Mary Stuart, Scotland's last Queen

 

Mary Stuart, the last Queen of Scots

 

A full body portrait of Mary Queen of Scots

Early life

A portrait of both James V and Mary de Guise

Mary was born to James V and Marie De Guise, King and Queen Consort of Scotland. At just under a week old, Mary inherited the throne because her father James sadly died unexpectedly. Being a newborn, Mary could not rule Scotland, so three regents including her own mother stepped in as temporary rulers until she came to adulthood. Mary’s great-uncle, King Henry VIII wanted Mary to marry his legitimate son Edward, however, that never came to fruition and Mary is sent to France instead of England.

The Tudor-Stuart family tree

Life in France as Queen Consort and first husband

A portrait of François II and Mary

At age 5 Mary is sent to France where she was taught all the things she needs to learn to become Queen. Mary married the heir to the French throne, François. Sometime later François becomes François II, King of France making Mary his Queen Consort. At 18 Mary becomes a widow as her first husband sadly died after a total of 18 months into his reign as King of France. This left the French court in shambles because unfortunately, Mary never gave birth to any children while married to François. Some even speculate that Mary and François never even consummated their marriage.

Early Scottish queenship and second marriage

Mary went back home to Scotland 9 months after her first husband’s death. Mary takes her rightful queenship as Queen of Scotland succeeding her mother as she was Mary’s last regent. Mary is then married to her second husband, who happens to be one of her cousins, Henry Stewart, better known as Lord Darnley, because he inherited that title. Sometime after, Mary gets pregnant with her future son and heir, James VI of Scotland/ James I of England, with Lord Darnley as the father.   

Portrait of Lord Darnley 

The Murder of Mary’s Favorite secretary/ tensions with Darnley

An Image depicting David Rizzio's murder

About 6 months after Mary is pregnant, she is accused of adultery according to Darnley as he believed the queen was seeing a servant by the name of David Rizzio alone. Mary, now six months pregnant with the future King James VI of Scotland/ James I of England, was dinning with Rizzio and a few of her close friends in her private dining room adjacent to her bed chamber at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland. Unfortunately, Darnley was around at the time and he and a few rebels break into the palace by dispatching the guards and go into the queen’s private dinning room. David Rizzio almost knows that he is about to be killed and grabs Mary’s skirt as an act of anxiousness. The queen protests to Darnley that this is all a misunderstanding, unfortunately, Darnley does not think that. Rizzio is then pulled away from the queen’s skirt and then dragged through the door past the queen’s bed chamber, through a second door and into a room on the other side right by a window with a secret staircase going downstairs. He is then brutally stabbed at least 50 times by Darnley and his men. Rizzio’s body is chucked down the stairs, as what was common back in the day for criminals, his body is left for a few days as display right downstairs from where he was murdered. He is then buried at Holyrood Abbey right nearby. Allegedly you can still see Rizzio’s blood in the exact place he was murdered to this day.

The blood stain of David Rizzio

 A few people believe that Rizzio’s murder was an attempt by Darnley to hopefully make Mary miscarry James, however this did not work as Mary was still pregnant after that tragic ordeal. Mary and Darnley don’t seem to get along with each other for a bit and there’s a bit of tension around the two of them because Mary does not seem to forgive him for the murder and attempted miscarriage.

Darnley’s mysterious assassination

Sometime later, Darnley feels unwell and decides to lodge at Kirk O Field for a while along with one of his servants. Mary has reconciled with Darnley, and they are back to being somewhat happy as Mary comes to visit him for a bit during his stay. A little while later, the building then explodes due to gunpowder while Darnley and his servant are inside the property. In the investigation, Darnley and his servant are both found dead near the rubble that used to be Kirk O Field and apparently not to have suffered from the explosion but have been murdered. Evidence suggests that Darnley and his servant managed to escape the church but then are choked to death by an unknown assailant in the surrounding property.

A sketch Depicting Darnley's assasination

Mary’s final husband and tensions in Scotland

Mary is now a widow for the second time in her life at age 24. Mary now becomes controversial as she happens to marry her third husband who happens to be one of the suspects who potentially assassinated Darnley. Time goes by and Mary is forced to abdicate the Scottish throne leaving a young James VI as King due to the controversies ramping up about her third marriage and the fact that rumors are circulating that Mary may have plotted Darnley’s assassination. Since James is too young to rule, one of Mary’s brothers is regent for him until James comes to age.

Mary’s unfortunate downfall

A sketch of Mary in house arrest

Mary is put in house arrest for a year in Mary King’s Close for a month. She then attempts to flee to England where she spends time there. Unfortunately, for Mary there are a bunch of Scotsmen trying to plot her cousin, Elizabeth I’s assassination. Elizabeth is a protestant and the conspirators want Mary who is a catholic to be placed on the throne like how it was when Mary I took the English throne before Elizabeth. Mary is placed in a slightly harsher jail position than what she was in before the plotting, however, she can still go on horseback riding. Elizabeth tries to be friendly with her but as tensions increase around England with more reports. Mary is put in a harsh condition in jail, Elizabeth orders this as if she thinks there will be a lot less tension with everything on. But tensions are so bad that Elizabeth considers executing Mary. It takes a bit of time before Elizabeth is forced to sign her own cousin’s death warrant and orders Mary’s execution as a traitor.

Mary’s badly botched execution

An Image Depicting Mary's Execution

On February 8, 1587, Mary was executed at age 44 by being beheaded with an axe. Her execution went incredibly botched once Mary took to the scaffold and placed her head onto the block. It took the executioner 4 blows to fully sever her head, her head was still on after the second strike. Instead of the usual one or two, to add to the disturbing execution, when the executioner lifted Mary’s head by the hair (or more like her wig), her head fell from the executioner's grasp and tumbled off the scaffold causing an immense amount of shock to the witnesses. Mary was buried at Peterborough cathedral, a few years after her initial burial, Mary’s casket got moved inside Westminster Abbey. Because James insisted that her body be placed there as the queen mother. Her tomb is approximately 30 ft from Elizabeth I’s tomb to this day.    

The Tomb of Mary Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey 

Mary’s Legacies

Mary has quite a huge legacy, she gave birth to Elizabeth’s successor because Elizabeth was almost certainly a virgin and thus never had any children. James also became the king to bring England and Scotland together at last and happened to start the Stuart Dynasty in England.

A portrait of James I

 Mary’s grandson, Charles I destroyed a bit of the legacy that Mary built due to causing civil war and abolishing the monarchy temporarily. But she still had one legacy of having Charles being executed the same way that she was. Many portraits of her still exist including this one: 

One of the Mary Queen of Scots portraits