Mary,+Queen+of+Scotts









Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was born on December 7th or 8th in 1542. Before Mary was born she had previously had two brothers die. Mary was the only daughter to James V and his second wife Mary of Guise. James V, Mary’s father, died only six days after her birth. After his death Mary had became the infant queen. She was crowned queen on September 9th in the Stirling Castle, which is where she and her mother were moved to safety. Mary was sent off to France at the young age of five years old to be well educated. Mary loved life; she enjoyed riding horses and dancing.



Mary Stuart first married King Henry II eldest son, Francis, at the age of 15. Shortly after they were married King Henry II passed away, so therefore that left Francis and Mary king and queen of France. In 1560 Francis had died of an ear infection, which left Mary a widow at age 18. The death of her husband left her very heartbroken, and she returned back to Scotland where she was still queen.



In 1565 Mary married her cousin Henry Stuart, also known as Lord Darnley. This was a very sad and unhappy marriage; perhaps the only good thing about this marriage was that she got her one and only son, James. Lord Darnley was became a very jealous and aggressive man, and it cause Mary to hate him. Rumors had begun to stir and people were saying she was spending more and more time with her Italian secretary, David Rizzio. This made Darnley very mad and he set a plot to kill Rizzio, and succeeded.



 Shortly after that incident Mary started making a connection with, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. Early in 1567 James had Lord Darnley murdered. Three months after this happening Mary married James. People thought Mary had part in the killing of Darnley and they made her give up her throne, which left her one-year-old son, James, king of Scotland.

While Mary was queen she believed no one should be assaulted by what religion they were, which was a lot like her cousin Elizabeth I. She also believed in non-discrimination and wanting to unify the nation, which caused her to be walking on dangerous ground. Even though Mary was Catholic she was very good friends with a Protestant, George Buchanan. Mary always tried keeping peace with France, Spain, and England, even though she had never met Elizabeth face-to-face who was the queen of England.

In June of 1567 Mary was imprisoned for the death of Darnley. She had found a way to escape in the year 1568. When she did escape she got a small army together, but the majority of the people in Scotland refused to join, so she fled back to England. Mary was determined to become queen of England; she was even willing to kill Queen Elizabeth since she was the next in line for queen. So in 1569 she started coming up with a plan to destroy Elizabeth. Elizabeth had kept Mary locked up and for several years refusing demands for her punishment. However, in 1586 Mary was trialed for planning to kill Elizabeth and claim the English throne; this trial lasted for two day. Mary was eventually found guilty, and Elizabeth carefully signed Mary’s death warrant. Mary was only the young age of forty-four when they beheaded her on February 8, 1587.

References

Greaves, R. L. (1996). Mary, Queen of Scots. (1996). The world book encyclopedia, Vol. 13, 239, World Book, Inc. This article is just general information.

Mary, Queen of Scots. (1991). The new grolier student encyclopedia, Vol. 13, 1521-1522, Mammal, Missouri: Grolier Educational Corporation. This article is just general information.

Frasier, A. (1984). Mary, Queen of Scots. (1984). The new encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 11, 564-565, Chicago: Encyclopaedia Brittannica, Inc. This article is just general information.

Mary queen of scots. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2010 from [|http://home.earthlink.net/~zzz12/index.htm] This web page is very descriptive and easy to understand. It talks about her personal life.

Mary, queen of scots: biography. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2010 from [] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">This web page has a lot of stuff about Mary. It covers nearly every aspect of her life.