MARY, Queen of Scots

MARY, Queen of Scots

Overview.

Heritage, birth, and coronation

Claim to the English throne

Marriage to Darnley

Abdication and imprisonment

Trial and execution

Mary, queen of Scots was one of the most fascinating and controversial monarchs of 16th century Europe.  At one time, she claimed the crowns of four nations - Scotland, France, England and Ireland.  Her physical beauty and kind heart were acknowledged even by her enemies. 

Heritage,birth,and coronation

During the 14th century reign of Robert II of Scotland, it had been confirmed that the Scottish Crown would only be inherited by males in the line of Robert's children.

Females and female lines could inherit only after extinction of male lines. 11511p1516l

Mary ascended to the throne because, with the demise of her father, James V, Robert II had no remaining direct male descendants of unquestionably legitimate origins.

Mary Stuart was the first member of the royal House of Stuart to use the Gallicised spelling Stuart, rather than the earlier Stewart. Mary had adopted the French spelling Stuart during her time in France, and she and her descendants continued to use it.

Princess Mary Stuart was born at Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian, on 7 December or 8 December 1542.

Doughter of King James V of Scotland and his French wife, Mary of Guise.

James truly believed that Mary's birth marked the end of the Stewarts' reign over Scotland. Instead, through Mary's son, it was the beginning of their reign over both the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England.

The six- or seven-day-old Mary became Queen of Scotland when her father died at the age of 30.

In July 1543, when Mary was six months old, the Treaties of Greenwich promised Mary to be married to Edward, son of King Henry VIII of England in 1552.

At the age of nine months Mary was crowned Queen of Scots in the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle on 9 September 1543.

After the death of Francis, she wrote a poem about him. One verse is as follows:

"By day, by night, I think of him 
In wood or mead, or where I be
My heart keeps watch for one who's gone
And yet I feel he's aye to me"

2. Claim to the English throne

Under the ordinary laws of succession, Mary was next in line to the English throne after her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, who was childless.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Edinburgh, signed by Mary's representatives on July 6, 1560 following the death of her mother, France undertook to withdraw troops from Scotland and recognise Elizabeth's right to rule England. The 17-year-old Mary, still in France, refused to ratify the treaty.

3. Marriage to Darnley

At Holyrood Palace on 29 July 1565, Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, her first cousin (The validity of this marriage has been disputed, as some say she was forced into it by Lord Darnley. However, the issue was not brought up during her lifetime).

Darnley became arrogant and demanded power commensurate with his courtesy title of "King". On one occasion he attacked Mary in an unsuccessful attempt to cause her to miscarry their unborn child.

In March 1566 Darnley entered into a secret conspiracy with the nobles who had rebelled against Mary.

Following the birth of their son, James, on 19 June 1566, a plot was hatched to remove Darnley, who was already ill (possibly suffering from syphilis).

Darnley was recuperating in a house in Edinburgh where Mary visited him frequently.

In February 1567, an explosion occurred in the house at Kirk o'Field, and Darnley was found dead in the garden, apparently of strangulation.

James Hepburn, an adventurer who would become Mary's third husband, was generally believed to be guilty of the assassination, and was brought before a mock trial but acquitted.

Mary attempted to regain support among her Lords while Hepburn got some of them to sign the Ainslie Tavern Bond, in which they agreed to support his claims to marry Mary.

4. abdication and imprisonment.

On April 24 Mary visited her son at Stirling for the last time. On her way back to Edinburgh Mary was abducted, willingly or not, by Hepburn and his men and taken to Dunbar Castle, where she was allegedly raped by Hepburn. She became pregnant with twins, which she later miscarried while imprisoned.

On 2 May 1568, Mary escaped from Loch Leven and once again managed to raise a small army. After her army's defeat at the Battle of Langside on May 13, she fled to England. When Mary entered England on May 19, she was imprisoned by Elizabeth's officers at Carlisle. During her imprisonment, she famously had the phrase En ma Fin gît mon Commencement ("In my end is my beginning").

in 1570, Elizabeth was persuaded by representatives of Charles IX of France to promise to help Mary regain her throne. As a pre-condition, she demanded the ratification of the Treaty of Edinburgh, something Mary would still not agree to. Nevertheless, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, continued negotiations with Mary on Elizabeth's behalf.

5. trial and execution.

Mary was put on trial for treason by a court of about 40 noblemen, including Catholics.

Mary denied the accusation and was spirited in her defence.

One of her more memorable comments from her trial was "Remember Gentlemen the Theatre of history is wider than the Realm of England".

She drew attention to the fact that she was denied the opportunity of reviewing the evidence or her papers that had been removed from her, that she had been denied access to legal counsel and that she had never been an English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason.

Mary was ultimately convicted of treason, and was sentenced to beheading at Fotheringhay Castle on February 8, 1587.

She had spent the last hours of her life in prayer and also writing letters and her will. She expressed a request that her servants should be released.

She also requested that she should be buried in France.

At her execution the executioners knelt before her and asked forgiveness. According to a contemporary account by Robert Wynkfield, she replied that she forgave them, for "you are about to end my troubles!"

In Lady Antonia Fraser's biography, Mary Queen of Scots, the author writes that it took two strikes to decapitate Mary: the first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head, at which point the queen's lips moved (her servants reported they thought she had whispered the words "Sweet Jesus").

The second blow severed the neck, all but a small bit of sinew which the executioner severed by using the axe as a saw.

She was executed at the age of 44 years old.

It has been suggested that it took three strikes to decapitate Mary instead of two. If so, then Mary would have been executed with the same number of axe strikes as Essex. It has been postulated that said number was part of a ritual devised to protract the suffering of the victim.

Mary's body was embalmed and left unburied at her place of execution for a year after her death. Her remains were placed in a secure lead coffin.

She was initially buried at Peterborough Cathedral in 1588, but her body was exhumed in 1612 when her son, King James I of England, ordered she be reinterred in Westminster Abbey.

Mary's beauty and personal accomplishments have never been disputed. She spoke or read in six languages, sang well, played various musical instruments, and had a library which included the largest collection of Italian and French poetry in Scotland.

Whether Mary Stuart was the champion of women's rights in the 16th Century as her admirers claim, or the conspiring and murderous woman that her critics claim, she was one of the most interesting women of her time. Her life possessed all the qualities of a tragic hero. She was beautiful and had the world in the palm of her hand, yet it was not meant to be. She would fall from her glorious status due to circumstances that may or may not have been out of her control.