Mary, Queen of Scots
8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587
Mary Stuart was Queen of Scotland from 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567, and briefly queen consort of France. Her turbulent reign was marked by religious conflict and disastrous marriages, and after fleeing to England she spent more than eighteen years in captivity under Elizabeth I. She was executed in 1587 after being implicated in the Babington Plot against Elizabeth.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Mary, Queen of Scots.
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- Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) Overlapped 45 years →
- Philip II of Spain (1527–1598) Overlapped 45 years →
Life events
Mary was born on 8 December 1542, the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMary acceded to the Scottish throne on 14 December 1542 upon the death of her father, James V.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFollowing her betrothal to the Dauphin Francis, the five-year-old Mary sailed from Scotland to France in 1548.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMary married Francis, heir to the French throne, at Notre-Dame de Paris on 24 April 1558, becoming queen consort of France when he acceded in 1559.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWidowed at eighteen, Mary returned to Scotland and landed at Leith on 19 August 1561 to rule her Protestant-dominated kingdom in person.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMary married her half-cousin Lord Darnley at Holyrood Palace on 29 July 1565, a union that quickly turned disastrous.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMary's only child, James, who would later unite the crowns of Scotland and England, was born at Edinburgh Castle on 19 June 1566.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter her marriage to the Earl of Bothwell and defeat at Carberry Hill, Mary was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle and compelled to abdicate in favour of her infant son on 24 July 1567.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter the defeat of her forces at the Battle of Langside, Mary crossed the Solway Firth into England on 16 May 1568, beginning more than eighteen years of captivity.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgConvicted of involvement in the Babington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth I, Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587.
Source: en.wikipedia.org