary, Queen of Scots, upset the applecart of the Protestant Reformation. She assumed the throne as queen of Scotland when she was just six days old, upon the death of her father. [64], As a devout Catholic, she was regarded with suspicion by many of her subjects, as well as by the Queen of England. Darnley was murdered a few months after they were married, and Mary later married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. [214], She was convicted on 25 October and sentenced to death with only one commissioner, Lord Zouche, expressing any form of dissent. This decision proved to be disastrous, since Mary was soon a prisoner of the queen and would spend the next nineteen years as Elizabeths prisoner, before she was executed for plotting against the queen on 8 February 1587 at Fotheringay Castle. Both queens were surprisingly fluid in their religious inclinations. As she settled into her new rolealthough crowned queen of Scotland in infancy, she spent much of her early reign in France, leaving first her mother, Mary of Guise, and then her half-brother James, Earl of Moray, to act as regent on her behalfshe sought to strengthen relations with her southern neighbor, Elizabeth. Norfolk was executed and the English Parliament introduced a bill barring Mary from the throne, to which Elizabeth refused to give royal assent. Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart, was born into conflict. All were said to have been found in a silver-gilt casket just less than one foot (30cm) long and decorated with the monogram of King Francis II. Not only were the two absolute rulers in a patriarchal society, but they were also women whose lives, while seemingly inextricable, amounted to more than their either their relationships with men or their rivalry with each other. Whereas Mary aged in the relative isolation of house arrest, Elizabeths looks were under constant scrutiny. 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. [50] Henry II of France proclaimed his eldest son and daughter-in-law king and queen of England. [15], King Henry VIII of England took the opportunity of the regency to propose marriage between Mary and his own son and heir, Edward, hoping for a union of Scotland and England. Following her brief period as queen of France, the widowed Mary [Francois died in December 1560] returned to Scotland in 1561, aged 18, and ready to take up the burden of personal sovereignty. Days after this final meeting, Mary fled Scotland to seek refuge in England, hoping for the protection of Elizabeth I of England. He had 600 men with him and asked to escort Mary to his castle at Dunbar; he told her she was in danger if she went to Edinburgh. [190] Her health declined, perhaps through porphyria or lack of exercise. 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. Kristen Post Walton outlines a middle ground between these extremes, noting that Marys Catholic faith and gender worked against her throughout her reign. She was accused of plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and . [151] A commission of inquiry, or conference, as it was known, was held in York and later Westminster between October 1568 and January 1569. He was superficially charming and, unlike most men, taller than the queen. All too frequently, representations of Mary and Elizabeth reduce the queens to oversimplified stereotypes. Mary's life and subsequent execution established her in popular culture as a romanticised historical character. [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. Mary returned to Edinburgh the following month to raise more troops. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when her father died and she inherited the throne. [239] In 1867, her tomb was opened in an attempt to ascertain the resting place of her son, James I of England. [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. English forces mounted a series of raids on Scottish and French territory. Who were the husbands of Mary Queen of Scots? It is impossible now to prove either way. He ignored the edict. [6] She was the great-granddaughter of King Henry VII of England through her paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor. [237] Her entrails, removed as part of the embalming process, were buried secretly within Fotheringhay Castle. Sketch of Mary, queen of Scots, age 12 or 13, by Clouet. 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 pair exchanged regular correspondence, trading warm sentiments and discussing the possibility of meeting face-to-face. [102] By March 1566, Darnley had entered into a secret conspiracy with Protestant lords, including the nobles who had rebelled against Mary in the Chaseabout Raid. Catholics considered the marriage unlawful, since they did not recognise Bothwell's divorce or the validity of the Protestant service. [220], At Fotheringhay, on the evening of 7 February 1587, Mary was told she was to be executed the next morning. James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, was a vainglorious, rash and hazardous young man, according to ambassador Nicholas Throckmorton. [98] Unable to muster sufficient support, Moray left Scotland in October for asylum in England. Three months after Darnleys death, Mary wed the man whod been accused ofand acquitted of in a legally suspect trialhis murder. On 14 December, six days after her birth, she became Queen of Scotland when her father died, perhaps from the effects of a nervous collapse following the Battle of Solway Moss[7] or from drinking contaminated water while on campaign. They were Mary Fleming, Mary Seton, Mary Beaton and Mary Livingstone. [177], On 26 January 1569, Mary was moved to Tutbury Castle[180] and placed in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury and his formidable wife Bess of Hardwick. Just 6 days . Mary, Queen of Scots was queen of France and Scotland. Moray refused, as Chastelard was already under restraint. [30] In February 1548, Mary was moved, again for her safety, to Dumbarton Castle. 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". Despite the fact that Mary was also queen of Scotland, she knew little of the land of her birth. For Scotland, she proposed a general amnesty, agreed that James should marry with Elizabeth's knowledge, and accepted that there should be no change in religion. 3 Janet Dickinson paints the Scottish queens relationship with Elizabeth in similar terms, arguing that the pairs dynamic was shaped by circumstance rather than choice. [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. Mary Queen of Scots picks up in 1561 with the eponymous queen's return to her native country. [16][17] The treaty provided that the two countries would remain legally separate and, if the couple should fail to have children, the temporary union would dissolve. With Angela Bain, Richard Cant, Guy Rhys, Thom Petty. In 1561, Mary returned to Scotland, attempting to reassert her power there. Darnley became jealous of Mary's secretary and favourite, David Riccio. [24] The Treaty of Greenwich was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland in December. "[13], As Mary was a six-day-old infant when she inherited the throne, Scotland was ruled by regents until she became an adult. [82] In early 1563, he was discovered during a security search hidden underneath her bed, apparently planning to surprise her when she was alone and declare his love for her. Although she was famously dubbed the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth only embraced this chaste persona during the later years of her reign. [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. In October, she was put on trial for treason under the Act for the Queen's Safety before a court of 36 noblemen,[209] including Cecil, Shrewsbury, and Walsingham. Who were the husbands of Mary Queen of Scots? 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. The authenticity of the letters, now known only by copies, continues to be debated. [175] For overriding political reasons, Elizabeth wished neither to convict nor to acquit Mary of murder. [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". [42] At some point in her infancy or childhood, she caught smallpox, but it did not mark her features. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine [104] Over the next two days, a disillusioned Darnley switched sides and Mary received Moray at Holyrood. Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart, Catholic Queen, Protestant Patriarchy: Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Politics of Gender and Religion, Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Otherand the Birds Loved It, The True Story of the Koh-i-Noor Diamondand Why the British Won't Give It Back. [74] However, she assured Maitland that she knew no one with a better claim than Mary. Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. On 9 March 1566 Mary was having supper with David Rizzio when her husband burst in. As a great-granddaughter of Henry VII of England, Mary had once claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Darnley was found dead in the garden, apparently smothered. [95], Mary's marriage to a leading Catholic precipitated Mary's half-brother, the Earl of Moray, to join with other Protestant lords, including Lords Argyll and Glencairn, in open rebellion. [55], In Scotland, the power of the Protestant Lords of the Congregation was rising at the expense of Mary's mother, who maintained effective control only through the use of French troops. [106] The former rebels Lords Moray, Argyll and Glencairn were restored to the council. They traveled from one royal palace to another Fontainebleau to Meudon, or to Chambord or Saint-Germain. The versions of Mary and Elizabeth created by Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie may reinforce some of the popular misconceptions surrounding the twin queensincluding the oversimplified notion that they either hated or loved each other, and followed a direct path from friendship to arch rivalrybut they promise to present a thoroughly contemporary twist on an all-too-familiar tale of women bombarded by men who believe they know better. [153], As an anointed queen, Mary refused to acknowledge the power of any court to try her. [137] The following night, she was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle on an island in the middle of Loch Leven. Both Protestants and Catholics were shocked that Mary should marry the man accused of murdering her husband. 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. 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. A Brief History of Steamboat Racing in the U.S. Texas-Born Italian Noble Evicted From Her 16th-Century Villa. [11] Rumours spread that she was weak and frail,[12] but an English diplomat, Ralph Sadler, saw the infant at Linlithgow Palace in March 1543, unwrapped by her nurse Jean Sinclair, and wrote, "it is as goodly a child as I have seen of her age, and as like to live. [94] The union infuriated Elizabeth, who felt the marriage should not have gone ahead without her permission, as Darnley was both her cousin and an English subject. [208], Mary was moved to Fotheringhay Castle in a four-day journey ending on 25 September. Mary, Queen of Scots, may have been the monarch who got her head chopped off, but she eventually proved triumphant in a roundabout way: After Elizabeth died childless in 1603, it was Marys son, James VI of Scotland and I of England, who ascended to the throne as the first to rule a united British kingdom.
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