Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart), only daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise; born in Linlithgow, Scotland, Dec. 8, 1542. James, dying of chagrin in a few days after her birth, the Parliament made James, Earl of Arran—head of the great house of Hamilton, and heir-presumptive to the throne — regent of the kingdom. Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland, at Stirling, in 1543. The young queen’s betrothal to the Dauphin, son of Henry II, led to Mary’s visit to France in 1548, where George Buchanan taught her Latin, and Ronsard, poetry. The marriage of the Dauphin with Mary took place in 1558. On the death of Henry II, and her husband’s accession to the throne as Francis II, Mary became Queen of France, a position which lasted not quite 17 months, her husband dying in December, 1560.
Fresh suitors for her hand were speedily forthcoming; and Mary now coldly treated in France, where Catherine de Medicis, her enemy, reigned supreme, resolved to return to her native country. In Scotland, at this time, the Roman Catholic party had been overthrown. Mary's marriage becoming an object of national importance, she finally made choice of her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a handsome, accomplished, dissipated youth. On July 20, 1565, Darnley was created Duke of Albany, and nine days after the marriage was solemnized; Darnley being created, also, king-consort on the day preceding.
Her half-brother, the Earl of Murray, after bitterly opposing this union, headed a rebellion against the crown, but was defeated. Darnley, jealous of the queen’s parasite Rizzio, determined to murder the minion; and accordingly burst into the queen’s apartment in Holyrood Palace, where she was supping with Rizzio and others, March 9, 1566, and dragged the Italian from the queen's presence, dispatched him on the stairs. They next imprisoned Mary; but she, effecting her escape, reconciled herself with Murray and pursued her Vengeance on Rizzio’s murderers, excepting Darnley. June 19 of the same year her only child, afterward James VI of Scotland and James I of England, was born.
A plan was now entered into between the Earls of Murray and Bothwell, and other nobles, for the assassination of Darnley, then lying ill at Kirk-of-Field, a house near Edinburgh. The house containing the sick Darnley was blown up by gunpowder on the night of Feb. 9, 1567, while the queen was attending a masquerade at Holyrood Palace. Mary showered honors and favors on Bothwell, one of the prominent actors in the tragedy. His trial was demanded and took place, but merely as a farce.
Mary was seized by Bothwell at the head of a strong body of retainers, and conveyed to his castle of Dunbar; but, being permitted to return to Edinburgh, she there created her lover Duke of Orkney, and married him. The great nobles at once formed a combination against the queen, supported by the burghers of the princigal cities, and seized the castle of Edinurgh. On June 15 the two armies met at Carberry Hill, where the royal troops at once surrendered. Bothwell fled, and the queen was taken to Lochleven Castle and there placed in confinement. On the 25th of the same month she signed her abdication of the crown in favor of her infant son, with the Earl of Murray as regent.
In May, 1568, she succeeded in escaping from Lochleven, and assembling some adherents encountered the regent Murray’s army at Langside, near Glasgow, where she was utterly defeated and her cause irretrievably lost. Mary fled to England, and was at first considerately treated by Elizabeth, who later committed her to prison. She was removed to Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire in 1586, was declared guilty of treason, and condemned to death. She was brought to the block in Fotheringay Castle, 08 February 1587.
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