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

Mary married Francis, II 24 Apr 1558, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France. Francis (son of Roi Henry de France, II and Catherine de Medici, Queen consort of France) was born 19 Jan 1544, Château de Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France; was christened 10 Feb 1544, Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; died 5 Dec 1560, Orléans, Loiret, Centre-Val de Loire, France; was buried 23 Dec 1560, Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, France. [Group Sheet]

Mary married Henry Stewart 29 Jul 1565, Canongate,Edinburgh,Midlothian,Scotland. Henry was born 7 Dec 1545, Temple Newsam, Leeds, Yorkshire, England; died 10 Feb 1567, Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland; was buried 14 Feb 1567, Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. [Group Sheet]

Mary married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell 1st and last Duke of Orkney 15 May 1567, Holyrood, Midlothian, Scotland. James was born 1535, Bothwell Castle, Lanarkshire, Scotland; was christened 1536, Bothwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland; died 14 Apr 1578, Dragsholm Castle, Zeeland, Holback, Denmark; was buried Apr 1578, Dragsholm, Denmark. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

James was the only son of the ill-fated Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII. As the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch James automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. His father, Henry Darnley died on 10 February 1567 when his house at Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh was destroyed by an explosion, so James then inherited his titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross.

James was baptised "Charles James" or "James Charles" on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle but history knows him simply as James. His upbringing and care was then entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, "to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought" in the security of Stirling Castle.

After her third marriage, to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, Mary Queen of Scots was defeated by rebel Scottish lords and forced to abdicate in favour of James. Aged just 13-months old, he succeeded to the Scottish throne on 24 July 1567. Five days later he was anointed King of Scotland at the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling, by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney and, in accordance with the religious beliefs of most of the Scottish ruling class, James was then brought up as a member of the Protestant Church of Scotland, the Kirk. Meanwhile, Mary fled to England where she was eventually executed following Catholic plots against Elizabeth I in 1587. This left James during his minority James surrounded by a small band of great Scottish lords, from whom emerged the four successive regents, the earls of Moray, Lennox, Mar, and Morton whose treatment of him varied widely. Their regency ended officially in 1578, though James did not gain full control of his government until 1583.

Throughout his youth James showed no interest in the fairer sex. His close relationships were with unsavoury male courtiers but whether they were of a sexual nature is subject to debate. 37 year-old Frenchman Esmé Stewart, Sieur d'Aubigny, first cousin of James's father Lord Darnley, and future Duke of Lennox, was his first powerful favourite but by 1582 the Scottish nobles had forced him to leave Scotland. After the loss of Lennox, James continued to prefer male company, however, a suitable marriage was necessary to reinforce his monarchy and the choice fell on Anne of Denmark and Norway, younger daughter of Protestant Frederick II. In 1594 Anne gave birth to their first son, Prince Henry making James?s rule of Scotland a success. Altogether they had three sons and five daughters, of whom three survived infancy; Henry, Elizabeth and Charles.

When 36 year-old James at length succeeded to the English throne on the death of Elizabeth I (March 24, 1603), he was already, as he told the English Parliament, ?an old and experienced king? and one with a clearly defined theory of royal government. James hardly understood the rights or the temper of the English Parliament, and he thus came into conflict with it. He had little contact with the English middle classes, and suffered from the narrowness of his horizons. His 22-year-long reign over England was to prove almost as unfortunate for the Stuart dynasty as his years before 1603 had been fortunate. He was referred to by one writer as "the very wisest fool in Christendom."

Notable events that occurred during his reign include his ordering a new translation of the Bible which became known as the Authorised King James's Version; employing the architect Inigo Jones to build the present Banqueting House in Whitehall; the founding of Jamestown in America by the Virginia company; ordering the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh; and the sailing to America of The Pilgrim Father aboard the "Mayflower".

In his later years, James suffered increasingly from arthritis, gout and kidney stones. He also lost his teeth and drank heavily. Moreover, during these years the king succumbed to the influence of the incompetent Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset. Carr was succeeded as the king?s favourite by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who showed more ability as chief minister but who was even more hated for his arrogance and his monopoly of royal favour. In early 1625, James was plagued by severe attacks of arthritis, gout, and fainting fits, and fell seriously ill in March with tertian ague and then suffered a stroke. He died at Theobald's Palace on 27 March during a violent attack of dysentery, with Buckingham at his bedside.

James's funeral at Westminster Abbey took place on 17 May 1625; the funeral address lasted two hours. His wooden funeral effigy (of which only the body now remains measuring 5 feet 7 inches high) was displayed on a magnificent hearse designed by Inigo Jones. He was laid in the vault beneath Henry VII's monument and lies next to Henry's wife, Queen Elizabeth of York. Only a simple modern inscription, at the east end of Henry VII's tomb grille, marks his grave, as no monument was ever erected for him.