He died a prisoner at DragsholmCastle in Denmark in 1578. 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. [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. [250] Mary's courage at her execution helped establish her popular image as the heroic victim in a dramatic tragedy.[251]. [76], Mary then turned her attention to finding a new husband from the royalty of Europe. According to most contemporaries, they were close and affectionate with one another even as children. Under the Third Succession Act, passed in 1543 by the Parliament of England, Elizabeth was recognised as her sister's heir, and Henry VIII's last will and testament had excluded the Stuarts from succeeding to the English throne. 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. . [58] On 11 June 1560, their sister, Mary's mother, died, and so the question of future Franco-Scots relations was a pressing one. Mary as queen: 10 July 1559 . 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. 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. Three months after Darnleys death, Mary wed the man whod been accused ofand acquitted of in a legally suspect trialhis murder. [233] Elizabeth's vacillation and deliberately vague instructions gave her plausible deniability to attempt to avoid the direct stain of Mary's blood. Historian Jenny Wormald believes this reluctance on the part of the Scots to produce the letters and their destruction in 1584, whatever their content, constitute proof that they contained real evidence against Mary. Explore the story of Mary's three husbands. Potential diagnoses include physical exhaustion and mental stress,[112] haemorrhage of a gastric ulcer,[113] and porphyria. At the centre of the Scottish court, 1561-68. 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. He was imprisoned in Denmark, became insane and died in 1578. 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. [26] In May 1544, the English Earl of Hertford (later Duke of Somerset) raided Edinburgh, and the Scots took Mary to Dunkeld for safety. [131] On 6 May, Mary and Bothwell returned to Edinburgh. As a Protestant, she faced threats from Englands Catholic faction, which favored a rival claim to the thronethat of Mary, the Catholic Queen of Scotsover hers. 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). [42] At some point in her infancy or childhood, she caught smallpox, but it did not mark her features. [27], In May 1546, Beaton was murdered by Protestant lairds,[28] and on 10 September 1547, nine months after the death of Henry VIII, the Scots suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Pinkie. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Elizabeth was the illegitimate product of an unlawful marriage, while Mary, the paternal granddaughter of Henry VIIIs older sister Margaret, was the rightful English heir. Within two months of the wedding, Mary was pregnant with the future King James VI. [238] Her body was exhumed in 1612 when her son, King James VI and I, ordered that she be reinterred in Westminster Abbey in a chapel opposite the tomb of Elizabeth. Henry Stuart, styled as Lord Darnley until 1565, was the son of Matthew Stuart, 4th Earl of Lennox, and his wife, Margaret Douglas. [197] Plots centred on Mary continued. [81], In contrast, a French poet at Mary's court, Pierre de Boscosel de Chastelard, was apparently besotted with Mary. 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. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. It condemned Buchanan's work as an invention,[242] and "emphasized Mary's evil fortunes rather than her evil character". A royal residence, a vital stronghold and an iconic structure, Edinburgh Castle is one of the most famous castles in the world. Marys third and final marriage began and ended with controversy. [30] In February 1548, Mary was moved, again for her safety, to Dumbarton Castle. [237] Her entrails, removed as part of the embalming process, were buried secretly within Fotheringhay Castle. Aged five Mary Queen of Scots was sent to France by her mother Marie of Guise because she was contracted to marry Francis (Francois), the eldest son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de Medici. [21] Mary was crowned in the castle chapel on 9 September 1543,[22][17] with "such solemnity as they do use in this country, which is not very costly", according to the report of Ralph Sadler and Henry Ray. As John Guy writes in Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart (which serves as the source text for Rourkes film), Mary is alternately envisioned as the innocent victim of mens political machinations and a fatally flawed femme fatale who ruled from the heart and not the head. Kristen Post Walton, a professor at Salisbury University and the author of Catholic Queen, Protestant Patriarchy: Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Politics of Gender and Religion, argues that dramatizations of Marys life tend to downplay her agency and treat her life like a soap opera. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is often viewed through a romanticized lens that draws on hindsight to discount the displeasure many of her subjects felt toward their queen, particularly during the later stages of her reign. A Protestant husband for Mary seemed the best chance for stability. [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. [169] Mary had been forced to abdicate and held captive for the better part of a year in Scotland. The nobles demanded that Mary abandon Bothwell, whom they had earlier ordered her to wed. She refused and reminded them of their earlier order. [156] Mary denied writing them and insisted they were forgeries,[157] arguing that her handwriting was not difficult to imitate. [158] They are widely believed to be crucial as to whether Mary shared the guilt for Darnley's murder. But Mary had more agency than history gives her credit for: beneath the soft exterior lay a steely determination to rule, as was her God-given right. [153], As an anointed queen, Mary refused to acknowledge the power of any court to try her. At the same time, she prevented herself from producing an heir, effectively ending the Tudor dynasty after just three generations. This is a painting of Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587), and her second husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1545/46-1567). Mary Queen of Scots picks up in 1561 with the eponymous queen's return to her native country. [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.. But it is unlikely that, had he been successful, Darnley would have long survived his wife. As biographer. He was released nineteen months later, after Cecil and Walsingham interceded on his behalf. She reacted with fury and fear. After Francis death, she married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. [214], She was convicted on 25 October and sentenced to death with only one commissioner, Lord Zouche, expressing any form of dissent. From the beginning, her life was mired in struggle as she grappled with the demands of the Scottish throne and the deaths of several husbands. The king consort had been murdered and many believed Mary had played a part in his death. On 24 April 1567, Bothwell, with a force of 800 men, kidnapped Mary whilst she was riding between Linlithgow and Edinburgh. [107], Mary's son by Darnley, James, was born on 19 June 1566 in Edinburgh Castle. Darnley's parents, the Earl and Countess of Lennox, were Scottish aristocrats as well as English landowners. [46] Twenty days later, she married the Dauphin at Notre Dame de Paris, and he became king consort of Scotland. In July, Elizabeth sent Sir Henry Sidney to cancel Mary's visit because of the civil war in France. By running to England, Mary hoped Elizabeth I would protect her from harm. [192] Norfolk continued to scheme for a marriage with Mary, and Elizabeth imprisoned him in the Tower of London between October 1569 and August 1570. 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. A Brief History of Steamboat Racing in the U.S. Texas-Born Italian Noble Evicted From Her 16th-Century Villa. [217] On 1 February 1587, Elizabeth signed the death warrant, and entrusted it to William Davison, a privy councillor. In 1559, Henry II of France, died at the age of 40. Pope Gregory XIII endorsed one plan in the latter half of the 1570s to marry her to the governor of the Low Countries and illegitimate half-brother of Philip II of Spain, John of Austria, who was supposed to organise the invasion of England from the Spanish Netherlands. Bothwell fled to Denmark, where he died in captivity 11 years later. 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]. [50] Henry II of France proclaimed his eldest son and daughter-in-law king and queen of England. 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". 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. [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. 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. [174] Elizabeth, as she had wished, concluded the inquiry with a verdict that nothing was proven against either the confederate lords or Mary. [248] There is no concrete proof of her complicity in Darnley's murder or of a conspiracy with Bothwell. [241] After the accession of James I in England, historian William Camden wrote an officially sanctioned biography that drew from original documents. 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. [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. 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. The untimely death of Francis in 5 December 1560 changed Marys future and meant she would return to Scotland to claim her throne, leaving Franciss ten-year-old brother Charles to inherit his brothers title of king. Your Privacy Rights Such accusations rest on assumptions,[249] and Buchanan's biography is today discredited as "almost complete fantasy". Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. He was jealous of her friendship with her Catholic private secretary, David Rizzio, who was rumoured to be the father of her child. [160], The authenticity of the casket letters has been the source of much controversy among historians. [59], King Francis II died on 5 December 1560 of a middle ear infection that led to an abscess in his brain. 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. [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. [227] She was blindfolded by Kennedy with a white veil embroidered in gold, knelt down on the cushion in front of the block on which she positioned her head, and stretched out her arms. Darnley was murdered a few months after they were married, and Mary later married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. As she told Elizabeths ambassador soon before her July 1565 wedding to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, not to marry, you know it cannot be for me. Darnley, Marys first cousin through her paternal grandmother, proved to be a highly unsuitable match, displaying a greed for power that culminated in his orchestration of the March 9, 1566, murder of the queens secretary, David Rizzio. [207] From these letters it was clear that Mary had sanctioned the attempted assassination of Elizabeth. 8 Dec 1542. [67] She summoned him to her presence to remonstrate with him but was unsuccessful. [24] The Treaty of Greenwich was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland in December. Mary was aged just fifteen when she was married to Francis, although the pair had been betrothed ten years earlier. 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. 7. Mary's great uncle Henry VIII of England wanted to trap her in a marriage with his Protestant heir Edward, the future Edward VI. [87] They married at Holyrood Palace on 29 July 1565, even though both were Catholic and a papal dispensation for the marriage of first cousins had not been obtained. After Riccios death, the nobles kept Mary prisoner at Holyrood Palace. In France the royal arms of England were quartered with those of Francis and Mary. 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. [39] Mary's maternal grandmother, Antoinette de Bourbon, was another strong influence on her childhood[40] and acted as one of her principal advisors. Also, Bothwell showed Mary an agreement the nobles had signed which indicated they were prepared to accept him as their overlord. The original letter is in French, this translation is from. They traveled from one royal palace to another Fontainebleau to Meudon, or to Chambord or Saint-Germain. [99] Mary broadened her privy council, bringing in both Catholics (Bishop of Ross John Lesley and Provost of Edinburgh Simon Preston of Craigmillar) and Protestants (the new Lord Huntly, Bishop of Galloway Alexander Gordon, John Maxwell of Terregles and Sir James Balfour). "[213] She protested that she had been denied the opportunity to review the evidence, that her papers had been removed from her, that she was denied access to legal counsel and that as a foreign anointed queen she had never been an English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason. 1. [135], Twenty-six Scottish peers, known as the confederate lords, turned against Mary and Bothwell and raised their own army. [138] Between 20 and 23 July, Mary miscarried twins. She announced that she was ready to stay in England, to renounce the Pope's bull of excommunication, and to retire, abandoning her pretensions to the English Crown. But Darnleys decision to help Mary escape infuriated them. He ignored the edict. [80] The proposal came to nothing, not least because the intended bridegroom was unwilling. Francis II 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. 3 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. [184] She needed 30 carts to transport her belongings from house to house. | 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. [120] Mary visited him daily, so that it appeared a reconciliation was in progress. [140] Moray was made regent,[141] while Bothwell was driven into exile. 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. [168], The casket letters did not appear publicly until the Conference of 1568, although the Scottish privy council had seen them by December 1567.

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