#8February1587

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Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots was the queen of both Scotland (r. 1542-1567) and briefly, France (r. 1559-1560). Obliged to flee Scotland, the queen was imprisoned for 19 years by Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603) and finally executed for treason on 8 February 1587.

Brought up in France and then marrying the heir to the French throne, Mary's world was turned upside down when her husband Francis II died in 1560 one year into his reign. The queen returned to Scotland but her Catholic views clashed with Protestants there and two more husbands and murder plots further discredited her reign. Following her forced abdication by Scottish nobles, Mary fled to England where she plotted unsuccessfully to oust her cousin Elizabeth I of England.

Family Relations

Mary Stewart was born on 8 December 1542 in Linlithgow Palace near Edinburgh. She was the daughter of King James V of Scotland (r. 1513-1542) and Mary of Guise (1515-1560). When James V, died on 14 December 1542 with no surviving male heirs, Mary, only one week old at the time, became the queen of Scotland, the first queen to rule that country in her own right. Mary was crowned nine months later on 9 September 1543 in Stirling Castle. Mary of Guise acted as the new queen's regent.

Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547) had briefly considered marrying his son Edward to Mary to bring the two countries closer together but the Scottish Parliament refused the proposal, and in 1544 England and Scotland were at war again. Mary did have a distant claim to the throne of England as she was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor (1489-1541), sister of Henry VIII of England. As it was, the old ties between France and Scotland came to the fore, and in 1548 Mary was sent to be educated at the court of Henry II of France (r. 1547-1549).

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