Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587) of The House of Stuart, also known as Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 1542 to her forced abdication in 1567. She was the first undisputed queen regnant of both Scotland and any kingdom in the British Isles, preceding the reign of her cousin Mary Tudor by a decade.note She was also briefly queen consort of France through her marriage to François II.
She was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland. James V had been married to another French princess, Madeline of Valois, before he married Mary’s mother; James and Madeline had been very much in love and James hoped to have a large brood of children with her, but Madeline was in poor health for most of her life and tragically died at age 16. James wasn’t quite as in love with his second wife, the widowed French duchess Marie de Guise; but he and Marie certainly had some affection. They had two sons together before Mary’s birth, James and Arthur, but both tragically died unexpectedly around the same time. James V was at war with England at the time of Mary’s birth, and, allegedly, when he was told his wife had given birth to a daughter and not a son, he said “it came with a lass and it shall go with a lass” which was a reference to how the Stewart dynasty had come through a woman, Marjorie Bruce, who had no brothers and married Walter Stewart, taking his surname. (This prediction actually did come true, though not through Mary - rather it was her descendant, Queen Anne of Great Britain, who was the last monarch of the House of Stuart.) Six days after her birth, James died, most likely of dysentery, and Mary became the new Scottish monarch.
As Mary was only a baby, she needed a regent. Her first regent was James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, who was Protestant. Arran had been heir to the Scottish throne before Mary’s birth. However, he was unpopular with Catholics. Though he was originally supported by Protestants, they came to despise him when he agreed with Henry VIII that Mary (who was 6 months old) should marry Henry’s 6-year-old son, Edward, which would unite England and Scotland and give the English control of Scotland. Marie de Guise, however, was very against the betrothal (she herself had once been considered as a potential bride for Henry and had been against that too!), and her daughter's engagement was broken off, Henry VIII promptly declared war on Scotland. Marie de Guise eventually became regent of the kingdom, but with the war her daughter had to be sent to a number of different castles to avoid being murdered. Marie (a devout Catholic) arranged for her daughter to be betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin (heir) of France. Five-year-old Mary was sent to France to marry the four-year-old Dauphin, where she became popular at the French court. Her future father-in-law, King Henri II of France, adored her, and Mary became best friends with her future sisters-in-law, Elisabeth and Claude of France. Mary was also close with her fiancé and they often played together. They were raised more like siblings than betrothed, but were very much in love as they grew older. Mary had four ladies-in-waiting, all named Mary as well. Her governess, Janet Fleming, was the mother of Mary Fleming, and Queen Mary liked her. However, Janet was sent back to Scotland in disgrace when she became pregnant with King Henri’s illegitimate child. While living in France, Mary changed the name of Stewart to Stuart so that the French (and she herself, who spoke with a French accent) could pronounce her surname properly.
When Mary was 15 and Francis was 14 in 1558, they were married and Mary was declared Dauphine of France; meanwhile, the Scottish lords agreed to allow Mary to confer upon Francis the crown matrimonial, meaning that they were now of equal rank in both countries, and that any sons they had would be heirs to both France and Scotland, and that a daughter they had would inherit the Scottish throne note . In 1559, Francis’s father was in a jousting accident and developed an infection, which killed him. Francis II and he and Mary were thus the joint rulers of France and Scotland. By all contemporary accounts, theirs was a Perfectly Arranged Marriage and they adored one another, but Francis tragically died at the age of 16 from an ear infection. Mary was kept in confinement, both as a tradition of mourning and also to see if she was pregnant, but it soon became clear she wasn’t. Mary’s 10-year-old brother-in-law, Charles IX, was crowned, and Mary’s mother-in-law, Catherine de' Medici, became regent. She had never particularly liked Mary, though she had tolerated her and treated her appropriately while Francis was alive. Once Mary's formal mourning period was over, Catherine ordered the return of the French crown jewels and 'advised' Mary to leave court. Following several months visiting her various maternal relations in France, the teenage Queen returned to Scotland.
Mary was inconsolable following Francis’s death. She solaced herself somewhat by writing poetry, and her Ode to Francis II
makes it clear just how deeply she had loved her husband and lifelong companion and how much she was grieving. The death of her mother, just months before that of her husband, only added to her misery. She wore her white mourning hood for a formal portrait, and a few other times throughout her widowhood; it was said that her skin turned ashen with sorrow and she never held a blush in her cheeks again.
Mary's people were glad enough to get her back, but the new obstacle before her was that she was and remained staunchly Roman Catholic, and this was an unpopular stance in a country that had adopted the Calvinist form of Protestantism, mostly among the nobility. Mary was successful at first. She was religiously tolerant, meaning she allowed Protestants to pray and worship how they please. Though she did attend a few Protestant church services, she refused to personally convert to Protestantism; but in view of her tolerance for their religion, her people were content to extend her the same courtesy and let her worship privately as she chose. She also employed mostly Protestant men for her council, chiefly her illegitimate half-brother James, the Earl of Moray. She was very charismatic and capable of winning the common subjects to her side when need be; she was also regarded as extremely attractive, with long red hair, Brown eyes and fair skin, and stood 5 ft 11 inches tall (she was one of the tallest women in all of Europe).
Mary knew it was her duty to marry again and produce an heir, but for the first few years of her active reign, she was still in mourning for her beloved Francis. Meanwhile, men were lusting over the Queen, the most gorgeous woman at the court. One day, the 21-year-old Queen was undressing with only two ladies-in-waiting, when a French poet and friend of Mary’s, Pierre de Bocosel de Chastelard, stormed into her bedroom. Pierre was infatuated with the Queen (who only saw him as a friend), and Mary had even let him ride her horse (which was a present from Mary’s illegitimate half-brother) and he gave her a book of his poems. However, Mary was forced to banish him; they had allegedly had a similar incident beforehand for which Mary had pardoned him. Though he was banished, he came back the next day, hiding under Mary’s bed. Mary screamed “Attack the villain!” when she realised he was in her private quarters, and she had no choice but to have him executed. Nowadays, this would have been considered sexual harassment.
Some months after this incident 22 year old Mary met* Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a 19-year-old nobleman. Darnley was English, being from Leeds and, like her, had a claim to the throne of England.note This was a good match for Mary because it meant that their children would not only be the heirs to the Scottish throne, but also have a double claim to England. Mary married him in 1564, against the wishes of Elizabeth Inote and, more importantly, against the advice of every responsible member of the Scottish government, including the aforementioned Earl of Moray. The marriage was a bitter failure — by nearly all accounts, Darnley was both vicious and effeminate, while Mary was widely accused of luxury and adultery. She might have been at least somewhat guilty of the former charge, but most historians agree she was almost certainly innocent of the latter, though Darnley himself engaged in adulterous activities. Her supposed affair partner was her (openly gay) Italian secretary and court musician, David Rizzio, who was best friends with the Queen. Darnley (in league with the Protestant Scots lords) murdered David while he was dining with Mary (who was 7 months pregnant) in 1566. The couple separated after the birth of their son James, and Darnley took refuge from his numerous enemies with his father.
Darnley had always been unpopular with the Scots, both for his spoiled, obnoxious nature and his effeminate appearance - he had blond hair, no beard, and a Pretty Boy appearance, and quite interested in fashion. Mary had been enamoured with his height (he was over 6 feet tall, one of the few men taller than her) and his skill with poetry, and this led her to marry him; but when it became obvious Darnley had merely used her to gain the crown, they became bitter enemies. He was especially aggravated that she would not grant him the crown matrimonial (as she had done for Francis years earlier), meaning that he was not and never would be her co-monarch and remained just below her in the peerage. He was the King-Consort of Scots, but had no real authority, and if Mary died he had no claim to be her successor. Mary enjoyed dressing up as a stable boy and with her very tall height, she easily passed as a Pretty Boy, some people would even mistake Lord Darnley as the Queen dressed in drag.
In 1567, Darnley was being treated for syphilis. Eventually, he and Mary attempted a reconciliation; Darnley recognized that Mary was the only one who could protect him from his enemies, and Mary that she had no honorable way to end her marriage. (She had considered a divorce, but that would have made her baby son, the future James V, illegitimate.) To that end, he was brought to the Old Provost's Lodging at Kirk O'Field. It blew up in February 1567, while Mary and most of her lords were at a wedding party after spending the day with Darnley. Darnley himself apparently escaped the explosion, as he and his male servant were subsequently found strangled in the garden, Darnley in just his underwear, with no marks on his body at all. Darnley was due to complete his treatment the next day and subsequently resume cohabitation with his wife.
Popular opinion blamed Mary. While she was certainly not there for the actual murder, many believed she had authorized it. This is at best unlikely; Mary may have disdained her husband as much as she had once been attracted to him, but she knew that continuing the marriage was still her best chance at the English throne. Their united position gave them an advantage over other potential claimants, and for that if nothing else he was more valuable to her alive. Moreover, Darnley was still her husband and the father of her only child; with her romantic nature, Mary may have even harbored some hope of the marriage improving. The chief pieces of "evidence" against her were the so-called Casket Letters - letters found in a casket and purported to have been written by Mary herself, ordering the murder. Modern historians, with their access to greater technology, have examined the surviving letters and generally believe them to have been forgeries. (Ironically, it's the opinion of at least some modern medical historians that Darnley's syphilis treatment was less than effective, and he likely would have died of the illness within a year or two anyway.) Mary was seen playing golf a few days later, so it’s very unlikely she mourned her husband’s death either way.
She subsequently married chief conspirator James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, and one of the few Scottish lords with a consistent record of supporting Mary and her mother. He had famously abducted her. Whether or not Mary and Bothwell planned the abduction so they could get married, or whether Bothwell kidnapped and went so far as to rape the queen to force her to marry him, was hotly debated then and still is now. note Many historians, however, do believe that she was forced into the marriage; notably, she miscarried twins whose gestation indicated that they would have been conceived during the time of her abduction, despite her protestation that they could only have been conceived after the marriage took place.note
The resulting rebellion ended with Bothwell fleeing the country* and Mary imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle, where she had the above-mentioned miscarriage; the fetuses were buried on the island where the castle still stands. She was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of her one-year-old son, who assumed the throne as James VI (later James I of England). She made an attempt to escape the island by disguising herself as the woman who took her dirty laundry to the mainland, but was recognized when someone caught sight of her hands, which were very distinct due to their pale coloring and elegant fingers. A second escape attempt in a fishing boat proved successful, however, and she fled to England, seeking protection from her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth's response was to have Mary arrested, as she and her Protestant councilors (not entirely unjustifiably) considered Mary a probable focus for Catholic conspiracies against her rule. She also wasn't completely sure whether or not Mary was complicit in her husband's murder.
Elizabeth wasn't unsympathetic to Mary's plight. They were among the only surviving members of The House of Tudor, they were both anointed queens, and it's likely Elizabeth did feel sorry for Mary - twice widowed, kept away from her only child, unable to either live free in Scotland or return to the France of her happy childhood. Mary was "jailed" in a series of castles and manor houses under the supervision of the Earl of Shrewsbury, one of Elizabeth's most loyal courtiers, and she was given many luxuries not normally afforded to prisoners, like exercise, fresh air, good food, and whatever visitors she chose to entertain. She wrote more poetry, published collections of which still exist today, and excelled at needlework, with some pieces surviving in museums; of particular note is the so-called Marian Hanging, consisting of multiple small panels of her own design sewn together into a tapestry. The majority of the icons depicted in the embroidery had some sort of personal meaning to the exiled queen, and in particular is the dolphin panel representing her dearly departed first husband (the French word for 'dolphin' being Dauphin, Francis’s rank when they married).
A few attempts to have the two queens meet were arranged, but they never came to fruition, though they did correspond occasionally and Mary sent Elizabeth gifts of her handiwork from time to time. After nearly twenty years of this hospitable imprisonment (Elizabeth was notably hesitant to condemn her), Mary was tried and executed for treason on the grounds of conspiracy to assassinate Elizabeth and place herself on the throne of England. It is argued to this day whether Mary herself was actually involved in the Babington plot or if she was just an innocent figurehead, but Elizabeth was taking no chances.
It was the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had long since grown rather fond of his longtime ward, who had to break the news to Mary that Elizabeth had at last ordered her execution. She took it very calmly, thanking him for it, and spent her final hours preparing to leave a world which, she said, she was eager to depart. She wrote out a will, leaving generous bequests to her personal servants and a few others, and also penned a final letter to her former brother-in-law, Henri III of France. Her final words, as she placed her head on the block, are recorded to have been "O God, into Thy hands I commend my spirit."
Rather infamously, it took three chops to do the deed. And when the executioner lifted the severed head, it fell out of the red wig she was wearing. It then looked like her body was moving, and people thought she was refusing to die, only for Mary’s pet dog to run out of Mary’s skirts and start howling by Mary’s severed head. Mary's last request was to have her body returned to France and entombed with that of her beloved first husband, but Elizabeth refused to honor this. Instead, she was originally interred in Peterborough Cathedral; the Earl of Shrewsbury and his family were among those who attended the funeral. Several years later, after her son inherited Elizabeth's throne, he gave his mother an elegant tomb in Westminster Abbey. The Latin inscription on the white marble effigy reads:
- To God, the best and greatest. To her good memory, and in eternal hope. MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS, Dowager Queen of France, daughter of James V of Scotland, sole heir and great granddaughter of Henry VII, King of England, through his elder daughter Margaret, (who was joined in marriage to James IV of Scotland): great-great-granddaughter of Edward IV, King of England through his eldest daughter of Elizabeth [of York]: wife of Francis II, King of France, sure and certain heiress to the crown of England while she lived: mother of James, most puissant sovereign of Great Britain.
Though Mary was undoubtedly academically intelligent, speaking several languages and being an excellent poet, she definitely made some poor decisions which cost her her life. However, it may not have been a case of her being naive. Some historians believe that she may have suffered from Porphyria, a medical condition that causes both stomach aches (Mary certainly had lots of those) and also mental illness, which may explain some of Mary’s decisions. Mary’s descendant, George III had a very severe case of Porphyria and went stark raving mad, however the condition can be different for different people. So it is possible that Mary had a milder case of the condition.
Mary's life and character have been a matter of great dispute ever since her execution. She has been depicted by supporters of Elizabeth and the Protestant settlement as a murderous adulteress and Machiavellian Papist plotter, while those on the Catholic side often view her as a spotless martyr and the victim of Protestant treachery. She has, at any rate, been generally depicted as a beautiful, elegant, and wildly romantic woman.
Works associated with Mary of Scotland:
- Mary makes a cameo in the epilogue of Handmaid, a The Tudors Alternate History fanfic, on the eve of her marriage to King Edmund of England, Henry VIII's son by Anne Boleyn, who bore him on Katherine of Aragon's behalf.
- The 1895 silent film The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots features an uncredited actress as Mary in a short that basically consists of Mary being led to the scaffold and having her head chopped off (with a rather gory special effect for the day). Viewers in 1895 weren't that much into films with actual stories.
- Katharine Hepburn played her in John Ford's 1936 film, Mary of Scotland.
- The 1940 German film Das Herz der Königin ("The Heart of the Queen"), viewed by many critics as an anti-British propaganda movie, portrays Mary (Zarah Leander, the top female star of Germany at the time) as a beautiful saintly martyr (she sings, too) full of love and desire to free her people, while Queen Elizabeth is portrayed as a bitter malicious dried up spinster who will stop at nothing to make her cousin miserable and eventually murder her.
- In 1971 film Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), she was portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave.
- Samantha Morton plays her in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). Morton uses a Scottish accent (in reality Mary wouldn't have had one due to being raised in France).
- Saoirse Ronan portrays her (with yet another incorrect Scottish accent) in Mary, Queen of Scots (2018), opposing Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I.
- Mary is the subject of an essay in Alternate History in G. K. Chesterton's "If Don John of Austria Had Married Mary, Queen of Scots."
- Kathyrn Lasky is the author of a book in Scholastic Books' juvenile The Royal Diaries series, Mary Queen of Scots: Queen Without A Country, France, 1553 (1999), set during her years in France.
- Mary appears in a vision in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Silver Mirror".
- Appears as a character in the Lymond Chronicles.
- Appears as the "Reine Dauphine" in La Princesse de Clèves.
- Numerous historical novels are based upon her story, by authors such as Jean Plaidy (who also wrote non-fiction works about Mary), Nigel Tranter, and Margaret George.
- A Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch entitled 'The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots', in which two pepperpots listen to a radio show which mainly consists of Mary shouting and her would-be murderers thumping around.
Murderer: I think she's dead.
Mary: No, I'm not.
[shouting and thumping resumes] - Part 1 of the mini-series Gunpowder, Treason and Plot shows her rise and fall. She is executed at the beginning of part 2. She's portrayed by Clémence Poésy.
- She meets Elizabeth I in the Elizabeth mini-series, starring Helen Mirren. She is portrayed by Barbara Flynn with a French accent.
- The CW series Reign centers around her, particularly her years in France, though her life story is heavily fictionalized. She is portrayed by Adelaide Kane.
- In Elizabeth R, she's played by Vivian Pickles.
- In Season 13 of RuPaul's Drag Race, Drag Queen Rosé impersonates Queen Mary for the Snatch Game.
- Grave Digger's song "Ballad of Mary (Queen of Scots)" on their Tunes of War album.
- The nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary is said to be based on her, which led Disney to tell her story en bref in The Truth Behind Mother Goose.
- Mentioned in Mike Oldfield an Maggie Reilly's "To France".
Don't you know you're 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? - Brian McNeill's song "A Far North Land" (From the Baltic tae Byzantium) deals with the conflict between Queen Mary and the Calvinist pastor John Knox. The ballad's conclusion is that each was as bad as the other and Scotland paid the price for their battles.
What were you baith in Scotland's eyes,
But different tongues for different lies?
Lord and Lady of Misrule, who used a nation for their tool
Who both betrayed the future of a Far North Land
- Around the middle Baroque era, Mary's story seemed to grip many Italian composers who depicted her as a tragic martyr—notably, Giacomo Carissimi, who wrote the cantata Lamento della Regina Maria Stuarda (Ferma Lascia Ch'Io Parli).
- Gaetano Donizetti's opera, Maria Stuarda.
- Friedrich Schiller's play Maria Stuart.
- Liz Lochead's play Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Heid Chopped Off. (The title comes from a Scottish playground rhyme.)
- Maxwell Anderson's Mary of Scotland, which inspired the John Ford film.
- Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat Regina! is a Deconstruction of the romanticized portrayals, showing Mary as sympathetic but extremely foolish.
- The 1957 Disney cartoon The Truth About Mother Goose links the "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" nursery rhyme to Mary Stuart and her tragic story.
