Mary, Queen of Scots led a life that can be described as turbulent to say the least. She was born as Mary Stuart on December 8, 1542 as the daughter of the Scottish king James V. Barely 6 days later her father died. She was the sole legal heir and thus became Queen of Scotland. As a 5-year-old, she was sent to France to be raised there, as the future bride of the 3-year-old French Crown Prince. This was in keeping with the plan to forge an alliance between Catholic Scotland and France against Protestant England.
At the age of 16, she married François, who became king of France a year later after the death of his father. A year later, however, François died, so at the age of 18 Mary was already a widow. She returned to Scotland, took over, and became loved by the people. However, the Scottish nobility did not like to see her coming.
In 1565 she married a second time Lord Darnley, in 1566 she had a son. However, Darnley turned out to be plotting against Mary, along with the Scottish nobility. Mary managed to convince him to rejoin her. They fled, but in 1567 Darnley himself was murdered. Three months after his death, Mary married Lord Bothwell, one of the prime suspects in the Lord Darnley assassination plot. It is still unclear whether she wanted this herself or whether she was forced to do so.
Mary was captured by the rebellious Scottish nobility and forced to relinquish her throne in favor of her son. But she managed to escape and gathered an army to reclaim her throne. However, she was defeated and fled to England. They didn’t like to see her come there either because she could also claim the English throne, where at that time Elizabeth I was sitting. They were related: Henry VIII, Elizabeth’s father, was Mary’s mother’s uncle.
Mary was in captivity in England for 19 years. She participated in a plot to oust Elizabeth I from power, which was however discovered. Mary was sentenced to death and executed on February 8, 1587. Her only son James became King of England and Scotland after the death of Elizabeth I.
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