Mary Queen of Scots

Mary's mother was Mary of Guise, and her father was James V, they betrothed her to the King of France, Dauphin Francois. This happened when Mary was only 5 years old.

Mary grew up, and was educated in France; she learnt many languages, Latin, Greek, Spanish, French and English. Her preferred language for most of her life however was French.

Mary learnt to love Falconry and hunting in the grounds of the many chateaux that she lived in.

Some of these included the 400 room Chambord, Chenonceau, Anet, Blois, Fontainebleau and Le Louver.

In April 1558 Mary married the French King Henri II in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Mary therefore became Queen consort of France.

In December 1560, Henri died. Elizabeth withdrew all her troops from Scotland, so that the Scottish would recognise her as the Queen of Scotland.

When Mary returned to Scotland, she arrived in Leith, on August 19th 1561, even though she had very many talents, she had not been brought up to have the judgement to cope with the complex, and dangerous political situation in Scotland.

Because Mary was a devout Roman Catholic, many people thought she was a suspicion, and also by her royal subjects. The Queen of England, Elizabeth thought she was very suspicious, and being her cousin, she had a very strong claim to the English throne. Elizabeth was her father's cousin who was reigning in the neighbouring country.

Mary took on the leadership of a country torn between two religions, Protestantism, and Catholic believes. Mary's half brother was the head of a campaign against Catholic ways, and also against Mary. He made up many reasons to have her thrown of the throne. Some were true, but today would we really complain that our Queen wore too rich clothes?

Mary was tolerant of the Protestants, and much to the distaste of the Catholic parties, she allowed the new Protestant ascendancy.

Mary was re thinking about Elizabeth, and attempted to make up between them, by inviting her to visit Scotland, but the offer was declined, and the feud remained between them.

Mary, after this decided to send an ambassador to the English court, so that Mary could put forward to Elizabeth her claim to the throne, and to ask eher to ask her in her will to name Elizabeth as the Heir. Elizabeth refused, as she was a Catholic, and Elizabeth would have preferred to have a Protestant heir.

Mary married Lord Darnley in Holyrood Palace, in July 1565. Darnley was Mary's first cousin, and before long Mary was pregnant with their first child. But there was a change in Darnley's personality, he became arrogant, and demanded power, and to be called King. On one occasion it is said that he attacked Mary, trying to make her miscarry her unborn child.

Darnley was also jealous of Mary's secretary, David Ricio. It is said that he was part of a conspiracy plan, and killed Ricio in front of Mary, after believing they had had an affair. But he turned his back on the Lords who he had conspired with, so they stabbed him over 40 times, although it is also said that he died of suffocation on the grounds, which was apparently from post explosion shock.

Before long, Mary had married Lord Bothwell, trying to get support against the Lords again, and Bothwell had forced the Lords to sign Ainslie Tavern Bond.

In April 24th, Bothwell abducted Mary and raped her, she became pregnant with twins, but she miscarried, whilst in prison. They soon returned to Edinburgh, and married under Protestant rights.

Mary was soon imprisoned in Scotland, in favour of her son James. She then moved to England to try to get protection from her cousin Mary.

As soon as she came, Mary locked her up, and wouldn't let her go.

However she wouldn't sign the death warrant for a long time.

Mary was soon supposed to have been involved in plots to kill Elizabeth; she was put on trial and found guilty. Elizabeth signed the death warrant, and the council quickly carried out the execution before Elizabeth could change her mind.

Mary's dog is said to have curled up inside her skirts, and wouldn't come out until it died.

Mary left behind a lot of things including her son.

James grew up soon, and he took over England, starting a new Dynasty, the Stewarts.