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Mary I of Scotland

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1500-1750; Monarchs of Great Britain

                    Mary I
                Queen of Scots
   Reign       December 14, 1542 – July 24, 1567
   Coronation  September 9, 1543
   Born        December 8, 1542 1:12pm LMT
               Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian
   Died        February 8, 1587 (aged 44)
               Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire
   Buried      Peterborough Cathedral
               Westminster Abbey
   Predecessor James V
   Successor   James VI/James I of England
   Consort     François II of France
               Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
               James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell
   Royal House Stuart
   Father      James V
   Mother      Marie of Guise

   CAPTION: Scottish Royalty-
   House of Stewart


                       Robert II
   Children
       John, Earl of Carrick (later King Robert III)
       Robert, Duke of Albany
       Alexander, Earl of Buchan
       David, Earl of Strathearn
       Walter, Earl of Atholl
                      Robert III
       Prince David
       Prince James
                        James I
   Children
       Margaret Stewart
       Prince James
                       James II
   Children
       Prince James
       Alexander, Duke of Albany
       John, Earl of Mar
                       James III
   Children
       Prince James
       James, Duke of Ross
       John, Earl of Mar
                       James IV
   Children
       Prince James
       James, Earl of Moray
                        James V
   Children
      Princess Mary
       James, Earl of Moray
                        Mary I
   Children
      Prince James
                       James VI
   Children
       Prince Henry
      Prince Charles
                       Charles I
   Children
      Prince Charles
      Prince James
       Prince Henry
       Princess Mary
       Princess Henrietta
                      Charles II
                       James VII
   Children
      Princess Mary
      Princess Anne
       Prince James
                        Mary II
                      William II
                         Anne

   Mary I (Mary Stuart, popularly known as Mary, Queen of Scots); (
   December 8, 1542 – February 8, 1587) was Queen of Scots (the monarch of
   the Kingdom of Scotland) from December 14, 1542, to July 24, 1567. She
   also sat as Queen Consort of France from July 10, 1559 to December 5,
   1560. Because of her tragic life, she is one of the best-known Scottish
   monarchs.

Heritage, birth, and coronation

   During the 14th century reign of Robert II of Scotland, it had been
   confirmed that the Scottish Crown would only be inherited by males in
   the line of Robert's children—all sons—who were listed in that
   parliamentary act. Females and female lines could inherit only after
   extinction of male lines.

   Mary ascended to the throne because, with the death of James V, there
   were no remaining direct male descendants of Robert II of
   unquestionably legitimate origins ( John Stewart, Duke of Albany, a
   direct descendant of Robert II, would probably have succeeded James V
   had he not died in 1536).

   Mary Stuart was the first member of the royal House of Stuart to use
   the Gallicised spelling Stuart, rather than the earlier Stewart. (Mary
   adopted the French spelling Stuart during her time in France, and she
   and her descendants continued to use it.)

   Princess Mary Stuart was born at Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgow, West
   Lothian, Scotland, on December 7 or December 8, 1542 to King James V of
   Scotland and his French wife, Marie de Guise. In Falkland Palace, Fife,
   her father heard of the birth and prophesied, "The devil go with it! It
   came with a lass, it will pass with a lass!" James truly believed that
   Mary's birth marked the end of the Stuarts' reign over Scotland.
   Instead, through Mary's son, it was the beginning of their reign over
   both the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England.

   The six-day-old Mary became Queen of Scotland when her father died at
   the age of thirty, probably from cholera, although his contemporaries
   believed his death to have been caused by grief over the Scots' loss to
   the English at the Battle of Solway Moss. James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of
   Arran was the next in line for the throne after Mary; he acted as
   regent for Mary until 1554, when he was succeeded by the Queen's
   mother, who continued as regent until her death in 1560.

   In July 1543, when Mary was six months old, the Treaties of Greenwich
   promised Mary to be married to Edward, son of King Henry VIII of
   England in 1552, and for their heirs to inherit the Kingdoms of
   Scotland and England. Mary's mother was strongly opposed to the
   proposition, and she hid with Mary two months later in Stirling Castle,
   where preparations were made for Mary's coronation.

   When Mary was only nine months old she was crowned Queen of Scotland in
   the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle on September 9, 1543. Because the
   Queen was an infant and the ceremony unique, Mary's coronation was the
   talk of Europe. Mary was dressed in heavy regal robes in miniature. A
   crimson velvet mantle, with a train furred with ermine, was fastened
   around her tiny neck. A jeweled satin gown, with long hanging sleeves,
   enveloped the infant, who could sit up but not walk. She was carried by
   Lord Livingston in solemn procession to the Chapel Royal. Inside, Lord
   Livingston brought Mary forward to the altar, put her gently in the
   throne set up there, and stood by holding her to keep her from rolling
   off.

   Quickly, Cardinal David Beaton put the Coronation Oath to her, which
   Lord Livingston answered for her. The Cardinal immediately unfastened
   Mary's heavy robes and began anointing her with the holy oil on her
   back, breast, and the palms of her hands. When the chill air struck
   her, she began to cry. The Earl of Lennox (whose son Henry, Lord
   Darnley, later became Mary's 2nd husband) brought forward the Sceptre
   and placed it in her baby hand, and she grasped the heavy shaft. Then
   the Sword of State was presented by the Earl of Argyll, and the
   Cardinal performed the ceremony of girding the three-foot sword to the
   tiny body.

   Then, the Earl of Arran carried the Crown. Holding it gently, Cardinal
   Beaton lowered it onto the child's head, where it rested on a circlet
   of velvet. The Cardinal steadied the crown and Lord Livingston held her
   body straight as the Earls of Lennox and Arran kissed her cheek in
   fealty, followed by the rest of the prelates and peers who knelt before
   her and, placing their hands on her crown, swore allegiance to her.

The "rough wooing"

   The Treaties of Greenwich fell apart soon after Mary's coronation. The
   betrothal did not sit well with the Scots, especially since Henry VIII
   suspiciously tried to change the agreement so that he could possess
   Mary years before the marriage was to take place. He also wanted them
   to break their traditional alliance with France. Fearing an uprising
   among the people, the Scottish Parliament broke off the treaty and the
   engagement at the end of the year.

   Henry VIII then began his "rough wooing" designed to impose the
   marriage to his son on Mary. This consisted of a series of raids on
   Scottish territory and other military actions. It lasted until June
   1551, costing over half a million pounds and many lives. In May of
   1544, the English Earl of Hertford (later created Duke of Somerset by
   Edward VI) arrived in the Firth of Forth hoping to capture the city of
   Edinburgh and kidnap Mary, but Marie de Guise hid her in the secret
   chambers of Stirling Castle.

   On September 10, 1547, known as "Black Saturday", the Scots suffered a
   bitter defeat at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh. Marie de Guise, fearful
   for her daughter, sent her temporarily to Inchmahome Priory, and turned
   to the French ambassador Monsieur D'Oysel.

   The French, remaining true to the Auld Alliance, came to the aid of the
   Scots. The new French King, Henri II, was now proposing to unite France
   and Scotland by marrying the little Queen to his newborn son, the
   Dauphin François. This seemed to Marie to be the only sensible solution
   to her troubles. In February 1548, hearing that the English were on
   their way back, Marie moved Mary to Dumbarton Castle. The English left
   a trail of devastation behind once more and seized the strategically
   located town of Haddington. By June, the much awaited French help had
   arrived. On July 7, the French Marriage Treaty was signed at a nunnery
   near Haddington.

Childhood in France

   With her marriage agreement in place, five-year-old Mary was sent to
   France in 1548 to spend the next ten years at the French court. Henri
   II had offered to guard her and raise her. On August 7, 1548, the
   French fleet sent by Henri II sailed back to France from Dumbarton
   carrying the five-year-old Queen of Scotland on board. She was
   accompanied by her own little court consisting of two lords, two half
   brothers, and the "four Marys", four little girls her own age, all
   named Mary, and the daughters of some of the noblest families in
   Scotland: Beaton, Seton, Fleming, and Livingston.

   Vivacious, pretty, and clever (according to contemporary accounts),
   Mary had a promising childhood. While in the French court, she was a
   favourite. She received the best available education, and at the end of
   her studies, she had mastered French, Latin, Greek, Spanish, and
   Italian in addition to her native Scots. She also learned how to play
   two instruments and learned prose, poetry, horsemanship, falconry, and
   needlework.

   On April 24, 1558 she married the Dauphin François at Notre Dame de
   Paris. When Henri II died on July 10, 1559, Mary became Queen Consort
   of France; her husband became François II of France.

Claim to the English throne

   Under the ordinary laws of succession, Mary was also next in line to
   the English throne after her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, who was
   childless. In the eyes of many Catholics Elizabeth was illegitimate,
   making Mary the true heir.

   The anti-Catholic Act of Settlement was not passed until 1701, but the
   last will and testament of Henry VIII had excluded the Stuarts from
   succeeding to the English throne. Mary's troubles were still further
   increased by the Huguenot rising in France, called le tumulte d'Amboise
   ( March 6– March 17, 1560), making it impossible for the French to
   succour Mary's side in Scotland. The question of the succession was
   therefore a real one.

   François died on December 5, 1560. Mary's mother-in-law, Catherine de
   Medici, became regent for the late king's brother Charles IX, who
   inherited the French throne. Under the terms of the Treaty of
   Edinburgh, signed by Mary's representatives on July 6, 1560 following
   the death of Marie of Guise, France undertook to withdraw troops from
   Scotland and recognise Elizabeth's right to rule England. The
   seventeen-year-old Mary, still in France, refused to ratify the treaty.

Ancestors

   CAPTION: Mary I of Scotland's ancestors in three generations

   Mary I of Scotland Father:
   James V of Scotland Paternal Grandfather:
   James IV of Scotland Paternal Great-grandfather:
   James III of Scotland
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Margaret of Denmark
   Paternal Grandmother:
   Margaret Tudor Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Henry VII of England
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Elizabeth of York
   Mother:
   Marie de Guise Maternal Grandfather:
   Claude, Duke of Guise Maternal Great-grandfather:
   René II, Duke of Lorraine
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Phillipa of Guelders
   Maternal Grandmother:
   Antoinette de Bourbon Maternal Great-grandfather:
   François, Count of Vendôme
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Marie de Luxembourg

Religious divide

   Mary Stuart
   Mary Stuart

   Mary returned to Scotland soon after her husband's death and arrived in
   Leith on August 19, 1561. Despite her talents, Mary's upbringing had
   not given her the judgment to cope with the dangerous and complex
   political situation in the Scotland of the time.

   Mary, being a devout Roman Catholic, was regarded with suspicion by
   many of her subjects as well as by Elizabeth, who was her father's
   cousin and the monarch of the neighbouring Protestant country. Scotland
   was torn between Catholic and Protestant factions, and Mary's
   illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, was a
   leader of the Protestant faction. The Protestant reformer John Knox
   also preached against Mary, condemning her for hearing Mass, dancing,
   dressing too elaborately, and many other things, real and imagined

   To the disappointment of the Catholic party, however, Mary did not
   hasten to take up the Catholic cause. She tolerated the
   newly-established Protestant ascendancy, and kept James Stewart as her
   chief advisor. In this, she may have had to acknowledge her lack of
   effective military power in the face of the Protestant Lords. She
   joined with James in the destruction of Scotland's leading Catholic
   magnate, Lord Huntly, in 1562.

   Mary was also having second thoughts about the wisdom of having crossed
   Elizabeth, and she attempted to make up the breach by inviting
   Elizabeth to visit Scotland. Elizabeth refused, and the bad blood
   remained between them. Mary then sent William Maitland of Lethington as
   an ambassador to the English court to put the case for Mary as a
   potential heir to the throne. Elizabeth's response is said to have
   included the words "As for the title of my crown, for my time I think
   she will not attain it." However, Mary, in her own letter to her
   maternal uncle Francis, Duke of Guise, reports other things that
   Maitland told her, including Elizabeth's supposed statement that, "I
   for my part know none better, nor that my self would prefer to her."
   Elizabeth was mindful of the role Parliament would have to play in the
   matter.

   In December 1561 arrangements were made for the two queens to meet,
   this time in England. The meeting had been fixed for York "or another
   town" in August or September 1562, but Elizabeth sent Sir Henry Sidney
   to cancel in July because of the Civil War in France. In 1563,
   Elizabeth made another attempt to neutralise Mary by suggesting she
   marry Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (Henry Sidney's
   brother-in-law), whom Elizabeth trusted and thought she could control.
   Dudley, being a Protestant, would have solved a double problem for
   Elizabeth. She sent an ambassador to tell Mary that, if she would marry
   someone (as yet unnamed) of Elizabeth's choosing, Elizabeth would
   "proceed to the inquisition of her right and title to be our next
   cousin and heir". This proposal was rejected.

Marriage to Darnley

   At Holyrood Palace on July 29, 1565, Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord
   Darnley, her first cousin. The union infuriated Elizabeth, who felt she
   should have been asked permission for the marriage to even take place,
   as Darnley was an English subject. Elizabeth also felt threatened by
   the marriage, because both Mary and Darnley were claimants to the
   English throne, as Darnley and Mary were descendants of Margaret Tudor,
   the sister of Henry VIII. Their children would inherit both parents'
   claims, and thus, be next in line to the English throne.

   This marriage, to a leading Catholic, precipitated Mary's half-brother,
   the Earl of Moray, to join with other Protestant Lords in open
   rebellion. Mary set out for Stirling on August 26, 1565 to confront
   them, and returned to Edinburgh the following month to raise more
   troops. Moray and the rebellious lords were routed and fled into exile,
   the decisive military action becoming known as the Chaseabout Raid.

   Before long, Mary became pregnant. Darnley became arrogant and demanded
   power commensurate with his courtesy title of "King", and on one
   occasion Darnley attacked Mary and unsuccessfully attempted to cause
   her to miscarry their unborn child. Darnley was jealous of Mary's
   friendship with her private secretary, David Rizzio, and, in March 1566
   Darnley entered into a secret conspiracy with the nobles who had
   rebelled against Mary in the Chaseabout Raid. On March 9 a group of the
   lords, accompanied by Darnley, murdered Rizzio in front of Mary while
   the two were in conference at Holyrood Palace. Darnley changed sides
   again and betrayed the lords, but the murder was the catalyst for the
   breakdown of their marriage.
   Another image of Mary, dressed in mourning white following the then
   recent death of her first husband.
   Another image of Mary, dressed in mourning white following the then
   recent death of her first husband.

   Following the birth of their son, James, in 1566, a plot was hatched to
   remove Darnley, who was already ill (possibly suffering from syphilis).
   He was recuperating in a house in Edinburgh where Mary visited him
   frequently, so that it appeared a reconciliation was in prospect. In
   February 1567, an explosion occurred in the house, and Darnley was
   found dead in the garden, apparently of strangulation. This event,
   which should have been Mary's salvation, only harmed her reputation.
   James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, an adventurer who would become her
   third husband, was generally believed to be guilty of the
   assassination, and was brought before a mock trial but acquitted. Mary
   attempted to regain support among her Lords while Bothwell got some of
   them to sign the Ainslie Tavern Bond, in which they agreed to support
   his claims to marry Mary.

Abdication and imprisonment

   On April 24 Mary visited her son at Stirling for the last time. On her
   way back to Edinburgh Mary was abducted, willingly or not, by Bothwell
   and his men and taken to Dunbar Castle where she was raped by Bothwell
   and became pregnant with twins, which she later miscarried while
   imprisoned. On May 6 they returned to Edinburgh and on May 15, at
   Holyrood Palace, Mary and Bothwell were married according to Protestant
   rites.

   The Scottish nobility turned against Mary and Bothwell and raised an
   army against them. Mary and Bothwell confronted the Lords at Carberry
   Hill on June 15, but there was no battle as Mary agreed to follow the
   Lords on condition that they let Bothwell go. However, the Lords broke
   their promise, and took Mary to Edinburgh and imprisoned her in Loch
   Leven Castle, situated on an island in the middle of Loch Leven.
   Between July 18 and July 24, 1567, Mary miscarried twins. On July 24,
   1567, she was also forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favour of
   her one-year-old son James.
   Mary in captivity, c.1578
   Mary in captivity, c.1578

   On May 2, 1568, Mary escaped from Loch Leven and once again managed to
   raise a small army. After her army's defeat at the Battle of Langside
   on May 13, she fled to England. When Mary entered England on May 19,
   she was imprisoned by Elizabeth's officers at Carlisle. During her
   imprisonment, she famously had the phrase En ma Fin gît mon
   Commencement ("In my end is my beginning") embroidered on her cloth of
   estate.

   After some wrangling over the question of whether Mary should be tried
   for the murder of Darnley, Elizabeth ordered an inquiry instead of a
   trial, which was held in York between October 1568 and January 1569.
   The inquiry was politically influenced, but Elizabeth did not wish to
   convict Mary of murder.

   Mary refused to acknowledge the power of any court to try her since she
   was an anointed Queen, and the man ultimately in charge of the
   prosecution, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, was ruling Scotland in
   Mary's absence. His chief motive was to keep Mary out of Scotland and
   her supporters under control. Mary was not permitted to see them or to
   speak in her own defence at the tribunal. She refused to offer a
   written defence unless Elizabeth would guarantee a verdict of not
   guilty, which Elizabeth would not do.

   The inquiry hinged on the "The Casket Letters"—eight letters
   purportedly from Mary to Bothwell, reported by James Douglas, 4th Earl
   of Morton to have been found in Edinburgh in a silver box engraved with
   an F (supposedly for Francis II), along with a number of other
   documents, including the Mary/Bothwell marriage certificate. The
   authenticity of the Casket Letters has been the source of much
   controversy among historians. The originals have since been lost, and
   the copies available in various collections do not form a complete set.
   Mary argued that her handwriting was not difficult to imitate, and it
   has frequently been suggested either that the letters are complete
   forgeries, that incriminating passages were inserted before the
   inquiry, or that the letters were written to Bothwell by some other
   person. Comparisons of writing style have often concluded that they
   were not Mary's work.

   Elizabeth considered Mary's designs on the English throne to be a
   serious threat, and so eighteen years of confinement followed, much of
   it in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor in the custody of George
   Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury and his redoubtable wife Bess of
   Hardwick. Bothwell was imprisoned in Denmark, became insane, and died
   in 1578, still in prison. In 1580 Mary's confinement was transferred to
   Sir Amias Paulet, and she was under his care for the rest of her life.

   However, in 1570, Elizabeth was persuaded by representatives of Charles
   IX of France to promise to help Mary regain her throne. As a
   pre-condition, she demanded the ratification of the Treaty of
   Edinburgh, something Mary would still not agree to. Nevertheless,
   William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, continued negotiations with Mary on
   Elizabeth's behalf.

   The Ridolfi Plot, which attempted to unite Mary and the Duke of Norfolk
   in marriage, caused Elizabeth to reconsider. With the queen's
   encouragement, Parliament introduced a bill in 1572 barring Mary from
   the throne. Elizabeth unexpectedly refused to give it the royal assent.
   The furthest she ever went was in 1584, when she introduced a document
   (the "Bond of Association") aimed at preventing any would-be successor
   from profiting from her murder. It was not legally binding, but was
   signed by thousands, including Mary herself.

   Mary eventually became a liability that Elizabeth could no longer
   tolerate. Elizabeth did ask Mary's final custodian, Amias Paulet, if he
   would contrive some accident to remove Mary. He refused on the grounds
   that he would not allow such "a stain on his posterity." Mary was
   implicated in several plots to assassinate Elizabeth, raise the
   Catholic North of England, and put herself on the throne, possibly with
   French or Spanish help. The major plot for the political takeover was
   the Babington Plot, but some of Mary's supporters believed it and other
   plots to be either fictitious or undertaken without Mary's knowledge.
   One of The London Dungeon's exhibitions is about Mary, Queen of Scots
   One of The London Dungeon's exhibitions is about Mary, Queen of Scots

Trial and execution

   Mary was put on trial for treason by a court of about 40 noblemen,
   including Catholics, after being implicated in the Babington Plot and
   after having allegedly sanctioned the attempted assassination of
   Elizabeth. Mary denied the accusation and was spirited in her defence.
   One of her more memorable comments from her trial was "Remember
   Gentlemen the Theatre of history is wider than the Realm of England".
   She drew attention to the fact that she was denied the opportunity of
   reviewing the evidence or her papers that had been removed from her,
   that she had been denied access to legal counsel and that she had never
   been an English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason. The
   extent to which the plot was created by Sir Francis Walsingham and the
   English Secret Services will always remain open to conjecture.

   In a trial presided over by England's Attorney General Sir John Popham,
   (later Lord Chief Justice), Mary was ultimately convicted of treason,
   and was sentenced to beheading at Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire
   on February 8, 1587. She had spent the last hours of her life in prayer
   and also writing letters and her will. She expressed a request that her
   servants should be released. She also requested that she should be
   buried in France. The scaffold that was erected in the great hall was
   three feet tall and draped in black. It was reached by five steps and
   the only things on it were a disrobing stool, the block, a cushion for
   her to kneel on, and a bloody butcher's axe that had been previously
   used on animals. At her execution the executioners knelt before her and
   asked forgiveness. According to a contemporary account by Robert
   Wynkfielde, she replied that she forgave them, for "you are about to
   end my troubles!" . The executioners and her two servants helped
   removed a black outer gown, two petticoats, and her corset to reveal a
   deep red chemise—the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic
   Church. As she disrobed she smiled faintly to the executioner and said
   "never have I had such assistants to disrobe me, and never have I put
   off my clothes before such a company". She was then blindfolded and and
   knelt down on the cushion in front of the block. She positioned her
   head on the block and stretched her arms out behind her.

   The execution was poorly carried out. It is said to have taken three
   blows to hack off her head. The first blow struck the back of her head,
   the next struck her shoulder and severed her subclavian artery, spewing
   blood in all directions. She is said to have been alive and conscious
   after the first two blows. The next blow took off her head, save some
   gristle, which was cut using the axe as a saw . Since Mary was executed
   with the same number of axe strikes as Essex, it has been postulated
   that the number was part of a ritual devised to protract the suffering
   of the victim.

   There are several (possibly apocryphal) stories told about the
   execution. One which is thought to be true is that, when the
   executioner picked up the severed head to show it to those present, it
   was discovered that Mary was wearing a wig. The headsman was left
   holding the wig, while the late queen's head rolled on the floor . It
   was thought that she had tried to disguise the greying of her hair by
   wearing a auburn wig, the natural colour of her hair before her years
   of imprisonment began. She was 24 when first imprisoned by Protestants
   in Scotland, and she was only 44 years of age at the time of her
   execution. Another well-known execution story concerns a small dog
   owned by the queen, which is said to have been hiding among her skirts,
   unseen by the spectators. Because her dress and layers of clothing was
   so immensely regal, it would have been easy for the tiny pet to have
   hidden there as she slowly made her way to the scaffold. Following the
   beheading, the dog rushed out, terrified and covered in blood. It was
   taken away by her ladies-in-waiting and washed, but it did not survive
   the shock.
   The execution of Mary Stuart drawn by a Dutch artist
   The execution of Mary Stuart drawn by a Dutch artist

   The government was eager to quash any attempts to obtain relics. The
   executioners were denied their customary right to select personal items
   belonging to the condemned and were paid off instead. The executioner's
   block and many of the items Mary had touched were burned. Her rosary
   beads and Prayer Book were the few items carried to her execution that
   can be considered to have survived.

   In response to Mary's death, the Spanish Armada sailed to England to
   depose Elizabeth, but it lost a considerable number of ships in the
   Battle of Gravelines and ultimately retreated without touching English
   soil.

   Mary's body was embalmed and left unburied at her place of execution
   for a year after her death. Her remains were placed in a secure lead
   coffin (thought to be further signs of fear of relic hunting). She was
   initially buried at Peterborough Cathedral in 1588, but her body was
   exhumed in 1612 when her son, King James I of England, ordered she be
   reinterred in Westminster Abbey. It remains there, along with at least
   40 other descendants, in a chapel on the other side of the Abbey from
   the grave of her cousin Elizabeth. In the 1800s her tomb and that of
   Elizabeth I were opened to try to ascertain where James I was buried;
   he was ultimately found buried with Henry VII.

Historical legacy

   Although the Casket Letters were accepted by the inquiry as genuine
   after a study of the handwriting, and of the information contained
   therein, and were generally held to be certain proof of guilt if
   authentic, the inquiry reached the conclusion that nothing was proven.
   From the start, this could have been predicted as the only conclusion
   that would satisfy Elizabeth. James MacKay comments that one of the
   stranger 'trials' in legal history ended with no finding of guilt with
   the result that the accusers went home to Scotland and the accused
   remained detained in 'protective custody'.

   It is impossible now to prove the case either way. Without the Casket
   Letters, there would have been no case against Mary, and with hindsight
   it is difficult to say that any of the major parties involved
   considered the truth to be a priority. However, it is notable that Lady
   Antonia Fraser, James MacKay, and John Guy who have written
   well-respected biographies of Mary come to the same conclusion that
   they were forged. Guy has actually examined the Elizabethan transcripts
   of the letters rather than relying upon later printed copies. He points
   out that the letters are disjointed. He also draws attention to the
   fact that the French version of one of the letters is bad in its use of
   language and grammar. Mary was an educated woman who could read, write,
   and speak French fluently. The construction of one of the letters in
   French has mistakes that a woman with her understanding would not make.

   Another point made by these commentators is that the Casket Letters did
   not appear until the Conference of York. Mary had been forced to
   abdicate in 1567 and held captive for the best part of a year in
   Scotland. No reference can be found to the letters being used as
   evidence against Mary during this period. There was every reason for
   these letters to be made public to support her imprisonment and forced
   abdication. The originals disappeared after the Conference of York,
   thus adding to the sense that the letters were probably forged.
   Replica of the tomb of Mary Queen of Scots on display at the Museum of
   Scotland.
   Replica of the tomb of Mary Queen of Scots on display at the Museum of
   Scotland.

   Though Mary Stuart has not been canonised by the Catholic Church, many
   consider her a martyr, and there are relics of her. Her prayer book was
   long shown in France. Her apologist published, in an English journal, a
   sonnet which Mary was said to have composed, written with her own hand
   in this book. A celebrated German actress, Mrs. Hendel-Schutz, who
   excited admiration by her attitudes, and performed Friedrich Schiller's
   "Maria" with great applause in several German cities, affirmed that a
   cross which she wore on her neck was the very same that once belonged
   to the unfortunate queen.

   Relics of this description have never yet been subjected to the proof
   of their authenticity. If there is anything which may be reasonably
   believed to have once been the property of the queen, it is the veil
   with which she covered her head on the scaffold, after the executioner
   had wounded the unfortunate victim in the shoulder by a false blow
   (whether from awkwardness or confusion is uncertain). This veil came
   into the possession of Sir J.C. Hippisley, who claimed to be descended
   from the House of Stuart on his mother's side. In 1818, he had an
   engraving made from it by Matteo Diottavi in Rome and gave copies to
   his friends. However, the eagerness with which the executioners burned
   her clothing and the executioners' block may mean that it will never be
   possible to be certain.

   The veil is embroidered with gold spangles by (as is said) the queen's
   own hand, in regular rows crossing each other, so as to form small
   squares, and edged with a gold border, to which another border has been
   subsequently joined, in which the following words are embroidered in
   letters of gold:

          "Velum Serenissimæ Mariæ, Scotiæ et Galliæ Reginæ Martyris, quo
          induebatur dum ab Heretica ad mortem iniustissimam condemnata
          fuit. Anno Sal. MDLXXXVI. a nobilissima matrona Anglicana diu
          conservatum et tandem, donationis ergo Deo, Societati Jesu
          consecratum."

   Mary's personal breviary, which she took with her to the scaffold, is
   preserved in the Russian National Library of St. Petersburg.
   Mary's personal breviary, which she took with her to the scaffold, is
   preserved in the Russian National Library of St. Petersburg.

   On the plate there is an inscription, with a double certificate of its
   authenticity, which states, that this veil, a family treasure of the
   expelled house of Stuart, was finally in possession of the last branch
   of that family, Henry Benedict Stuart, the Cardinal of York, who
   preserved it for many years in his private chapel, among the most
   precious relics, and at his death bequeathed it to Sir John Hippisley,
   together with a valuable Plutarch, a Codex with painted (illuminated)
   letters, and a gold coin struck in Scotland during Mary's reign.

   The plate was specially consecrated by Pope Pius VII in his palace on
   the Quirinal, April 29, 1818. Hippisley, during a former residence at
   Rome, had been very intimate with the cardinal of York, and was
   instrumental in obtaining for him, when he with the other cardinals
   emigrated to Venice in 1798, a pension of £4,000 a year from King
   George IV of the United Kingdom, then Prince of Wales. But for the
   pension, the fugitive cardinal, whose revenues were all seized by the
   forces of the French Revolution, would have been exposed to the
   greatest distress.

   The cardinal desired to requite this service by the bequest of what he
   considered so valuable. According to a note on the plate, the veil is
   eighty-nine English inches long, and forty-three broad, so that it
   seems to have been rather a kind of shawl or scarf than a veil.
   Melville in his Memoirs, which Schiller had read, speaks of a
   handkerchief belonging to the queen, which she gave away before her
   death, and Schiller founds upon this anecdote the well-known words of
   the farewell scene, addressed to Hannah Kennedy.

          "Accept this handkerchief! with my own hand
          For thee I've work'd it in my hours of sadness
          And interwoven with my scalding tears:
          With this thou'lt bind my eyes."

Privy Council of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1561

   (appointed September 6, 1561 following Mary's return to Scotland from
   France)
     * Lord James Stewart, (later Earl of Moray)
     * William Maitland of Lethington - Secretary of State
     * James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell
     * George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly
     * James Hamilton, Duc de Châtellerault, 2nd Earl of Arran
     * Archibald Campbell, 5th Earl of Argyll
     * James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton
     * John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl
     * Alexander Cunningham, 4th Earl of Glencairn
     * George Hay, 7th Earl of Erroll
     * William Graham, 2nd Earl of Montrose
     * William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal
     * John Erskine, 6th Lord Erskine, (later Earl of Mar)
     * Robert Richardson - Lord High Treasurer
     * James MacGill of Nether Rankeillour - Lord Clerk Register
     * Sir John Bellenden of Auchinoul - Lord Justice Clerk

In popular culture

Films

     * The two classic film biographies of Mary (neither of them so
       faithful to history as to get in the way of the story) are the 1936
       Mary of Scotland starring Katharine Hepburn and Fredric March and
       the 1971 Mary, Queen of Scots starring Vanessa Redgrave and Nigel
       Davenport.

Television

     * In the BBC TV production Elizabeth R, Mary was played by Vivian
       Pickles. This is considered by some to be the most historically
       accurate portrayal of Mary during her captivity in England.
     * In the ITV miniseries, Elizabeth I, the first two-hour segment
       partly centers around the conflict between Mary and Queen
       Elizabeth. Mary is portrayed by actress Barbara Flynn.
     * In the 2004 BBC mini-series Gunpowder, Treason & Plot , Mary was
       played by Clémence Poésy.
     * Monty Python's Flying Circus episode 22 featured a skit involving a
       "BBC radio drama series" titled "Death of Mary, Queen of Scots".
       The radio program consists of a knock on the door, Mary opening it
       and being asked (by a man with a thick Scottish accent) "You are
       Mary, Queen of Scots?"; she replies "I am", followed immediately by
       the sounds of her being violently killed (featuring anachronistic
       sounds such as gunshots). The series as presented in the skit
       consisted of two episodes; at the start of episode 2, after the
       usual violent noise, everything goes silent, prompting one of the
       assassins to say, "Ah think she's died", to which Mary counters
       "No, I'm not", followed immediately again by yet more sounds of
       violence.
     * In a 1976 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show entitled "The
       Seminar", the character Mary Richards receives a phone call from
       then- First Lady Betty Ford. Believing the call to be a prank, Mary
       sarcastically greets Mrs. Ford with, "Hi, Betty. This is Mary...
       Queen of Scots".

Theatre

     * Mary also inspired the opera Maria Stuarda by Donizetti and the
       play Maria Stuart by Friedrich Schiller (a production of which
       opened in London's West End in 2005). The film Mary of Scotland is
       based on the hit Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson.

     * Sarah Miles portrayed Mary Queen of Scots on Broadway and the West
       End in the play Vivat! Vivat! Regina! (1971) written by her husband
       Robert Bolt

     * Martha Graham choreographed and directed the modern dance titled
       "Episodes" (1985) that premiered at Lincoln Centre, New York, the
       dance featured Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I resolving their
       dynastic issues over a game of tennis.

     * Janet McTeer starred in the revival of the Schiller play Mary
       Stuart at the Apollo Theatre, London in 2005.

Poetry

   In Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky's 20 sonnets to Mary Stuart (in
   Russian) the poet addresses her as an interlocutor.

Fiction

     * Mary's story has been the subject of a number of novels, including:
       Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles: A Novel by Margaret George;
       Royal Road to Fotheringhay: The Story of Mary, Queen of Scots by
       Jean Plaidy; Fatal Majesty (2000) by Reay Tannahill. Mary features
       importantly in The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, and in La
       Princesse de Clèves, set during her younger years in France.
     * In children's literature, novels on Mary, Queen of Scots include:
       Queen's Own Fool: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots by Jane Yolen, The
       Lady of Fire and Tears by Terry Deary, and from the Royal Diaries
       series from Scholastic, Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a
       Country, France, 1553 by Kathryn Lasky.

Music

     * American progressive metal band Dream Theatre uses a variation of
       the mark of Mary, Queen of Scots, as their trademark "Majesty"
       symbol.
     * The song " Sad Song" by Lou Reed, featured in the 1973 album
       Berlin, references Mary in its initial verses.

                Staring at my picture book
                She looks like Mary, Queen of Scots
                She seemed very regal to me
                Just goes to show how wrong you can be

     * The song " To France" by Mike Oldfield, featured in the 1984 album
       Discovery, references Mary in its chorus.

                Never going to get to France.
                Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you?
                Never going to get to France.
                Could a new romance ever bind you?

     * The song "Fotheringay" by The Fairport Convention, featured in the
       1969 album What We Did on Our Holidays, is the story of Mary's last
       days in the prison of Fotheringhay Castle.

                Her days of precious freedom, forfeited long before
                To live such fruitless years behind a guarded door
                But those days will last no more
                Tomorrow, at this hour, she will be far away
                Much farther than these islands, for the lonely
                Fotheringay

     * The song " The Ballad of Mary" (Queen of Scots) by Grave Digger is
       about her time in prison.

Other

     * Singer Tori Amos portrayed Mary Queen of Scots for a photo shoot in
       late makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin's book Face Forward ( ISBN
       0-316-28705-9).

Historical biography and analysis

     * Mary Queen of Scots(2006) by Retha Warnicke, ISBN 0-415-29183-6
     * Queen of Scots by Rosalind K. Marshall, ISBN 1-873644-95-7
     * Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser, ISBN 0-385-31129-X
     * "Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Babington conspiracy", by David Alan
       Johnson, Military Heritage, August 2005, no. 1, Volume 7, ISSN
       1524-8666
     * "Mary Queen of Scots and the French Connection", History Today, 54,
       7 (July 2004), pp. 37-43, by Alexander Wilkinson
     * Elizabeth and Mary by Jane Dunn
     * Queen of Scots : the true life of Mary Stuart (London, 2004) by
       John Guy, ISBN 0618254110
     * Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542-1600 (Palgrave,
       2005) by Alexander Wilkinson, ISBN 1-4039-2039-7 (hdbk)
     * Mary Queen of Scots: A Study in Failure (London, 1988) by Jenny
       Wormald, ISBN 0-540-01131-2
     * Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Darnley by Alison Weir
     * The "Rough Wooings": Mary, Queen of Scots 1542-1551 (East Linton
       2000) Marcus Merriman, ISBN 1-86232-090-X

Popular fiction and drama

     * Mary, Queen of Scots by Sally Stepanek (young adult fiction)
     * Mary Stuart, a play by Friedrich Schiller
     * Wallenstein and Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller
     * Mary of Scotland, a play by Maxwell Anderson
     * The Queen's Own Fool by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
     * Immortal Queen by Elizabeth Byrd
     * Shadow Queen, a supernatural novel by Tony Gibbs
     * The Marchman; Warden of the Queen's March; The Queen's Grace by
       Nigel Tranter
     * Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George
     * Court of Shadows by Cynthia Morgan, a suspense novel
     * Fatal Majesty by Reay Tannahill
     * Mary, Queen of Scots: A Queen without a country by Kathryn Lasky
     * Many plays and films on Elizabeth I (eg Elizabeth I) also feature
       Mary
     * Gunpowder, Treason & Plot Television Mini series (2004) depicting
       the turbulent reigns of Scottish monarchs Mary, Queen of Scots and
       her son King James VI of Scotland who became King James I of
       England and foiled the Gunpowder Plot. Directed by Gillies
       MacKinnon.

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