[intro-music] It is the 8th of February, 1587, at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, England. A noble Queen, stripped of her ancestral birth-right, faces certain death, as she lays her head upon a chopping block, with the executioner at hand, just before the fatal blow is struck, defiantly she utters “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum”, - "Into thy hands, O’ Lord, I commend my spirit”, her name, Mary, Queen of Scots. 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To try audible plus, just click the link in the video description. audible.com/peopleprofiles or text people profiles to 500 500 and start listening today. [Music] The woman known to history as Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, or Mary I of Scotland, was born on the 8th of December, 1542, in Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian, in the former Kingdom of Scotland. Mary’s mother was Mary of Guise, or in her native French, Marie De Lorraine, who was born on the 20th November,1515, in France, and was the daughter of Claude of Lorraine, the Duke of Guise, she served as Regent of Scotland from 1554 until her death in 1560, for the then 12-year-old Mary. Mary’s father, James Stewart of Rothesay, or James V of Scotland, was a Scottish King of the House of Stewart, and was descended from a long line of The High Stewards of Scotland, the traditional Royal Officers of the Scottish Monarchy, who themselves had merged with the House of Bruce, sometime in the late 14th century. Raised in Scotland for only a brief period of her life, Mary became Queen of Scots at only six-days-old, on the 14th of December, 1542, following the death of her father, at which time her mother became a de-facto Regent, supported by Cardinal Beaton, the then Archbishop of St Andrews, who also assumed the role of Chancellor of Scotland during her infancy, with James Hamilton, the 2nd Earl of Arran, acting as the true Regent, being the Governor and Protector of Scotland, from her birth until 1554. At the beginning of his Regency, the Earl of Arran betrothed Mary to marry Edward VI of England, Henry VIII’s only son, in a peace agreement known as The Treaty of Greenwich in 1543, which was an attempt to create a symbolic union, joining the opposing countries, following a number of unsuccessful attempts made in the middle-ages. Mary was Crowned Queen of Scots on the 9th September, 1543, at the Chapel Royal in Stirling Castle, at only 9-months of age, on the 30th year anniversary of the Battle of Flodden, and the Scottish Parliament who were unhappy with this arrangement, took the opportunity to repudiate the Greenwich Agreement, this was seen as an act of war against their English counterparts, this, ushered in a period of war, known as The Rough Wooing, a military campaign designed to impose the marriage of Mary to Edward, which had significant implications, largely for Scotland, with large scale conflicts taking place, primarily between the borders of the two kingdoms. King Henry II of France proposed the marriage of his 3 year old son the Dauphin Francis of Valois-Angoulême, to 5 year old Mary, with the aim of uniting France and Scotland, the Earl of Arran agreed to the arrangement with the reward of a French Dukedom for himself as well as the promise of French military aid, the arrangement was ratified at a Scottish parliament held near Haddington on the 7th of July 1548. With war on the horizon and her marriage plans set, Mary’s mother smuggled her to France at just five-years old, she set sail from Dumbarton on the 7th August 1548, and arrived in Brittany a week later, and she spent the next 13 years growing up living with her grandmother, Antoinette de Bourbon Duchess of Guise, the matriarch of the most powerful noble family in France, where she was brought up in the Catholic tradition and learned to speak French as her primary language, also changing her name from Mary Stewart to Marie Stuart which was much more suitable for the French Court. Mary was a beautiful young girl, with a long graceful neck, bright auburn hair and hazel eyes, with heavy eyelids and arched brows, pale smooth skin and a high forehead and was considered very attractive as a young woman. As well as being beautiful Mary was also very intelligent, she was taught French, Italian, Latin, Greek and Spanish and was an accomplished young woman, learning the lute as well as horsemanship, falconry, poetry, prose and needlework. Notably tall for the time at 5 feet 11 inches, as well as eloquent she stood in contrast to the Dauphin Francis, who was unusually short and stuttered, but the two got on very well from the moment they met, and the young Mary became a well-loved figure for the French people, becoming very popular indeed, except with her future mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici. On the 4th of April 1558, Mary signed over her rights to Scotland and her claim to England to the French Crown, should she die without heirs, and twenty days later, she sealed her commitment to Francis of Valois-Angoulême, at the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, at just 15, becoming Queen Consort of France upon his succession to the French throne in 1559, while Francis, would became King Consort of Scotland upon their marriage. Taking advantage of Mary’s naivety a number of individuals from the French aristocracy conspired to join France and Scotland into a single Kingdom, albeit, making Scotland a subservient addition to the French throne, although, their hopes failed to materialise as she moved home to Scotland upon the death of her husband in 1560, ending any hope of a union between the two kingdoms, and resuming her place as the Queen of Scots at the age of 18-years old, while also informally terminating their pact of mutual assistance. Mary Stuart was said to have become a charismatic and starry-eyed young lady, who was also known to be rather reckless but despite this, she still remained one of the most revered Queens in Europe at that time, and to this day, remains one of the most popular and loved monarchs in Scottish history, her real life story of treachery and murder-plots, inextricably linked with her grace and her love for her son, as well as for her people. Throughout Mary’s childhood, and even before her time, Europe had been engulfed in the Italian Wars, in which Mary’s French family played a prominent role, the wars only came to an end in 1559, after ravaging Europe for approximately 65-years, and were essentially a fight for the European balance of power between the French and the King of Spain, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, who spent the majority of his life defending the Holy Roman Empire from Protestant reformation. The French fought for domination over the Habsburg Family and over the continent of Europe, which if successful would have had wide-scale repercussions as those who controlled Italy under the Pope, would wield considerable influence over both Western and Southern Europe. Mary’s reign covered a chaotic period in European history, her kingdom had gone through a series of wars, impacting on every aspect of the continent, with many prominent figures dying as a result, coming to grips with the aftermath of the Italian Wars and the Protestant Reformation, would create a very turbulent situation, one that has had repercussions in Great Britain ever since King Henry VIII transformed his beloved England into a Protestant nation. Despite the rapid changes in the religious landscape on the continent, Western and Southern Europe remained largely Catholic. If France had won the Italian Wars, its supremacy would have posed a significant threat to the Protestant countries in the converted regions of Northern Europe. This was a situation that England was desperate to avoid. Especially because Scotland’s support for France in the conflict would have spelt disaster for the Tudors. However, it was a war that the French ultimately lost despite their best efforts, resulting in a win for the Spanish Empire. Earlier in the conflict, Mary’s grandfather, King James IV of Scotland had invaded England in 1513 to honour his country’s relationship with France. The invasion brought an end to the so-called “Treaty of Perpetual Peace” signed just 11 years earlier by James IV and Henry VIII. However, the invasion proved a disaster for the Scots. They suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field on the 9th of September. King James IV himself was amongst the Scottish dead, leaving the throne to his 1-year-old son, the young James V, who did not assume kingly duties until he turned 16 in 1528. He would also go on to be defeated by an English force, failing to avenge his father at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542. James V died shortly after the battle, at the age of 30, said to have been crushed by the defeat. He was succeeded by his baby daughter, Mary, at the age of just 6 days. It was an appropriate start to a life that would come to be dominated by drama, turbulence, triumph and disaster. With the new queen still a babe in arms, Scotland was overseen by a Regent. It was during this time, in 1543, that the Catholic Revival began in the country, as a counter- movement to the Protestant Reformation. Notable figures in the revival included George Gordon, the 4th Earl of Huntly and a grandson of James IV, Matthew Stewart, the 4th Earl of Lennox, and Patrick Hepburn, the 3rd Earl of Bothwell, who was the father of the man who would become Mary’s third husband, James Hepburn, The Scottish Parliament’s decision to annul the Treaty of Greenwich in 1543 led to the period known as “the Rough Wooing”, which saw the English ravage much of the southern Scottish Lowlands from 1543 until 1551. The English forces were under the command of Edward Seymour, the Earl of Hertford. By May of 1543, they had attacked Edinburgh and burned down most of the city, including Holyrood Palace and Abbey. This period saw a flurry of battles between the two kingdoms, with one of the most notable, the Battle of Ancrum Moor in February 1545, resulting in a victory for Scotland over the army of the mighty Henry VIII. Following this Scottish triumph, Cardinal Beaton had the well-known Protestant reformer George Wishart burned at the stake for heresy in 1546. Although this led to Beaton’s own assassination, in May of the same year, at the hands of conspirators led by Norman Leslie, a Scottish nobleman and soldier. The killers hanged the mutilated corpse of the Cardinal from a window at St Andrew’s Castle for all to see. The death of Beaton, a fierce fighter for the Catholic cause, was perceived to be in the interests of Henry VIII’s struggle to promote Protestantism throughout Britain. However, the English King did not have long to take advantage of Beaton’s death. Just eight months later, on the 28th of January 1547, Henry VIII also died, obese, covered in painful sores and possibly suffering from scurvy. He left the throne to his nine-year-old son, Edward VI. As the boy was too young to rule, Lord Hertford, now the 1st Duke of Somerset, governed in his place. Irrespective of the King’s death, the Rough Wooing continued. Somerset engaged with Scotland at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh on the 10th of December, 1547. It was the last great battle of the Anglo-Scottish conflict and is also considered the first battle of the early modern era to be fought in the British Isles. In the battle, a renaissance English army, commanded by Hertford, confronted a medieval Scottish army led by the Earl of Arran. It ended in a resounding English victory. It has been estimated that up to 10,000 Scots lost their lives, while many more were taken prisoner. In the aftermath of the battle, Mary was ushered to Inchmahome Priory, near Stirling, to be kept safe. The English forces soon returned in 1548, attacking Dunbar Castle in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, before focusing their attention on Dalkeith and Haddington, in present day East Lothian. In the meantime, the five-year-old Mary was transferred to Dumbarton Castle, as French troops returned to re-take Haddington with their Scottish counterparts. Meanwhile in France, King Henry II began his pursuit of Mary as a marriage prospect for his young son Francis. This resulted in the Treaty of Haddington, signed on the 7th of July, 1548, which led to the young Mary leaving Scotland for her new home on the continent. Mary boarded a French ship upon the Clyde Estuary at Dumbarton Castle on the 7th of August, 1548, escorted by John Erskine, the 5th Lord Erskine, and Alexander Livingston, the 5th Lord Livingston. She arrived on the French coast at Roscoff following six days at sea. Seven months later, in March 1550, Mary of Guise visited her daughter in her native France, seeking support to help her replace the Earl of Arran as Regent, however, her plans were thwarted, as England and France signed The Treaty of Boulogne, leading to peace between the two countries. This was followed shortly afterwards by a similar pact between Scotland and England in June 1551. The treaties brought the Rough Wooing to an end, with victory for the Franco-Scottish forces, and not long after it was signed, tragedy again struck in England, as the teenage Edward VI fell ill and died on the 6th of July, 1553. He was succeeded by his half-sister, Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. A year later, north of the border, the Earl of Arran stepped down as Regent, after being bribed with the Dukedom of Châtelherault and a handsome pension. Mary of Guise took his place, ruling Scotland in the place of her young daughter. However, in 1557, the Protestant cause took a great step forward in Scotland, as in that year, a number of prominent Scottish Nobles, signed the Covenant, a formal proclamation detailing their intentions to uphold Protestant teachings in the country, these men included Alexander Cunningham the 5th Earl of Glencairn, Archibald Campbell the 5th Earl of Argyll, James Douglas the 4th Earl of Morton, and John Erskine of Dun, all of whom had supported both Mary and her mother during previous conflicts and had helped her escape to France, but now they were taking a stand in opposition to Mary’s marriage links with the Dauphin of France, which was in the process of being negotiated by Mary’s half-sibling, Lord James Stuart. In 1558, Mary was formally betrothed to Francis at the Great Hall of the Louvres Palace in Paris, in an agreement known to history as the Treaty of Edinburgh, they were married on the 24th of April, 1558, when Mary was 15 and Francis 14. . The marriage contract stated in a hidden clause, that should Mary die without a child, both Scotland and her claim to the English throne would pass to the French crown, which was a dire prospect for England and Scotland alike, however, within seven months of the wedding, the question of Mary’s claim to the English throne would again become a live issue, with the death of Mary I of England Mary I had briefly restored Catholicism to England, earning herself the nickname “Bloody Mary” in the process, for her zealous persecution of Protestantism, however, her marriage to Philip II of Spain had produced no children, therefore, as a granddaughter of Henry VII, the first Tudor King, Mary Queen of Scots was regarded by some, as the rightful heir to the English throne. The Catholic Church backed Mary’s claim because in its eyes, the other claimant, Henry VIII’s daughter Elizabeth, was the illegitimate child of an illegal marriage, this was because Henry VIII had controversially divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, breaking away from the Catholic Church in the process. The Catholic argument in favour of Mary was one that the Church of England, of course, rejected in favour of Elizabeth, they did so with the support of the majority of the English aristocracy who, under the guidance of the Third Succession Act of 1543, designated the Protestant Elizabeth as the successor to her half-sister and because Elizabeth I, or “the Virgin Queen”, as she came to be known, had produced no heir, any children born to Lord Darnley, who was second in the line of succession, or Mary, who was first, would have a very strong claim to the throne. Shortly after Mary I’s death the explosive Italian Wars came to a final halt, with England, France and Spain each committing to the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in April 1559. The peace was cemented through the marriage of Mary Queen of Scot's sister-in-law, the Princess Elisabeth de Valois, to Phillip II of Spain, who was the son of Charles V as well as the widower of Mary I of England. The treaty brought a period of much welcome stability to Europe, but indefinite peace was never an option, and the fight for Italy would resume in the following century. In September 1559, King Henry II of France died taking part in a jousting tournament, allowing Francis and Mary to step up to become King and Queen Consort. Immediately after their coronation, French troops were sent to Scotland to aid Mary of Guise in her conflict with the Duke of Châtellerault who had been supporting the Protestant nobles in their struggle against Catholicism. Elizabeth I, however, soon threw her weight behind the Scottish Protestant nobility’s stand against Catholic influence in the region, signing The Treaty of Berwick in February 1560 and starting the Siege of Leith in March. In response to these attacks Mary of Guise fled to Edinburgh at the beginning of April. The year 1559 had also seen the return to Scotland of John Knox, who had been in Geneva, studying the Genevan Bible, also known as the Calvinist Doctrine under John Calvin. Back in his native land, Knox spearheaded the Reformation Crises of 1560, and was successful in persuading the Scottish Parliament to formally sever ties with Rome, and under Knox’s influence, Scotland became a Protestant nation following the Calvinist tradition. Shortly after her move to Edinburgh, Mary of Guise died on the 11th of June, 1560, forcing the Franco-Scottish Alliance to agree to the Treaty of Edinburgh. By the terms of the treaty, Queen Elizabeth I was formally recognised as the legitimate Queen of England, and the French withdrew their troops from Scotland and relinquished their claim to the lucrative crown. At this moment of Tudor triumph, it would have been hard to predict that, in a mere 43 years, their dynasty would be over, and the Stuarts would rule both north and south of the border. However, long before that, another dark period in Mary’s life was about to shatter her entire existence. In November of 1560, Mary’s husband, the King of France, became seriously ill, with some reports suggesting he had been poisoned and by the 5th of December he was dead. Mary’s mother-in-law, Catherine of Medici, secured the Regency on behalf of her son Charles IX. No longer Queen of France, Mary, still aged only 18, . was forced to return to her ancestral home, almost 700 miles away, leaving behind a country very much intertwined in her identity. She was escorted by her brother, the Lord James Stuart, who agreed terms with the French, she made her way to Scotland via Calais and into Leith Harbour, near to Edinburgh Mary returned to a largely unstable Scotland. The country had already gone through the theological restructuring of the Reformation Crises, and so, resisting increasing pressure from France and the Catholic Church to reject Protestant influence in her courts, Mary allowed individuals from the opposing faiths into her government. This ensured the survival of Protestantism in Scotland, but it came at a personal cost to Mary. She became the focus of much criticism, especially from religious leaders from the conflicting factions. Some saw Mary’s decision as being motivated by her desire to take the English throne, giving birth to a conspiracy that would come to play a major role in Mary’s life, as well as her death. In fact, Mary never disguised her desire to sit on the English throne. She even made a direct appeal to Elizabeth herself, asking the English Queen to select her as heir presumptive, under the condition that she take an English Noblemen as her husband. However, any chances of being nominated as the successor to the throne soon faltered, as the man she was supposed to marry turned down the request. . Rejected, she returned to her role as Queen north of the border. Her reign was to prove brief and turbulent, generating controversies that are still debated to this day From August to November, 1562, Mary embarked on a tour of Scotland, stretching from Linlithgow, to Stirling, and including Inverness and Aberdeen. Meanwhile, during this journey, her brother Lord James, now the Earl of Moray, met the leaders of the Huntley Rebellion, the Gordons, and accepted hostages from them, following which, the son of the Earl of Huntley, Sir John Gordon, was summarily executed, for his part in the opposition to the Queen of Scots and Mary would soon embark on further travels to assert her authority in Scotland, visiting even more of the country, in a series of tours between July 1563 and February 1565. Following her return to Scotland, the young widow married for a second time. Her new husband was Henry Stuart, better known as Lord Darnley, whom she had met in February, 1565, Darnley was the grandson of Margaret Tudor and her second husband, Archibald Douglas, the 6th Earl of Angus, this meant that Mary and Darnley were cousins. . They were also both cousins of Elizabeth I, who was also Margaret Tudor’s granddaughter. Darnley, however, did not bring any honour to his illustrious family, being vain, arrogant and a notorious drinker with a violent temper, proving to be a liability to his new wife and the country she ruled Prior to Mary’s marriage to Darnley, a number of prominent Scottish lords declared their displeasure with the relationship, . but Mary, perhaps blinded by love, was undeterred and despite the opposition of Lords Moray, Morton, Glencairn and Châtelherault, she married Darnley, on the 29th of July, 1565 and her new husband, now the Duke of Albany, assumed the role of King Consort of Scotland By August 1565, Mary’s own half-brother the Earl of Moray had turned against her, in protest at her marriage to Darnley as well as alleged plans to restore Roman Catholicism in Scotland, Moray’s rebellion set in motion the Chaseabout Raid, which saw his forces and Mary’s pursuing each other around the kingdom, without ever fighting a significant battle, but ultimately, Moray failed to drum up sufficient support and retreated into England in the face of Mary’s superior army. Further drama followed shortly after, in March 1566, as David Rizzio, Mary’s Italian private secretary, was shockingly murdered. Rizzio was a close friend of Mary’s, allegedly her lover, and this appears to have stirred the jealousy of her violent husband Lord Darnley, as on the 9th of March 1566, while Mary dined with Rizzio, a group of men led by Patrick Ruthven the Earl of Ruthven accompanied by the Earl of Morton, burst into the room, Mary was held at gunpoint, while the Italian suffered 57 dagger wounds and died. Soon afterwards, Mary and Darnley set off for Dunbar Castle with the help of the Earl of Bothwell and Arthur Erskine, an Officer of the Scottish Monarchy, upon arriving at the castle, she offered to pardon those responsible for the Chaseabout
Raid, allowing both Moray and Glencairn back into her trusted circle of councillors, but she stopped short of offering terms of peace to those involved in Rizzio’s killing, with Morton and Ruthven both escaping to England. Rizzio was killed because of how close he was to Mary, the Queen was 6 months pregnant at the time of the murder, and some speculated that Rizzio was the real father of the child she was carrying. Was it possible that the shock of murder had also been intended to induce a miscarriage? If that was the plan, it didn’t work, as on the 19th of June, 1566, at Edinburgh Castle, Mary gave birth to her son James. She always maintained that Darnley was the boy’s father, further strengthening the infant’s claim to the English throne, which he would one day inherit. After the birth, Mary remained in Edinburgh Castle, nursing her infant child. She left in November, to travel to Craigmiller Castle, where some of her advisers proposed the idea of a plot to assassinate Darnley but Mary rejected the notion, however, it would not be long before she was facing accusations of involvement in her husband’s untimely death. On the 17th of December 1566, James was baptized at Stirling Chapel, in a Catholic ceremony, with both the King of France, the Duke of Savoy and Elizabeth I named as his godparents. Darnley missed the ceremony, however, a month later, Mary travelled to see him in Glasgow, having already pardoned the Rizzio plotters, and convinced him to return to her court, he arrived in Edinburgh in February, taking up residence at Kirk O' Field, currently the site of Edinburgh University, before she agreed to allow him to return to Holyrood shortly after. On the 9th of February 1567, Mary attended the wedding of a French servant of her court at Holyrood. She left to return to Darnley, after promising she would rejoin the wedding guests later in the evening and so, at 10pm, she left her husband’s side, to return to the wedding on a cold Edinburgh night but around 2am, there was an explosion at Darnley’s residence, and he was later found dead outside his home in an orchard. Mary, the apparently grieving widow, would soon be accused of his murder, alongside her husband-to-be, the Earl of Bothwell. In remembrance of her late husband, Mary visited Seton Castle near Longniddry, on the Firth of Forth, and whilst there Darnley’s father, Mathew Stewart, the Earl of Lennox, accused Bothwell of murder, which led to him being put on trial in Edinburgh. Perhaps out of fear, Lennox himself did not attend, and, in the absence of witnesses, Bothwell was found innocent. The acquitted Lord sought the support of other Scottish Nobles for his proposed marriage to the Queen, producing the 29 pledges that made up the Ainslie Tavern Bond. The Protestant reformer John Knox, a fierce opponent of Mary, accused her of her husband’s death by strangulation. The claim of strangulation was never confirmed, nor ever recorded as a cause of death, and the accusations against Mary would follow her for the rest of her life. It is unlikely that the true circumstances will ever be known, but in the aftermath of the murder, Mary was imprisoned in the Palace of Holyrood House, until she was rescued by her future husband, the Earl of Bothwell. Together they soon mustered up an army, with the help of those Scottish nobles who supported her cause. Mary visited her infant son at Stirling in late April, but sadly, this would be the last time she ever set eyes on James. Soon afterwards, she was met by Bothwell, who allegedly abducted her and took her to Dunbar Castle. He then took her, possibly against her will, to Edinburgh, where on the 6th of May he divorced his wife, Lady Jean Gordon. On the 15th of May, Bothwell and Mary were married, but the honeymoon period was to be brief. They left Edinburgh for Borthwick Castle but, hearing word of an army moving against them by opposing Scottish Lords, they moved on during the night to seek safety at Dunbar. With the support of Lords Huntly and Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill, Mary and her husband confronted the Protestant Lords at the Battle of Carberry Hill, near Musselburgh in present day East Lothian, on the 15th of June. Little fighting took place before Mary surrendered and she was taken as a prisoner to the Lord Provost's House in Edinburgh, before being taken to Lochleven Castle in Perth and Kinross, just north of Edinburgh. There she was denounced as a murderer and an adulteress, and spent close to a year imprisoned at the castle On the 24th of July 1567, Mary was forced to abdicate, handing the throne to her young son James. The new James VI, aged only 1, was taken from his mother to be raised by Protestant nobles, to ensure he grew up following the new faith and his uncle, the Earl of Moray, was appointed as regent, charged with ruling over Scotland, until the boy king came of age. However, this did not stop Mary from trying to regain power. Dressing herself as a serving maid, she attempted to escape from imprisonment in Loch Leven Castle. The failure of her first attempt did not deter the ever-determined Mary, and during the May Day festivities in 1568, she again disguised herself as a maid and this time escaped successfully, with the intention of fighting to reclaim her throne. Following her dramatic escape, Mary allied with Catholic Scottish nobles and quickly raised an army of 6,000 men, but on the 13th of May 1568, she was defeated at the Battle of Langside, a village just south of Glasgow. After the battle, Mary fled to Dundrennan Abbey near the Solway Firth, and from there, she rejected the advice of her nobles and crossed the water into England, throwing herself on the mercy of her cousin Queen Elizabeth. Escape into England, however, would bring only temporary respite for the troubled former queen. Within a week of entering Cumbria, Mary was imprisoned in the Warden’s Tower in Carlisle Castle, under the supervision of Sir Francis Knollys. Initially, imprisonment in England was not all bad. As a noblewoman, Mary was accommodated in some luxury, and attended upon by up to 50 servants, a secretary and a personal doctor. However, in mid-July, Mary was moved to Bolton Castle, where she was accused of having plotted the murder of her former husband, Lord Darnley. The evidence against her was the mysterious ‘casket letters’, allegedly sent by Mary to her new husband Bothwell, which seemingly proved her involvement in the assassination. Mary maintained that the letters were forgeries, but because of the accusations, Queen Elizabeth refused to meet with Mary, until the issue was resolved, and she was found innocent. By January 1569, the Conference of Westminster enquiry concluded that the casket letters were insufficient evidence to prove Mary’s involvement with the murder but despite that judgement, Mary’s circumstances became worse. Unable to prove that the Scottish lords had campaigned against her unjustly, she remained in custody and in early February, she was moved again, this time to Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire, where she was put in the care of the Earl of Shrewsbury. In Tutbury she was not accommodated in the luxury to which she had become accustomed, as the castle was run-down and, in the damp and squalid conditions, Mary developed arthritis. In June 1569, Mary wrote to Pope Pius V, asking for permission to divorce Bothwell. Her intention was to marry the Catholic Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard, however, the plans were discovered by Queen Elizabeth who, in July, obstructed Mary’s attempts to divorce and remarry. A second blow came in the same month, as the Earl of Moray oversaw the rejection of Mary’s bid to be restored to the Scottish throne. Mary had continued to argue that she was the legal queen, but in a vote on the issue at the Perth convention, her claims were opposed by an overwhelming majority, who firmly rejected the idea of Mary ever becoming Queen of Scotland again. Also, in 1569, England witnessed yet another rebellion, this time, by Elizabeth’s opponents, Charles Neville the 6th Earl of Westmorland and Thomas Percy the 7th Earl of Northumberland. The two led The Rising of the North, in an attempt to oust the new Queen from her position and the conflict lasted through to January 1570, even receiving support from Pius V, who excommunicated Elizabeth, but his response was too late, and the rebellion was crushed. Many of the leaders of the rising fled to Scotland, while the Earl of Westmorland moved to the court of King Phillip II of Spain, Charles V’s successor on the Iberian Peninsula. The Earl of Northumberland was ultimately executed in 1572 for his part in the uprising but Mary always claimed that she had never approved of the action against her cousin. On the 23rd of January 1570, the Earl of Moray was shot dead in Linlithgow by one James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh and Woodhouselee. The assassination had the dubious distinction of being the first-ever committed by a firearm in recorded history. So estranged was Mary from her brother at the time, that she even rewarded the murderer, and Hamilton escaped into self-imposed exile in France to serve under the Guise Family. However, his uncle, Dr John Hamilton, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, was subsequently hanged for his part in the conspiracy. By May 1570, Mary was the subject of another escape plan. This one was devised by Sir Thomas Gerard, a local Catholic squire, working with other supporters of Mary, but his ill-conceived plan, unsupported by Mary herself, soon failed. Mary was then involved in a murder plot once again. This time, the plot was led by one, Robert Ridolfi, a Florentine nobleman. Ridolfi also planned to arrange the marriage of the Duke of Norfolk to Mary, and realising that she was unlikely to be allowed her freedom or her power back, Mary agreed, but the plan was uncovered before it could take place, and Ridolfi fled to Spain, whilst Mary was imprisoned indefinitely at Sheffield Castle. She was to spend nearly 14 years locked up there, almost a third of her lifetime, and in 1572 her co-conspirators, including the Duke of Norfolk, were executed for their roles in the plot. Following the Ridolfi plot, Scotland’s former monarch was confined in yet another cold and damp castle, this time she was treated with greater contempt than she had ever faced before. Her freedoms were further restricted, and the poor conditions in which she was kept caused her joint pain to become worse, however, although Mary was restricted mainly to the castle, and the nearby Sheffield Manor House, she did on occasion, visit other towns in the vicinity, although only ever under the watchful eye of her guards. While in Sheffield, Mary was able to read books and write, composing over two thousand letters during this time, she was also tasked with embroidery work, working beside the Countess of Shrewsbury, otherwise known as Bess of Hardwick, but much of her time was spent with her animals, as she was allowed to keep birds and dogs, even keeping an aviary with a Barbary fowl, partridges and doves. No doubt she invested a lot of attention in the animals she loved, knowing that any day she could find herself in an even worse situation, or even facing execution. Despite being a prisoner of the Earl of Shrewsbury, Mary was the most senior member of the Royal Family after Queen Elizabeth, this meant that if her cousin died, Mary would have had a strong claim to be recognised as the new Queen. Many plotters seeking her favour sought to plan her escape, and her embroidery partner, Bess of Hardwick, also became involved in scheming concerning the succession, promoting the claims of her grand-daughter, Lady Arabella Stuart, as a prospective Queen. Hardwick’s scheming was much to Mary’s displeasure and would, ultimately prove to be of no avail. Meanwhile, Hardwick’s husband was rumoured to be having an affair with Mary. Mary’s husband Bothwell, ended up spending his final days in a Danish prison at Dragsholm Castle, near Copenhagen, where he died in April 1578. The year before his death, Mary had been involved in another marriage proposal, but because her marriage to Bothwell was still valid, she was unable to secure her freedom. Her intended husband had been King Philip of Spain's illegitimate sibling, Don John of Austria. Mary made it clear at the time, that she wished her son, James, to marry into the Spanish Monarchy and convert to Catholicism, but as history would show, her wish never came true. Perhaps not recognizing the grave mistakes of her past, or the impact that her supporters’ schemes had had on Elizabeth, Mary attempted to resolve the problems with her enemies and persuade the aristocracy, to allow her to reign jointly with her son, in what was to be known as ‘the Association’, but the plan was redirected by one of her representatives, Patrick Gray, who persuaded James to side with Elizabeth instead. Gray believed that an alliance between James and Elizabeth would prove more profitable for himself, swelling his own fortunes. In 1581, in the face of Elizabeth’s opposition to Mary’s scheme, the English Government passed the Act of Persuasions Bill. This made it against the law to deny that Elizabeth was the rightful Queen of England, and also hindered reconciliation with the Catholic faith, using further restrictions to try and force obedience and conversion to Anglicanism, but despite increasing her legal power, the Queen soon faced another threat to her life, with the Throckmorton Plot in 1583, a scheme which had been given the blessing of the Spanish Ambassador to England, Bernardino de Mendoza, the representative of King Philip II. The plot leader, Nicholas Throckmorton, was executed for his part in the planned assassination, and his cousin, Francis Throckmorton, was also arrested, and he claimed that Mary was one of the plotters, the aftermath of the scheme led to The Bond of Association, a statutory instrument that sanctioned the execution of anyone who attempted to usurp the throne or kill Elizabeth, the implication of this new legislation, was that Mary would lose her life for any plot carried out in her name. By September 1584, Mary finally left Sheffield due to the Earl of Shrewsbury’s declining health, she herself was barely able to walk, due to her own deteriorating condition, ageing before her time, and she was soon to witness her hope of freedom slip away from her, when in March 1585, James rejected the implementation of the ‘Bond of Association’ with Mary, and she was subsequently condemned to prison for the rest of her life, however, as it transpired, that was not to be such a long time after all. In June 1586, Mary received correspondence introducing her to Anthony Babington, who forthrightly declared his intention to kill the Queen of England. Mary, mistakenly, replied, agreeing with the scheme, but Babington was arrested on the 14th of August and executed four days later. Mary herself was soon to be martyred in the name of the Catholic cause as Elizabeth, the cousin whom she had never met, began preparations for her execution. In September, Mary arrived at Fotheringhay Castle where she would live out the rest of her life. She refused to admit to any crimes, and on the 8th of October, the government’s commissioners met at Westminster and agreed that, under the Act of Association, Mary should be tried with plotting the assassination of the Queen. Her trial was scheduled to take place in the Great Hall over two days, but Elizabeth decided to prorogue proceedings, attempting to extract a confession, but when one was not forthcoming, the Queen issued the sentence of death and signed the warrant. Informed of the execution on the day before her death, Mary spent the evening of the 7th of February in prayer and distributing her belongings. She even wrote to the King of France expressing her wish for James to live under his care. On the morning of the 8th of February, 1587, charged with high treason, Mary lay her head on the chopping block, she was decapitated shortly after 9am, in a brutal execution, that required more than one blow to the neck. She was aged only 44 at the time. Mary was initially buried at Peterborough Cathedral, but later, in 1612, she was moved at the request of her son to Westminster Abbey. Ironically, her final resting place was next to that of Queen Elizabeth, the cousin she never met in life and who had ordered her death. Her son, who was, by this time, King James I, and his successors, would rule over England and Scotland, during one of the most important periods in European history. Following Mary’s premature death, Elizabeth would die in 1603, with James I succeeding her. The union of the crowns did not, however, bring peace to the island, as the 17th century was to subsequently witness the English Civil War, the beheading of James’s own son, Charles I, the formation of the English Republic under Oliver Cromwell, and the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. Charles’s brother and heir, James II, was then deposed in the so-called Glorious Revolution by Prince William of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who was invited to become King alongside his wife Mary II, a descendent of Mary, Queen of Scots. This was a destructive period in British and European history, but one which would also give birth to the modern era we now know. Without a doubt, Mary’s story is one of the most captivating of the early modern period, leaving an indelible imprint on the minds of the people who followed her. It was revisited in the 19th-century discussions, about Queen Victoria’s succession to the throne, when Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, were used as examples with which to compare or critique their descendant, who would go on to become one of the longest-serving monarchs of all time, and in Victorian eyes, Mary was cast as the tragic heroine, and Elizabeth as the moral heroine. Perhaps if Mary had been a more ruthless figure, she may not have met her end the way she did. Her approach to gaining the English throne, by first of all declaring her interest, and then trying to appease the Protestant Lords, showed that she could be manipulated. Some took advantage of Mary and played her for their own gains, ultimately leading to her downfall. Her life was a succession of failures, both when she tried to use diplomacy and when she tried to use force, and it ended with her facing the sharp end of an axe for her treachery against a Tudor Monarch. And so the question arises, was Mary an innocent party, or was she wholly complicit? To answer this question, we must analyse the evidence. She was never actually convicted of her husband’s death, in fact, when the Protestant nobles rushed against her, they had detained the Queen of Scotland unlawfully, forcing her abdication for a crime, for which there was no evidence. Whilst in England, her cousin’s unwillingness to offer a reprieve in the uprising against her, offered her no way out. It appears that the ruling-classes were suspicious of her, but perhaps they were right to feel so, she truly was a threat to Elizabeth, and for her actions, and the actions of others, she paid the ultimate price. What do you think of Mary Queen of Scots? Was she simply a tragic heroine? Or was she a Machiavellian schemer, like many of those who came before her? Please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime, thank you very much for watching. [outro-music]
