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| Queen Elizabeth I & Mary, Queen of Scots |
Some Background...
To understand the rivalry between Queen Elizabeth Tudor and Queen Mary Stuart you need to look at their family tree. Mary Stuart is the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's older sister making Mary Stuart Elizabeth's second cousin. Mary was born in Scotland December 8, 1542. Elizabeth was 9 at the time. She had been declared a bastard by her father when she was 3 shortly after he ordered her mother's beheading. From that day forward Elizabeth would live a life on the edge of a knife reliant on her mercurial father's affections.
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| Elizabeth as a young girl |
Scotland and England were not on great terms at the time. Henry VIII and his nephew James V were butting heads (a conflict that would lead Henry to cut out the Stuart line from succession to the English throne but that wouldn't be an issue due to religious conflict). Mary Stuart was only six days old when her father died. She was crowned Queen of Scotland and at one point Henry VIII proposed that the infant queen marry his own son Edward. But like many dynastic marriages it came to nothing. In 1547 Henry VIII died leaving his only son and heir Edward VI, he was 9 or 10 years old at the time (in Henry VIII's will he re-legitimized his 2 daughters naming them in the line of succession should Edward die without heirs). Because of rumors of assassination Mary was smuggled out of Scotland when she was 5 years old in 1548 and taken to France where she was to marry the Dauphin Francois.
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| Francis & Mary |
So Mary grew up and when she was about 16 she married her fiancé Francois (who was 15). But it was not to be. Mary soon became a young widow after her husband died of an ear infection when she was about 18. In England, Elizabeth was queen and 27 years old. She and Mary were already having confrontation over inheritance. Mary never directly challenged her cousin for the throne but she never denied her right to it either. This caused tension between the cousins which was the source of their conflict. Nine months after Francois died, Mary returned to Scotland where more tragedy awaited her.
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| Mary, Queen of Scots |
Religious Conflict
Though Mary was born in Scotland, she hadn't been there since she was a toddler. It must have seemed pretty alien to the young queen and no doubt many of the Scottish nobles felt the same towards her. Mary seemed more French than Scottish. But the worst part was the religious conflict. Scotland was torn between Protestantism and Catholicism. Many thought that since Mary was Roman Catholic she would work hard to squash the Protestants but to their disappointment, Mary showed tolerance between her Protestant lords and subjects.
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| Lord Moray |
Her illegitimate half brother James, Earl of Moray (who was Protestant) was one of her advisors. Most of her council were Protestant from influential families. It was her attempt at tolerance but it would have been easier if someone like John Knox didn't hound her all the time. John Knox was one of those fire brand religious fundamentalists who hate gays and women. He believed that women were unfit to rule (Elizabeth sure proved him wrong). He was Mary's most brutal critic.
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| Lord Moray from "Reign" |
Another reason some may suggest why Mary neglected to appoint more councilors more sympathetic to Catholic (and even French) causes was because she was trying to focus on trying to take the English crown. I'm not really sure that's the reason though I wouldn't rule it out. Even the one significant later addition to the council, Lord Ruthven in December 1563, was another Protestant whom Mary personally disliked. In this, she was acknowledging her lack of effective military power in the face of the Protestant lords, while also following a policy that strengthened her links with England. She joined with Lord Moray in the destruction of Scotland's leading Catholic magnate, Lord Huntly, in 1562 after he led a rebellion in the Highlands against her. Mary did send William Maitland of Lethington as an ambassador to the English court to put the case for Mary as the heir presumptive to the English throne. Elizabeth refused to name a potential heir, fearing that to do so would invite conspiracy to displace her with the nominated successor. But she assured Maitland vaguely that no one had a stronger claim than Mary.
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| Lord Darnley & Mary were one of History's most unhappy marriages |
There were plans made in late 1561 and early 1562, arrangements were made for the two queens to meet in England at York or Nottingham in August or September 1562, but Elizabeth sent Sir Henry Sidney to cancel in July because of the civil war in France.
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| Oh yeah they look so happy. They'll last a while... |
The Marriage From Hell
Mary Stuart and Henry Stuart (a.k.a. Lord Darnley) were first cousins. There's debate on reasons why Mary married Darnley so quickly. Some sight political reasons but most claim it was because Mary fell in love with Darnley. Mary had briefly met her English-born first cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in February 1561 when she was in mourning for Francis. They next met on Saturday 17 February 1565 at Wemyss Castle in Scotland, after which Mary fell in love with the "long lad" (as Queen Elizabeth called him—he was over six feet tall). They married at Holyrood Palace on 29 July 1565, even though both were Catholic and a papal dispensation for the marriage of first cousins had not been obtained.
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| Queen Elizabeth I was sometimes called the Pirate Queen because she hired privateers to rob Spanish ships |
Of course Elizabeth disapproved of the match as it threatened her hold on the English throne. Yet Mary's brother Moray was also displeased with the marriage. Unlike in the show, James defected to other Protestant Lords Argyll and Glencairn because another Catholic monarch threatened the Protestant cause. James and his two Scottish lords were now in open rebellion.
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| Mary and her brother weren't as close in real life as portrayed in the show |
Mary set out from Edinburgh on 26 August 1565 to confront them, and on the 30th Moray entered Edinburgh, but left soon afterward having failed to take the castle. Mary returned to Edinburgh the following month to raise more troops. In what became known as the Chaseabout Raid, Mary and her forces and Moray and the rebellious lords roamed around Scotland without ever engaging in direct combat. Unable to muster sufficient support, in October Moray left Scotland for asylum in England. Mary broadened her privy council, bringing in both Catholics (Bishop of Ross John Lesley and provost of Edinburgh Simon Preston of Craigmillar) and Protestants (the new Lord Huntly, Bishop of Galloway Alexander Gordon, John Maxwell of Terregles and Sir James Balfour).
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| Henry Stewart (a.ka. Lord Darnley) |
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| Darnley stomping away like a toddler... |
Speaking of rebellion, Darnley soon showed his true colors. He was arrogant, childish, and ambitious. He demanded the Crown Matrimonial but Mary refused putting a strain on their marriage. Luckily they conceived around October 1565. Darnley grew jealous over Mary's friendship with her Italian secretary David Rizzio who was rumored to have been the real father of Mary's child. Darnley joined with Protestant Lords (including nobles who participated in the Chaseabout Raid) and by March 1566, the King Consort with his Protestant lords murdered David Rizzio in front of a pregnant Mary at a dinner party no less being held in Holyrood Palace. You can imagine Mary's distress. But within 2 days she managed to convince Darnley to switch sides again and help her escape. On the night of 11–12 March, Darnley and Mary escaped from the palace, and took temporary refuge in Dunbar Castle before returning to Edinburgh on 18 March. The former rebels Lords Moray, Argyll and Glencairn were restored to the council.
Their son, James, was born in Edinburgh Castle June 19, 1566 but Darnley and Mary's marriage was beyond repair afterwards.
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| Elizabeth, the Hunting Queen |
A Murder Most Foul
Darnley's murder was to be Mary's first step into her destruction. At Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh, at the end of November 1566, Mary and leading nobles held a meeting to discuss the "problem of Darnley". Divorce was discussed, but then a bond was probably sworn between the lords present to remove Darnley by other means. Darnley feared for his safety and after the baptism of his son at Stirling shortly before Christmas, he went to Glasgow to stay on his father's estates. At the start of the journey, he was afflicted by a fever, possibly smallpox, syphilis, or the result of poison, and he remained ill for some weeks.
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| Mary and Darnley started out great but once they were married his true colors showed |
Some historians claim Darnley was suffering from syphilis and claim Mary never sharing this affliction as proof that James VI wasn't really the son of Darnley but I have a hard time believing that. n late January 1567, Mary prompted her husband to return to Edinburgh. He recuperated from his illness in a house belonging to the brother of Sir James Balfour at the former abbey of Kirk o' Field, just within the city wall. Mary visited him daily, so that it appeared a reconciliation was in progress. On the night of 9–10 February 1567, Mary visited her husband in the early evening and then attended the wedding celebrations of a member of her household, Bastian Pagez. In the early hours of the morning, an explosion devastated Kirk o' Field, and Darnley was found dead in the garden, apparently smothered.
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| Elizabeth stood the most to lose from her cousins' marrying |
The people named in the murder of Lord Darnley were Moray, Maitland, Bothwell and Mary herself. Elizabeth actually wrote to her cousin warning her of the rumors and how they made her look:
"I should ill fulfil the office of a faithful cousin or an affectionate friend if I did not ... tell you what all the world is thinking. Men say that, instead of seizing the murderers, you are looking through your fingers while they escape; that you will not seek revenge on those who have done you so much pleasure, as though the deed would never have taken place had not the doers of it been assured of impunity. For myself, I beg you to believe that I would not harbour such a thought."
Sounds like something a frenemy would say while being concerned there's blatant criticism in Elizabeth's tone in the letter. Most likely Mary destroyed the letter in a huff but Elizabeth was also pointing out the danger. What Mary did next perhaps damaged her reputation even more. She actually pardoned Bothwell of the suspected murder of her husband. Needless to say it didn't look good and was about to look worse...
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| James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell |
Lord Bothwell
The show makes the whirlwind romance between Lord Bothwell and Mary Stuart out like a romance novel though it may be less romantic or more complicated than that. James Hepburn was the 4th Earl of Bothwell. He was already married twice and by the time he met Mary, Bothwell was on his second marriage with a woman Jean Gordon, sister of Sir John Gordon and of George, Earl of Huntly. They were divorced on 7 May 1567, citing his adultery with her servant as cause. Eight days later he would marry Mary, Queen of Scots.
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| Bothwell was the cause of Mary's downfall |
In the show Lord Bothwell first meets Mary when she returns to Scotland but really they met much earlier in France in 1560. During the regency of Marie de Guise (Mary's mother), Bothwell was a supporter of hers. After Protestant Lords gained power following Marie de Guise's death and the return to Scotland of Mary, Queen of Scots, Bothwell appears to have been not much more than a troublesome noble at court (not the Loyal Watchman Mary had come to rely on). His open quarrel with the Earl of Arran and the Hamiltons, who accused him of intriguing against the Crown, caused some degree of anguish to the Queen, and although the Earl of Arran was eventually declared mad, Bothwell was nevertheless imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle without trial in 1562. Later that year, while the Queen was in the Highlands, he escaped and went to Hermitage Castle.
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| The show makes them a romantic couple but he also may have raped her so... nope... |
The Queen and Bothwell were by now very close. When Bothwell married Lady Jean Gordon, daughter of The 4th Earl of Huntly, in February 1566, the Queen attended the wedding (the marriage lasted just over a year). In the following summer, upon hearing that he had been seriously wounded and was likely to die, she rode all the way through the hills and forests of the Borders to be with him at Hermitage Castle only a few weeks after giving birth to her son. But some historians claim that Mary was already on her way to see Bothwell on matters of state before she heard about his illness, and that therefore this visit is not evidence they were already lovers at the time of his accident. The story of her mad flight to his side was put about later by Queen Mary's enemies to discredit her.
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| Mary building up her own faction against Darnley |
Bothwell was one of the people named in the suspected murder of Lord Darnley along with Mary herself. Lennox, Darnley's father, demanded that Bothwell be tried before the Estates of Parliament, to which Mary agreed, but Lennox's request for a delay to gather evidence was denied. In the absence of Lennox, and with no evidence presented, Bothwell was acquitted after a seven-hour trial on 12 April. A week later, Bothwell managed to convince more than two dozen lords and bishops to sign the Ainslie Tavern Bond, in which they agreed to support his aim to marry the queen.
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| Bothwell abducts Mary but she may have planned it... Maybe |
On Wednesday 24 April, while Mary was on the road from Linlithgow Palace to Edinburgh, Bothwell suddenly appeared with 800 men. He assured her that danger awaited her in Edinburgh, and told her that he proposed to take her to his castle at Dunbar, out of harm's way. She agreed to accompany him and arrived at Dunbar at midnight. There Mary was taken prisoner by Bothwell and allegedly raped by him to secure marriage to her and the crown. Whether or not Mary was complicit or a victim is still debated. On 12 May the Queen created him Duke of Orkney and Marquess of Fife, and on 15 May they were married in the Great Hall at Holyrood, according to Protestant rites officiated by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney.
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| Unfortunately Mary had the worst taste in men when it came to being her own choice |
The marriage divided the country. Catholics considered the marriage unlawful, since they did not recognise Bothwell's divorce or the validity of the Protestant service. Both Protestants and Catholics were shocked that Mary should marry the man accused of murdering her husband. The marriage was tempestuous, and Mary became despondent. On 16 June, the Lords opposed to Mary and the Duke of Orkney (as Bothwell had newly become) signed a Bond denouncing them. A showdown between the two opposing sides followed at Carberry Hill on 15 June 1567, from which Bothwell fled, after one final embrace, never to be seen again by Mary. In December that year, Bothwell's titles and estates were forfeited by Act of Parliament.
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| CW likes to blend historical fact with contemporary fiction but they do it well |
Mary Dethroned & Imprisoned
The lords took Mary to Edinburgh, where crowds of spectators denounced her as an adulteress and murderer.[134] The following night, she was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle, on an island in the middle of Loch Leven. Between 20 and 23 July, Mary miscarried twins. Some like to romanticize that Mary's twins survived and were smuggled out of Scotland to be raised in France. Not sure if the show will go with this story line but it feels like something it would do. On 24 July, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son James. Moray was made regent, while Bothwell was driven into exile. He was imprisoned in Denmark, became insane and died in 1578.
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| Mary had to make the toughest decisions for her country |
Mary eventually escaped Scotland but where would she go? England was the only option. Elizabeth assured her cousin that she would keep her safe and help restore her to the Scottish throne. However, Elizabeth never did. Mary was too dangerous to be kept prisoner and even more dangerous on a throne.
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| Elizabeth I probably wishes she had a more loving family that didn't need to kill each other to hold onto power |
Final Years and Eventual Execution
Poor Mary was Elizabeth's prisoner for about 19 or so years being moved from castle to castle. There were many Catholic plots to free the Scottish queen but they all failed. Even after Mary was convicted of Darnley's murder and guilty of treason against the English crown Elizabeth refused to sign Mary's death warrant. It was definitely hard for Elizabeth. It must have drudged up painful memories of losing her own mother who was a crowned queen and also the fear of setting a precedent for killing God Anointed Queens. But also maybe Elizabeth felt a sympathy for her cousin who was also born the wrong sex to the disappointment to their kingly fathers.
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| Mary approaches her death... |
The story goes that a council member had Elizabeth sign the order for Mary's execution by making her think it was for something else. At Fotheringhay on the evening of 7 February 1587, Mary was told that she was to be executed the next morning. She spent the last hours of her life in prayer, distributing her belongings to her household, and writing her will and a letter to the King of France. The scaffold that was erected in the Great Hall was two feet high and draped in black. It was reached by two or three steps and furnished with the block, a cushion for her to kneel on and three stools, for her and the earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who were there to witness the execution. If you remember a certain film, The Golden Age, there was a scene where Mary Stuart was being led to her execution she wore a deep red dress as a symbol for the Catholic faith. The executioners knelt before her and asked forgiveness. She replied, "I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles." She was blindfolded by Kennedy with a white veil embroidered in gold, knelt down on the cushion in front of the block, on which she positioned her head, and stretched out her arms. Her last words were, "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum" ("Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit").
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| Mary's destiny was always headed down this road |
Mary's death wasn't quick though. It took a few tries for the executioner to remove her head. The first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head. The second blow severed the neck, except for a small bit of sinew, which the executioner cut through using the axe. Afterward, he held her head aloft and declared, "God save the Queen." At that moment, the auburn tresses in his hand turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground, revealing that Mary had very short, grey hair. A small dog owned by the queen, a Skye terrier, is said to have been hiding among her skirts, unseen by the spectators. Following the beheading, it refused to be parted from its owner's body and was covered in her blood, until it was forcibly taken away and washed. Mary was only 44 years old when she died.
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| Sometimes winning sucks |
When Elizabeth heard of her cousin's execution she flew into a despondent rage and imprisoned the messenger who delivered the order in the Tower. Cecil promptly pardoned the messenger. Elizabeth's grief may have been a bit staged but there most likely legitimate tears. In another life Mary and Elizabeth could have been friends but Mary triumphed in the end. Her son James though baptized a Catholic was raised as a Protestant and when Elizabeth died he finally brought the two countries together under one rule without bloodshed... well not a lot.
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| Whenever I read about Mary Stuart I always say "Poor Mary" |
The Legacy of Mary and Elizabeth
So was Mary a victim or was she the architect of her own disaster? You could debate that as much as you like but you won't find an easy answer. The conflict and rivalry between the cousin queens is perhaps one of the most famous stand offs in history. The Renaissance was an age of women in power whether on the throne or in the shadows, of religious strife, of new ideas, of piracy. One has to ask how Mary could have fallen so far? Some sight her pretty face but that feels one dimensional. It was the people around Mary that spelled her doom.
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| Mary, Queen of Scots buried beside her cousin... |
Elizabeth faced the same criticism as Mary but I feel she had the right advisors surrounding her and even the force of character to stay on her throne. Another reason I feel is because Elizabeth was born and raised in England where as Mary was raised away from home. If Mary had grown up in Scotland maybe the nobles would have viewed her less as a foreigner. Yet in the end it was through all this strife and blood shed that forged two nations into one. Though they were never close in life Mary Stuart is buried beside her rival and cousin Elizabeth (who is also buried with her sister Mary Tudor) in Westminster Abbey.
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| Elizabeth I buried beside her older sister and a few feet away from her cousin queen. |
