Mary, Queen Of Scots 1542-1587Mary Stuart was the last Catholic ruler of Scotland, born in Linlithgow, the only child of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise. Her father was a Stuart and her mother belonged to a great noble family of France. Her grandmother was Margaret Tudor, which made her next heir to the throne of England after Henry VIII's children. She became Queen of Scotland when she was 6 days old on the death of her father.At the age of six she went to France to be educated. At sixteen she married a French crown prince. He became King Francis II of France soon after, but died in 1560. Mary returend to Scotland in 1561 and became Queen. In 1565 she married her cousin Henry Stuart known as Lord Darnley. A revolt was put down after her marriage to a Catholic and his rise to power, and she later discovered he was weak and worthless and came to hate him. Mary's private secretary was an Italian diplomat named David Rizzio, and the Scots suspected their relationship. In March 1566 a band,led by two Scottish Earls, burst in to Mary's supper room and stabbed Rizzio to death. Her husband Darnley was one of the leaders in the murder but Mary escaped with him to Dunbar, where she had a son two months later.(Her son later became King James I of England.) Mary began to show interst in James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell. Early in 1567 Darnely fell ill and Mary took him to Edinburgh. Darnley died on February 10th when the house he was living in was blown up by a charge of gun powder. Three months later Mary and Bothwell were married.
Archibald Campbell (1530-1573), 5th Earl of Argyll, who deserted the party of John Knox to support Mary, was implicated in 1567 of the murder of her husband Henry Stuart. In 1568 Argyll commanding the army of the Queen, was defeated at Langside by the regent forces of Scotland, James Stuart, Earl of Moray and Mary's half brother. Argyll later made peace with Moray and was made lord high chancellor of Scotland in 1572. After Mary's marriage May 15,1567 to Bothwell who divorced his first wife to marry her, the lords of Scotland rose against her. Mary and Bothwel, with a strong force, met the insurgents, but the Royal Army refused to fight. Bothwell fled to Denmark, where he later was imprisoned and died insane. Mary divorced him in 1570. In 1567 Mary was forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son. She became a prisoner on the isle of Loch Leven for nearly a year. In May of 1568 she escaped and raised a small army to aid her. She was quickly defeated and fled to England to appeal to her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth saw Mary as a rival for the throne of England and threw her in prison. After 19 years Mary was accused of aiding in a plot to assinate Elizabeth I. She maintained her innocence but was declared guilty and beheaded on February 8, 1857.
Vote for the Gregg Family
|
to Gregg History 