[196] To discredit Mary, the casket letters were published in London. Coronation of Mary, Queen of Scots in Stirling Castle . [104] Over the next two days, a disillusioned Darnley switched sides and Mary received Moray at Holyrood. Elizabeth forbade her attendance anyway. From the outset, there were two claims to the regency: one from the Catholic Cardinal Beaton, and the other from the Protestant Earl of Arran, who was next in line to the throne. [31] The English left a trail of devastation behind them once more and seized the strategic town of Haddington. [73], Mary sent William Maitland of Lethington as an ambassador to the English court to put the case for Mary as the heir presumptive to the English throne. To avoid the bloodshed of battle, she turned herself over and the rebels took her to Edinburgh while Bothwell struggled to rally troops of his own. 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. In December 1566 James was baptized in the Chapel Royal of Stirling Castle. Registration now open. The fact that she married her third husband, the Earl of Bothwell, shortly after the murder, did little to help her cause. The lords took Mary to Edinburgh, where crowds of spectators denounced her as an adulteress and murderer. [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. She was known as Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Roman Catholicism in England. [237] Her entrails, removed as part of the embalming process, were buried secretly within Fotheringhay Castle. Mary, aged 22, described her 19-year-old groom as the lustiest and best proportioned long man that she had seen but her infatuation was to be her downfall, and her initial happiness didnt last. Given her precarious hold on the throne and the subsequent paranoia that plagued her reign, she had little motivation to name a successor who could threaten her own safety. [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. [118] At the start of the journey, he was afflicted by a feverpossibly smallpox, syphilis or the result of poison. 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. [151] A commission of inquiry, or conference, as it was known, was held in York and later Westminster between October 1568 and January 1569. [98] Unable to muster sufficient support, Moray left Scotland in October for asylum in England. [148] Elizabeth was cautious, ordering an inquiry into the conduct of the confederate lords and the question of whether Mary was guilty of Darnley's murder. [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. [96] Mary set out from Edinburgh on 26 August 1565 to confront them. Not only was she a female monarch in an era dominated by men, she was also physically imposing, standing nearly six feet tall. Under the terms of the Treaty of Edinburgh, signed by Mary's representatives on 6 July 1560, France and England undertook to withdraw troops from Scotland. They traveled from one royal palace to another Fontainebleau to Meudon, or to Chambord or Saint-Germain. [218] On 3 February,[219] ten members of the Privy Council of England, having been summoned by Cecil without Elizabeth's knowledge, decided to carry out the sentence at once. [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. As biographer. [131] On 6 May, Mary and Bothwell returned to Edinburgh. 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. It condemned Buchanan's work as an invention,[242] and "emphasized Mary's evil fortunes rather than her evil character". Her husband, Francois II, King of France had died unexpectedly, and . 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. [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. 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. During her son's minority, she played a key role in the conflict between the pro-French and pro-English factions in Scotland, constantly shifting her allegiances to suit her financial interests. Mary's illegitimate half-brother, the Earl of Moray, was a leader of the Protestants. Francis II [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. 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". Barely a month after the marriage, rebel nobles and their forces met Marys troops at Carberry Hill, 8 miles south-east of Edinburgh. [76], Mary then turned her attention to finding a new husband from the royalty of Europe. [91] Their children, if any, would inherit an even stronger, combined claim. Darnley became jealous of Mary's secretary and favourite, David Riccio. [47][48], In November 1558, Henry VIII's elder daughter, Mary I of England, was succeeded by her only surviving sibling, Elizabeth I. Mary's great uncle Henry VIII of England wanted to trap her in a marriage with his Protestant heir Edward, the future Edward VI. Widowed following the unexpected death of her first husband, Frances Francis II, she left her home of 13 years for the unknown entity of Scotland, which had been plagued by factionalism and religious discontent in her absence. Mary, Queen of Scots' pampered childhood That same year, another ginger-haired princess was born on December 8 at Linlithgow Palace in Scotland. Unfortunately, this choice turned out to be very poorly thought out; instead of safety, Mary became a prisoner of her cousin the queen. When her uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, began negotiations with Archduke Charles of Austria without her consent, she angrily objected and the negotiations foundered. They claimed Riccio had undue influence over her foreign policy but, in reality, they probably meant to cause Mary, from watching this horrific crime, to suffer a miscarriage, thus losing her child and her own life as well since one usually meant the other in the 16th century. Aged 22, Mary described her 19-year-old groom as the lustiest and best proportioned long man that she had seen.. 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. [35] When Lady Fleming left France in 1551, she was succeeded by a French governess, Franoise de Paroy. [107], Mary's son by Darnley, James, was born on 19 June 1566 in Edinburgh Castle. The Tudor queen pressured Mary to ratify the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh, which wouldve prevented her from making any claim to the English throne, but she refused, instead appealing to Elizabeth as queens in one isle, of one language, the nearest kinswomen that each other had., To Elizabeth, such familial ties were of little value. On the promise of French military help and a French dukedom for himself, Arran agreed to the marriage. Around 8 a.m. on February 8, 1587, the 44-year-old Scottish queen knelt in the great hall of Fotheringhay Castle and thanked the headsman for making an end of all my troubles. Three axe blows later, she was dead, her severed head lofted high as a warning to all who defied Elizabeth Tudor. Not content with his position as king consort, he demanded the Crown Matrimonial, which would have made him a co-sovereign of Scotland with the right to keep the Scottish throne for himself, if he outlived his wife. [85] Both Mary and Darnley were grandchildren of Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, and patrilineal descendants of the High Stewards of Scotland. Above: Replica of the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots. Cookie Policy 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. [158] They are widely believed to be crucial as to whether Mary shared the guilt for Darnley's murder. Her last words were, In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum ("Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"). [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. [241] After the accession of James I in England, historian William Camden wrote an officially sanctioned biography that drew from original documents. [150] Mary's clothes, sent from Loch Leven Castle, arrived on 20 July. But in June of 1560, Marys mother died in Scotland at the age of 45. She also had an infant son to consider. Meilan Solly When Moray rushed into the room after hearing her cries for help, she shouted, "Thrust your dagger into the villain!" Mary married Francis in 1558, becoming queen consort of France from his accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560. For nineteen years she was kept under lock and key until she was finally executed in 1587 for conspiring against Elizabeth. 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. The arrests caused anger in Scotland, and Arran joined Beaton and became a Catholic. "The Husbands of Mary Queen of Scots" https://englishhistory.net/tudor/relative/husbands-of-mary-qos/, October 28, 2022, You are here: Home Tudor Relatives The Husbands of Mary Queen of Scots, Copyright 1999-2023 All Rights Reserved.English HistoryOther Sites: Make A Website Hub, The Right to Display Public Domain Images, Author & Reference Information For Students, https://englishhistory.net/tudor/relative/husbands-of-mary-qos/, House Of Tudor Genealogy Chart & Family Tree, Mary, Queen of Scots: Biography, Facts, Portraits & Information, Catherine Howard: Facts, Biography, Portraits & Information, Queen Elizabeth I: Biography, Facts, Portraits & Information, Jane Seymour Facts, Biography, Information & Portraits, Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk and Princess Mary Tudor, Anne Boleyn Facts & Biography Of Information, Katherine Parr Facts, Information, Biography & Portraits, King Henry VIII Facts, Information, Biography & Portraits, Lady Jane Grey Facts, Biography, Information & Portraits, Lady Catherine Grey Facts & Information Biography, Mary Queen of Scots Chronology & Timeline 1542 to 1587, Margaret Tudor Queen of Scotland Facts, Biography & Information, Elizabeth Stafford, Elizabeth Blount & Henry Fitzroy Facts. Francis was the eldest son of Henry II of France and Catherine deMedici and as such, heir to the French throne at the time of the marriage. He ignored the edict. Mary was 5 when she first met the four-year-old Dauphin, her betrothed husband. [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. But it is unlikely that, had he been successful, Darnley would have long survived his wife. 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. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when her father died and she inherited the throne. He recuperated from his illness in a house belonging to the brother of Sir James Balfour at the former abbey of Kirk o' Field, just within the city wall. [42] At some point in her infancy or childhood, she caught smallpox, but it did not mark her features. 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". [235], Mary's request to be buried in France was refused by Elizabeth. Henry Stuart, styled as Lord Darnley until 1565, was the son of Matthew Stuart, 4th Earl of Lennox, and his wife, Margaret Douglas. According to most contemporaries, they were close and affectionate with one another even as children. . Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. Despite these concerns, Elizabeth certainly considered the possibility of naming Mary her heir. 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. 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. , 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. 'Deciphering Mary Stuarts lost letters from 1578-1584', "Stewart, Henry, duke of Albany [Lord Darnley] (1545/61567)", "Deciphering Mary Stuart's Lost Letters to Michel de Castelnau Mauvissire", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary,_Queen_of_Scots&oldid=1152038397, People executed by Tudor England by decapitation, People executed under the Tudors for treason against England, Heads of government who were later imprisoned, Kingdom of Scotland expatriates in France, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 April 2023, at 19:51. All too frequently, representations of Mary and Elizabeth reduce the queens to oversimplified stereotypes. 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. On 9 February 1567, Darnley was found dead outside a dwelling in Kirk oField, Edinburgh, following an explosion. 24 Apr 1558. Over 50 dagger wounds were counted on his body. Only four of the councillors were Catholic: the Earls of Atholl, Erroll, Montrose, and Huntly, who was Lord Chancellor. [221] She spent the last hours of her life in prayer, distributing her belongings to her household, and writing her will and a letter to the King of France. 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. Within two months of the wedding, she became pregnant with future King James I. 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. [70] Her privy council of 16 men, appointed on 6 September 1561, retained those who already held the offices of state. [234] Davison was arrested, thrown into the Tower of London, and found guilty of misprision. [133], Originally, Mary believed that many nobles supported her marriage, but relations quickly soured between the newly elevated Bothwell (created Duke of Orkney) and his former peers and the marriage proved to be deeply unpopular. [101] Mary refused his request and their marriage grew strained, although they conceived by October 1565. [153], As an anointed queen, Mary refused to acknowledge the power of any court to try her. 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. They sent him to France ostensibly to extend their condolences, while hoping for a potential match between their son and Mary. [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. [226] As she disrobed Mary smiled and said she "never had such grooms before nor ever put off her clothes before such a company". Mary's numbers were boosted by the release and restoration to favour of Lord Huntly's son and the return of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, from exile in France. [38] Her future sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Valois, became a close friend of whom Mary "retained nostalgic memories in later life". Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1546 - 10 February 1567), was an English nobleman who was the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the father of James VI of Scotland and I of England. [57] Instead, the Guise brothers sent ambassadors to negotiate a settlement. [205], On 11 August 1586, after being implicated in the Babington Plot, Mary was arrested while out riding and taken to Tixall Hall in Staffordshire. [163], Mary's biographers, such as Antonia Fraser, Alison Weir, and John Guy, have come to the conclusion that either the documents were complete forgeries,[164] or incriminating passages were inserted into genuine letters,[165] or the letters were written to Bothwell by a different person or written by Mary to a different person. Darnley's parents, the Earl and Countess of Lennox, were Scottish aristocrats as well as English landowners. [138] Between 20 and 23 July, Mary miscarried twins. Who were the husbands of Mary Queen of Scots? [183], Mary was permitted her own domestic staff, which never numbered fewer than 16. Janet Dickinson paints the Scottish queens relationship with Elizabeth in similar terms, arguing that the pairs dynamic was shaped by circumstance rather than choice. Three months later the future James VI of Scotland was born and congratulations came from all over Europe. So she consented to wed Bothwell, hoping that this would finally stabilize the country. 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. [41], Portraits of Mary show that she had a small, oval-shaped head, a long, graceful neck, bright auburn hair, hazel-brown eyes, under heavy lowered eyelids and finely arched brows, smooth pale skin, a high forehead, and regular, firm features. [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. After Riccios death, the nobles kept Mary prisoner at Holyrood Palace. Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. She reacted with fury and fear. Darnley was murdered a few months after they were married, and Mary later married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. 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".
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