Mary Queen of Scots

This month I am learning about kings and queens and today I am going to be writing about Mary Queen of Scots.

Mary Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots) was born 8th December 1542 and was crowned queen of Scotland at only six days old when her father James V of Scotland died. Mary was then sent to France at the age of five to live a happy childhood. In 1558 15 year old Mary was married to 14 year old Prince Francis of France. Not too long after their marriage Francis's father King Henry II died and Francis and Mary were crowned king and queen of France solemnly together.

In 1560 Mary received the awful news that her lovely mother had died. Mary was so sad, she couldn't bear it. Mary had a bad streak on because very soon Francis suffered a terrible ear infection that soon reached his brain and killed him. Mary and Francis's mother were beside themselves. Sadly the death of Francis didn't help Mary because on the 14th August 1569 Mary was sent back to Scotland aged 18.

Finding a second husband for Mary wasn't very easy but finally she found one. Mary had fallen desperately in love with Henry, Lord Darnley. Unfortunately not many people were happy with Mary's choice of marriage. It was a good match though, both Henry and Mary had a good lead to the English throne so that meant that their child would have a great claim to the English throne. Nobody knows if it's true or not that Mary and Henry had a secret wedding before the real one happened because of all the protesters. Mary and Henry were officially married on 29th July 1565.

Mary loved Henry very much but sadly when she got pregnant Henry completely ignored her and was never with her. Mary finally had her baby James on 19th June 1566. Not too long after James was born he was baptised in Stirling castle at a large ceremony. It was said that Darnley wasn't happy with his son and that he wanted to overthrow him and his wife and rule Scotland by himself.

Thinking that way was wrong but Darnley didn't know that. Suddenly he was struck with a horrible disease and his plan was put on hold. Mary thought that him being ill would be a good punishment for all the things he had done to her and hoped that when he got better his attitude would change. Mary insisted that Darnley came to Craigmiller castle but Darnley refused. He didn't trust the queen. instead of staying with the queen Darnley went to a house called Kirk O' Field but this time the queen didn't trust him so she furnished up the house and stayed in a room below him so that she could keep an eye on him.

The next night Mary left the house to celebrate the marriage of one of her french servants, Bastien Pages. It was lucky that Mary was out that night because there was a massive explosion and Kirk O' Field was blown to bits. There was only one surviver which was king Henry's manservant, Nelson, everyone else including lord Darnley was dead. People said that Mary was horribly shocked and very sad but she was actually secretly quite happy with Darnley gone.

Many people thought that the Earl of Bothwell was the murderer and he was held on trial but luckily he got away with clean hands. Mary soon got a letter from the Earl of Bothwell asking for her hand in marriage. Mary felt forced to say yes and they were married on the 15th May 1567. Nobody was happy with the marriage and it was an awful match. Mary was put on horseback and was told she was being reunited with her son in Stirling. This was a lie. Mary was actually being taken to Lochleven Castle which stands on an island in the middle of Loch Leven to be imprisoned for nine months.

The owners of the castle (sir William Douglas, Lady Margaret and little Geordie) said that if Mary divorced Bothwell they would consider letting her go but this wasn't an option even though Mary hated Bothwell. Little Geordie fell instantly in love with Mary and very soon after Mary proposed to him and he was ordered off the island and his cousin came to stay instead. Geordie's cousin was as good as him and started to arrange an escape plan.

Mary had given him one of her pearl earrings which a servant would give to her to signal it was time for her to distract Lady Margaret, then at dinner Geordie's cousin would smuggle the castle keys and let Mary out dressed as a servant. The plan worked and Mary got off that horrible island. After being held prisoner in the Lochleven castle Mary didn't know where to go so she went to England in hope of her cousin Elizabeth knowing what to do. But Mary's cousin Liz was no help. She kept her guarded at all times (so she couldn't escape) and sent her to court for murdering Darnley. Luckily for Mary she wasn't guilty, but she also wasn't innocent.

Mary was getting tired of being moved from castle to castle and not being allowed to hunt but there was nothing she could do about it. Her cousin Queen Elizabeth kept her guarded at all times. After 19 years in Queen Elizabeth's custody Mary was tried for planning to kill Elizabeth. Mary was innocent and didn't know anything about it, but sadly she was found guilty for treason and was executed on the 8th February 1587.

Ironically, after the death of Queen Elizabeth who died without children, it was Mary's son, James V, who became King of England and Scotland.