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. Vivacious, beautiful, and clever (according to contemporary accounts), Mary had a promising childhood. [26] In May 1544, the English Earl of Hertford (later Duke of Somerset) raided Edinburgh, and the Scots took Mary to Dunkeld for safety. Her first husband was Francis II of France, who she married when she was just fifteen years old. [57] Instead, the Guise brothers sent ambassadors to negotiate a settlement. They were Mary Fleming, Mary Seton, Mary Beaton and Mary Livingstone. [168], The casket letters did not appear publicly until the Conference of 1568, although the Scottish privy council had seen them by December 1567. Mary fell passionately in love with Henry, Lord Darnley, but it was not a success. 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. [29], King Henry II of France proposed to unite France and Scotland by marrying the young queen to his three-year-old son, the Dauphin Francis. In the end, Moray returned to Scotland as regent and Mary remained in custody in England. Darnley was a weak man and soon became a drunkard as Mary ruled entirely alone and gave him no real authority in the country. 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. 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. All too frequently, representations of Mary and Elizabeth reduce the queens to oversimplified stereotypes. Bothwell died a prisoner at DragsholmCastle in Denmark in 1578. He was also fond of courtly amusements and thus a nice change from the dour Scottish lords who surrounded her. A queer historian assesses the historical accuracy of the gay stuff in the Mary Queen of Scots movie. Mary Queen of Scots: Directed by Josie Rourke. He was the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and was the father of James VI of Scotland, who succeeded Elizabeth I of England as James I. Jenn Scott of the Stewart Society tells the story . [156] Mary denied writing them and insisted they were forgeries,[157] arguing that her handwriting was not difficult to imitate. At the same time, shes quick to point out that the portrayal of Mary and Elizabeth as polar oppositesCatholic versus Protestant, adulterer versus Virgin Queen, beautiful tragic heroine versus smallpox-scarred hagis problematic in and of itself. Her last words were, In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum ("Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"). There was never any intention to proceed judicially; the conference was intended as a political exercise. Mary was accused of involvement in the murder, the prime suspect was the Earl of Bothwell, who within weeks would be Mary's husband. And though Marys father, James V, reportedly made a deathbed prediction that the Stuart dynasty, which came with a lassMarjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the Brucewould also pass with a lass, the woman who fulfilled this prophecy was not the infant James left his throne to, but her descendant Queen Anne, whose 1714 death marked the official end of the dynastic line. [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. December 14 2018 5:26 PM EST. [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. [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. [166] Guy points out that the letters are disjointed and that the French language and grammar employed in the sonnets are too poor for a writer with Mary's education[167] but certain phrases in the letters, including verses in the style of Ronsard, and some characteristics of style are compatible with known writings by Mary. A Protestant husband for Mary seemed the best chance for stability. Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart, was born into conflict. Within two months of the wedding, she became pregnant with future King James I. , 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. [47][48], In November 1558, Henry VIII's elder daughter, Mary I of England, was succeeded by her only surviving sibling, Elizabeth I. Cookie Settings, Its unsurprising that the tale of these two queens resonates with audiences some 400 years after the main players lived. Norfolk was executed and the English Parliament introduced a bill barring Mary from the throne, to which Elizabeth refused to give royal assent. Mary had refused the proposal then, preferring to marry Darnley, but now she knew herself to be powerless. She issued a proclamation accepting the religious settlement in Scotland as she had found it upon her return, retained advisers such as James Stewart, Earl of Moray (her illegitimate paternal half-brother), and William Maitland of Lethington, and governed as the Catholic monarch of a Protestant kingdom. Fact: Queen Mary's second husband tried to usurp the throne After Queen Mary was widowed by her first husband at 18, she married Lord Darnley (Jack Lowden), her third cousin. [200], In 1584, Mary proposed an "association" with her son, James. [25] The rejection of the marriage treaty and the renewal of the alliance between France and Scotland prompted Henry's "Rough Wooing", a military campaign designed to impose the marriage of Mary to his son. Mary was accompanied by her own court including two illegitimate half-brothers, and the "four Marys" (four girls her own age, all named Mary), who were the daughters of some of the noblest families in Scotland: Beaton, Seton, Fleming, and Livingston. [37] Mary learned to play lute and virginals, was competent in prose, poetry, horsemanship, falconry, and needlework, and was taught French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Greek, in addition to her native Scots. 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. [30] In February 1548, Mary was moved, again for her safety, to Dumbarton Castle. Mary replied, "I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles. 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. With Angela Bain, Richard Cant, Guy Rhys, Thom Petty. [138] Between 20 and 23 July, Mary miscarried twins. Defeated once and for all, the deposed queen fled to England, expecting her sister queen to offer a warm welcome and perhaps even help her regain the Scottish throne. On the promise of French military help and a French dukedom for himself, Arran agreed to the marriage. 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. A Huguenot uprising in France, the Tumult of Amboise, made it impossible for the French to send further support. On 9 March 1566 Mary was having supper with David Rizzio when her husband burst in. [71], Modern historian Jenny Wormald found this remarkable and suggested that Mary's failure to appoint a council sympathetic to Catholic and French interests was an indication of her focus on the English throne, over the internal problems of Scotland. [97] In what became known as the Chaseabout Raid, Mary with her forces and Moray with the rebellious lords roamed around Scotland without ever engaging in direct combat. 9 Sep 1543. [147], Mary apparently expected Elizabeth to help her regain her throne. The brief brush with freedom Guy refers to took place in May 1568, when Mary escaped and rallied supporters for a final battle. [151] A commission of inquiry, or conference, as it was known, was held in York and later Westminster between October 1568 and January 1569. [Marys] failures are dictated more by her situation than by her as a ruler, she says, and I think if she had been a man, she would've been able to be much more successful and would never have lost the throne.. "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. Her first husband was Francis II of France, who she married when she was just fifteen years old. 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. They next met on Saturday 17 February 1565 at Wemyss Castle in Scotland. [118] At the start of the journey, he was afflicted by a feverpossibly smallpox, syphilis or the result of poison. Potential diagnoses include physical exhaustion and mental stress,[112] haemorrhage of a gastric ulcer,[113] and porphyria. [139] On 24 July, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son James. For the list of documents see, for example. He was jealous of her friendship with her Catholic private secretary, David Rizzio, who was rumoured to be the father of her child. Elizabeth had succeeded in maintaining a Protestant government in Scotland, without either condemning or releasing her fellow sovereign. 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. Widowed following the unexpected death of her first husband, France's Francis II, she left. Mary's life and subsequent execution established her in popular culture as a romanticised historical character. The castle was the site of the birth of King James VI, also James I of England from 1603, to Mary Queen of Scots in 1566. [62] Mary returned to Scotland nine months later, arriving in Leith on 19 August 1561. To date, acting luminaries from Katharine Hepburn to Bette Davis, Cate Blanchett and Vanessa Redgrave have graced the silver screen with their interpretations of Mary and Elizabeth (though despite these womens collective talent, none of the adaptations have much historical merit, instead relying on romanticized relationships, salacious wrongdoings and suspect timelines to keep audiences in thrall). Mary was aged just fifteen when she was married to Francis, although the pair had been betrothed ten years earlier. The second blow severed the neck, except for a small bit of sinew, which the executioner cut through using the axe. 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. A Brief History of Steamboat Racing in the U.S. Texas-Born Italian Noble Evicted From Her 16th-Century Villa. [83] Maitland claimed that Chastelard's ardour was feigned and that he was part of a Huguenot plot to discredit Mary by tarnishing her reputation.[84]. 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. 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. [19][17], Beaton wanted to move Mary away from the coast to the safety of Stirling Castle. They sent him to France ostensibly to extend their condolences, while hoping for a potential match between their son and Mary. [216], Elizabeth asked Paulet, Mary's final custodian, if he would contrive a clandestine way to "shorten the life" of Mary, which he refused to do on the grounds that he would not make "a shipwreck of my conscience, or leave so great a blot on my poor posterity". [244] In the latter half of the 20th century, the work of Antonia Fraser was acclaimed as "more objective free from the excesses of adulation or attack" that had characterised older biographies,[245] and her contemporaries Gordon Donaldson and Ian B. Cowan also produced more balanced works. Despite these concerns, Elizabeth certainly considered the possibility of naming Mary her heir. 04 September 2017. Mary's father, James V, King of Scotland died on 14 December 1542 following the Battle of Solway Moss. [76], Mary then turned her attention to finding a new husband from the royalty of Europe. [56] In early 1560, the Protestant Lords invited English troops into Scotland in an attempt to secure Protestantism. [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. This is a painting of Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587), and her second husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1545/46-1567). [202], In February 1585, William Parry was convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth, without Mary's knowledge, although her agent Thomas Morgan was implicated. How Mary dealt with this incident sealed her fate. 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. Marys second husband was Henry Stuart Lord Darnley, her cousin. [24] The Treaty of Greenwich was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland in December. Within two months of the wedding, Mary was pregnant with the future King James VI. Not only had Darnleys arrogant behaviour during the early months of the marriage angered many of the Scottish nobles, but it had also incurred the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was angry to see Darnley, as her English subject, marry the Queen of Scots, who was herself in line to the throne of England. Three strikes later, the executioner severed Marys head from her body, at which point he held up his bloody prize and shouted, God save the queen. For now, at least, Elizabeth had emerged victorious. [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 was born on 8 December 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, to King James V and his French second wife, Mary of Guise. 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. Mary married Francis in Notre Dame de Paris. [36] At the French court, she was a favourite with everyone, except Henry II's wife Catherine de' Medici. [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. 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. [194] Elizabeth's principal secretary William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and Sir Francis Walsingham watched Mary carefully with the aid of spies placed in her household. 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]. Then, news of another killing broke. Did you know that Mary Queen of Scots had three husbands? Meilan Solly 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. [184] She needed 30 carts to transport her belongings from house to house. 14. If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content. [38] Her future sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Valois, became a close friend of whom Mary "retained nostalgic memories in later life". 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. [169] Mary had been forced to abdicate and held captive for the better part of a year in Scotland. She was thought to be dying. In France the royal arms of England were quartered with those of Francis and Mary. 3 [130], Between 21 and 23 April 1567, Mary visited her son at Stirling for the last time. [70] Her privy council of 16 men, appointed on 6 September 1561, retained those who already held the offices of state. [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. At the same time, she prevented herself from producing an heir, effectively ending the Tudor dynasty after just three generations. At the same time, Post Walton says, the fact that the cousins never stood face-to-face precludes the possibility of the intensely personal dynamic often projected onto them; after all, its difficult to maintain strong feelings about someone known only through letters and intermediaries. Mary Queen of Scots picks up in 1561 with the eponymous queens return to her native country. Three months after Darnleys death, Mary wed the man whod been accused ofand acquitted of in a legally suspect trialhis murder. The portraits were made by an unknown artist in around 1565, at the time of their marriage. Many nobles were implicated in the murder of Lord Darnley, most particularly James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell. She had been queen for all but the first six days of her life, John Guy writes in Queen of Scots, [but] apart from a few short but intoxicating weeks in the following year, the rest of her life would be spent in captivity.. She was said to have been born prematurely and was the only legitimate child of James to survive him. [220], At Fotheringhay, on the evening of 7 February 1587, Mary was told she was to be executed the next morning. [59], King Francis II died on 5 December 1560 of a middle ear infection that led to an abscess in his brain. [240], Assessments of Mary in the 16th century divided between Protestant reformers such as George Buchanan and John Knox, who vilified her mercilessly, and Catholic apologists such as Adam Blackwood, who praised, defended and eulogised her.
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