Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary became queen of Scotland at six days old, was executed by her cousin at forty-four, and her son inherited both kingdoms anyway. She was sent to France at five and raised at the court of Henry II, married the dauphin, and was briefly queen of France as well until he died at sixteen. She returned to Scotland in 1561, a Catholic monarch of a country that had legislated itself Protestant the year before while she was absent - the Reformation Parliament of 1560 abolished papal jurisdiction and the mass without her consent, and she never ratified it. What she did next was tolerate it. She kept her own private mass, made no attempt at counter-reformation, and governed through Protestant advisers, which satisfied neither side and is the most defensible thing about her reign. The marriages destroyed her. Darnley, her second husband, had her secretary murdered in front of her when she was six months pregnant; Darnley was then blown up at Kirk o' Field in 1567, and she married the man widely believed responsible within three months. The nobility deposed her, and she abdicated in favour of her infant son. She fled to England in 1568 expecting help from Elizabeth and was held for nineteen years instead - a Catholic claimant to the English throne was too dangerous to release and too legitimate to kill without cause. The cause came in 1587, when letters approving a plot to assassinate Elizabeth were produced. Sixteen years after the execution, her son became James I of England.
- Lived: 1542 CE – 1587 CE
- Nationality: Scottish
- Roles: head_of_state, royalty
