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Born in December 1542 to James V of Scotland and
his second wife Mary of Guise, Mary was
described by a writer at the time as “goodly a child as I have
seen of her age, and as like to live”, which back then was
considered a compliment! Upon hearing that his wife had birthed a
girl, King James V is said to have exclaimed: “It came
with a lass, it will pass with a lass!” This
exclamation is in reference to the throne of Scotland. James was
coincidentally correct with this estimation, apart from the
fact that the one who lost the throne wasn’t Mary, but rather
Anne, whose death would bring the reign of the
House of Stuart to a close in 1714.
James V died in 1542 from either a nervous collapse following his
defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss against the
English, or from drinking unclean water. Either way, Mary became
Queen of Scots aged only 6 days old and Scotland was in need
of a strong regent. Henry VIII put forward a
plan to marry Mary to his son, the future king Edward
VI and foster the young Queen in England. This union,
however, stipulated that should no issue be born from this match
then the two kingdoms would go back to separate rule. Sadly, Henry
was hot tempered and when he arrested Scottish merchants in France
and confiscated their goods, the Scottish
parliament rejected the marriage discussions.
Incidentally, this started a period known as the “Rough
Wooing” where Henry VIII launched a series of raids into
Scotland to encourage them to agree to the marriage.
Further alienating itself from England, the Scottish government
agreed to a marriage between the young Mary and the heir to the
French throne, Francis. The future
Francis II of France, along with Mary, signed
a secret document that said should Mary die without issue, then
Scotland would come under French rule, which would without doubt
frustrate and threaten the English.
After the deaths of Henry VIII and Edward
VI, Mary I took the throne of England.
When she died childless in 1558, her sister
Elizabeth succeeded. Many in Scotland saw
Mary as the true heir to the English throne and believed Elizabeth
to be illegitimate as her mother was Henry’s second wife, Anne
Boleyn. This caused further issues for both reigning Queens.
Mary’s reign was full of difficulties. Ongoing conflict between
Protestants and Catholics now became
increasingly problematic for the monarchs in both Scotland and
England. Although when Mary’s husband, the King of France, died,
her first thoughts were to jump back on the dating scene. Her first
choice was a chap called Lord Darnley. He was
tall, attractive, and English by birth. They were married in 1565,
yet the marriage was unpopular in England. Queen
Elizabeth saw this match as a challenge to her throne as
both Mary and Darnley had claims to the English crown through
Henry VIII’s sister (Mary and Darnley being first cousins you
see).
Sadly, Darnley didn’t last long. He became obsessed with personal
gain and, despite being King-Consort, wanted
a Crown Matrimonial to be brought into
effect. This would make Darnley Co-Sovereign and allow him to
be able to rule on his own should Mary die before him. This is
something the nobility certainly did not want. Returning to see his
wife after recuperating from an illness, the house that
Darnley was staying in was blown up. Darnley was found in the
garden, smothered. The prime suspect for the murder was another
social climber – Lord Bothwell. There were also
speculations circulating that Mary herself was involved; this
isn’t too hard to believe considering that her marriage to Darnley
was tempestuous…and that’s certainly putting it lightly. When
Darnley thought Mary was having an affair with her Private
Secretary, David Rizzio, Darnley had him
stabbed whilst the poor chap was dining with the heavily pregnant
Queen!
Things then started to move very quickly for Mary – a mere matter
of months after her husband’s death, Mary married the man generally
believed to be his murderer; Bothwell! Granted, he first abducted
her and held her prisoner. However, her marriage was valid in her
eyes and she is known to have carried twins, presumably, of Lord
Bothwell. This was the final straw for the Scottish nobility; at a
meeting, they allowed Bothwell to go free but took Mary to
Edinburgh where she was harangued by the crowd as an adulteress and
a murderer. Catholics declared the marriage as unlawful as Bothwell
has divorced his wife in order to marry the Queen. Mary was then
forced to abdicate in favour of her one year old son, James, who
became King James VI of Scotland. So that brings
us to today’s date in 1567: the
24th July. Poor old Mary had a tough
time of it, and yet this was not the end to her problems as we are
all too aware of what her infamous fate 20 years later would be:
imprisonment, trial and execution.
photo credit: lisby1 via photopin
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