| Notes |
- Mary, Queen of Scots
BIRTH DATE
December 8, 1542
DEATH DATE
February 8, 1587
Mary, Queen of Scots became Queen of Scotland at six days old.
In her lifetime, Mary married three times ? her final husband causing her downfall.
Her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I held her captive for 18 years and eventually executed.
PLACE OF BIRTH
Linilithgow, Scotland
PLACE OF DEATH
Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, England
In 1568, Mary escaped from captivity and raised a substantial army but was defeated and fled to England. Queen Elizabeth initially welcomed Mary but was soon forced to put her friend under house arrest after Mary became the focus of various English Catholic and Spanish plots to overthrow Elizabeth. Nineteen years later, in 1586, a major plot to murder Elizabeth was reported, and Mary was brought to trial. She was convicted for complicity and sentenced to death.
After 19 years of imprisonment, Mary, Queen of Scots is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England for her complicity in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I.
In 1542, while just six days old, Mary ascended to the Scottish throne upon the death of her father, King James V. Her mother sent her to be raised in the French court, and in 1558 she married the French dauphin, who became King Francis II of France in 1559 but died the following year. After Francis? death, Mary returned to Scotland to assume her designated role as the country?s monarch.
In 1565, she married her English cousin Lord Darnley in order to reinforce her claim of succession to the English throne after Elizabeth?s death. In 1567, Darnley was mysteriously killed in an explosion at Kirk o? Field, and Mary?s lover, the Earl of Bothwell, was the key suspect. Although Bothwell was acquitted of the charge, his marriage to Mary in the same year enraged the nobility. Mary brought an army against the nobles, but was defeated and imprisoned at Lochleven, Scotland, and forced to abdicate in favor of her son by Darnley, James.
On February 8, 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason. Her son, King James VI of Scotland, calmly accepted his mother?s execution, and upon Queen Elizabeth?s death in 1603 he became king of England, Scotland and Ireland.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mary-queen-of-scots-beheaded
Access Date
June 8, 2021
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
February 5, 2021
Original Published Date
February 9, 2010
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1542 - 1587 (44 years)
, d. 14 Dec 1542, Falkland Castle, Fife, Scotland