Mary Queen of Scots

• Cousin Mary

  • Mary was Elizabeth's cousin, and became Queen of Scotland in 1542 when she was just 6 days old
  • She married the heir to the throne of France in 1558 and was briefly queen of both Scotland and France, as well as heir to the throne of England, and maintained that she was the rightful queen of England
  • The French king's death in 1560 lead to Mary returning to Scotland to find the Protestant faith much more popular
  • Mary became increasingly unpopular, and after it was suggested that she had been involved in the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley, she was forced to flee and seek safety in England
  • Her infant son with Darnley, James, was crowned King of Scotland in 1567
• Mary, Queen of Scots

  • Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary I of Scotland, became queen of Scotland at six days old
  • She grew up in France and married Francis, the heir to the French throne and became queen of France for two years
  • After Francis died in 1560, Mary returned to Scotland but faced many problems
  • Scotland was reformed to Protestantism in her absence and many Scots did not want a Catholic queen
  • Mary married Lord Darnley in 1565 but he made enemies of the Scottish nobles and plotted against Mary
  • In 1566 they had a son called James, but a year later Darnley was murdered
  • In 1567 Mary married the Earl of Bothwell, but following an uprising later that year, Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her young son
  • She fled to England in 1568 to escape her enemies
  • Mary remained imprisoned in English castles by Elizabeth for the rest of her life
  • In 1586 she was found guilty of treason and was beheaded in 1587
• A threat to peace in England

  • Many English Protestants reacted to Mary's arrival in England with shock and fear
  • They saw a potential Catholic queen and a possible return to the horrors of Mary I's reign, which had seen nearly 300 Protestants burned alive
  • The opinion in Parliament was clear: Mary was a threat to the security of the Protestant country
  • A number of Elizabeth's advisors in the Privy Council immediately called for Mary's execution but Elizabeth was hesitant, believing that executing a queen could give her enemies ideas
  • Instead, Mary was moved around the country as Elizabeth's prisoner for 19 years, although she was treated well
  • There is not much evidence to suggest that Mary was directly involved in many plots to overthrow Elizabeth, but it was clear that she was an inspiration to Catholic plotters and rebels
• The final plot


  • In 1586, there was one final plot to make Mary Queen of England
  • A rich, young, devoted Catholic named Anthony Babington came up with a plan to kill Elizabeth
  • He and five other men would kill her, rescue Mary from prison and place her on the throne
  • However, Babington needed to know if Mary supported his plan, so he tried to contact her
  • He managed to get Mary's servants to hide coded letters in beer barrels that were taken to her room
  • Mary replied, saying she agreed to the plan
  • But in fact, Mary's servants didn't work for her at all; they worked for Sir Francis Walsingham, who took the letters straight to the queen
  • When the code was broken, a group representing Parliament met with Elizabeth and called for Mary's arrest
  • Although Elizabeth remained hesitant, she had little choice but to act in the face of so much evidence
  • Mary, Queen of Scots, was about to go on trial for her life
• A queen on trial

  • In October 1586, Mary was put on trial before a court of 36 noblemen including Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir William Cecil
  • Mary argued her case strongly, and criticised the fact that she had not been allowed to look at the evidence against her and said that as a foreign queen, and not an Englishwoman, she could not be guilty of treason
  • But her protests made little impact and she was sentenced to death on 25 October
  • Despite all the evidence, Elizabeth was reluctant to have her cousin executed
  • She even told the French ambassador that she had been in tears over the 'unfortunate affair'
  • She was worried that if a rightful monarch killed another, then there might be a terrible consequences
  • She was concerned that Mary's son, King James VI of Scotland, or even the Catholic Spanish might seek revenge
  • Eventually she put these fears aside and signed the death warrant on 1 February 1587
• The death of a queen

  • Mary was executed at Fotheringhay Castle on the morning of 8 February
  • The execution was not held in public but was officially witnessed by the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent
  • Elizabeth is said to have been angry about the execution and had a privy councillor who delivered the death warrant briefly imprisoned
• The execution

  • Accounts of the execution suggest that it may have taken three blows with the axe
  • The executioner supposedly held up Mary's head by the hair only to have her wig come off in his hands and her head fall to the floor
  • After the execution, her dog was found hiding beneath her skirts, covered in blood and terrified
• Did Mary's death solve Elizabeth's problems?

  • Parliament had spent years trying to convince Elizabeth to have Mary executed as a way to end the Catholic threat
  • Without Mary, Catholics had no obvious alternative monarch to replace Elizabeth
  • Should Elizabeth die or be killed, her successor would be Mary's son, James, the Protestant King of Scotland
  • Yet it could be argued that in death, Mary remained a threat
  • Catholics had a martyr and could no see that Elizabeth was the wicked heretic that they believed she was
  • Secondly, in killing Mary, Elizabeth had tried and executed a queen, a dangerous idea to give some of her less loyal subjects
  • The French and the Scottish kings expressed outrage but took no action
  • Elizabeth wrote a letter apologising to James VI of Scotland for his mother's death