Mary Queen Of Scots

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Alyssa Theriot

Mrs. Kidwell

English, 12-2

February 26, 2013

Mary Queen of Scots

Through the ages, a great many kings and queens have risen and fallen. Countless battles have been fought in pursuit for religious rights and liberties. Innumerable martyrs in the past lost their precious lives; all in search for one thing. Mary Queen of Scots, an example of a true martyr, had her life ripped from her after she endured much prolonged strife; all for the sake of religious liberty. Her entire life was an ever-growing reflection of bravery and hope for all. As she was confronted with many great struggles; she prevailed. Mary’s unjust execution was a living testimony of true martyrdom. Although, Mary Queen of Scots was not just another statistic, she was however, a beaming, unfaltering beacon of hope. From the start, her life was enveloped with hardship after hardship. The execution of Mary Queen of Scots has been widely pondered and believed by many that she was unjustly executed as a traitor; however, in actuality, she was a great symbol of religious victory, hope, and freedom.

December 8, 1542, a fanatic religious crusader was born at the castle of Fotheringay (History of the Monarchy). Mary’s hardships began just six short days after her birth on December 14, 1542. The death of Mary’s father, James V, was the culprit cause of numerous atrocities to follow the duration of her life. The passing of James V left Mary the sole heir to the throne. She was crowned queen of Scots, only six days old, at the Linlithgow Castle. Consequently, there was much quarrel and disagreement among the people. Many argued that Edward VI of England should have been the rightful monarch on the throne. Furthermore, tudors were those among the many people who disapproved with Mary’s crowning; thus, they initiated a war in attempt to crown Edward VI in place of Mary. Consequently, on August 7, 1548, she was sent to France where she would become very affluent (Catholic Encyclopedia). Henry II, king of France and Mary’s father-in-law, spoke incredibly highly of her saying, "the little queen of Scots is the most perfect child I have ever seen" (History Learning Site). While in France, not once was Mary deprived of the many luxuries of life. She attained quite a few interests and talents while relishing her short-lived life of extravagance. She loved to travel and jumped at the chance to be fascinated by learning something new. She played the lute rather skillfully and had a great love for animals, primarily dogs. Although she was well equipped with a great number of talents; foreign languages were her prime expertise. The bright young lady spoke French, Latin, Spanish, and a little Ancient Greek. She grew up with a fanatic, religious teacher who originated from a priory at Inchmahome in Scotland where he practiced his profession as a monk. Consequently, Mary developed her strong, religious backbone due to his teachings (History Learning Site).

As previously stated, Mary lived a life full of strife, pain, and suffering; although much of her pain was physical aching, an exuberant amount of her pain was emotional as well. The ever-changing love life of Mary Queen of Scots was living proof all in and of itself of Mary’s emotional torment. On April 24, 1588, the queen of Scots married the dauphin Francis at the premature age of fifteen. Upon the grieved death of her father-in- law, Henry II, on July 10, 1559, Mary was crowned queen consort of France. Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, soon began stating her plans to help those who remained steadfast in her definition of true religion. Due to that statement, a revolution broke out later that year in May. It would appear one atrocious event followed after another inflicted the poor queen. 1560 was an especially sorrowful year for Mary. Not only did she suffer the loss of her mother, but her ill husband as well. In a matter of three short months, she had three close relatives dissipate from her life. Those who knew her believed she never truly recuperated from those dreadful losses (History Learning Site). Heartbroken, Mary put to use one of her various talents and authored a short poem about her husband,

"By day, by night, I think of him

In wood or mead, or where I be

My heart keeps watch for one who’s gone

And yet I feel he’s aye to me" (The History Learning Site).

Unfortunately, for Mary, her future husbands to come would fail in comparison to her first love and husband Francis. In 1561, she returned to Scotland as Mary Queen of Scots. In 1565, she married her cousin, Lord Darnley. Due to his drunken, violent, and bad-tempered qualities, Darnley was very unpopular among the people. His paranoia caused not only his life, but Mary’s secretary David Rizzio as well. In 1566, Darnley plotted against David and formed a gang. David Rizzio’s death came abruptly to a halt as Darnley and his gang stabbed him to death over fifty times at an entertaining dinner party; Mary immediately filled with horror. In June of 1566, Mary gave birth to Darnley’s baby boy, James, whom was to become king of England. During the remainder of her marriage to Darnley, physical and emotional strain constantly loomed over her head. It was not long before the young queen became attracted to the Earl of Bothwell. On February 9, 1567, at a home owned by Kirk O’ Field, in the pitch black dead of night, Mary remembered she had friends to see and rode off. Scotland, in the sixteenth century, was a treacherous nightmare. Kirk’s body was blown to shreds in an explosion at the home and Darnley was discovered in the home’s garden. Oddly enough, the explosion had not killed Darnley; he had been strangled to death. Three short months later, Mary married Bothewell, who was as equally disliked as Darnley. Furthermore, that gave cause enough for the Scottish Lords to rise against her. He later ventured an escape to Europe where he would pass away as a lunatic alcoholic. At Lochleven Castle, Mary became imprisoned and was forced into giving her throne to James, her son. Somehow, Mary managed to plot an escape. Unfortunately, being a good judge of character was not a quality Mary attained. She fled to Elizabeth in hopes that she would hold sympathy for her as a fellow queen and family relative; she could not have been more incorrect. At the age of twenty-five, Mary’s long life of imprisonment began at various manor houses or castles (History Learning Site).

An exorbitant amount of Mary’s life would be stolen from her for the remaining nineteen years of her place in the world (MacKay, James p. 998). From the very beginning, Mary was a dire threat to her cousin, Queen Elizabeth. Several conspiracies have risen through the years. Two of those conspiracies appeared to be very plausible and would have given Elizabeth reason enough to desire to extricate Mary by any means necessary. The first of the conspiracies was that Mary was a threat to Elizabeth’s version of religious stability. Elizabeth believed if you were Catholic but withheld it as a secret, then she would tolerate your religion; that was her stance and belief of true religious stability. Mary was a threat to that stability, primarily because Elizabeth believed she was a religious symbol for all English Catholics. The second viable conspiracy was that Mary was a threat to her throne. Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII were not legal. Rumors paraded around that they married before Henry’s divorce to Catherine of Aragon was confirmed; consequently, if that fact had been validated, Elizabeth would have been an illegitimate heir to the throne. Therefore, Mary would have been the rightful heir to the throne. Although, neither of those facts were validated, both would have been deemed a plausible argument for Elizabeth’s ill will towards Mary. It would have also explained why Elizabeth’s advisors coerced her into signing the documents for Mary’s execution. Even if proven, those reasons would not have been enough for the courts to allow such an atrocity; thus, they needed more proof in order to accomplish an execution warrant at the trial (History Learning Site). Mary was sent back to Scotland to be imprisoned; even though she had previously escaped (Abbott, Jacob p. 566). She was a greater threat to Elizabeth in England than in Scotland. Although Elizabeth could have ordered her men to murder Mary, many believe she did not due to their blood relation. Elizabeth’s solution was to entrap Mary in prison for the next nineteen years to come. Meanwhile, Elizabeth not once visited Mary. To make matter worse, Mary took matters into her own hands and stated to anyone who would listen that she was the rightful queen of England. In 1570, the pope stood behind Mary; moreover, that gave reason for every Catholic to assassinate Elizabeth. Such an act would not have been a sin in the Catholic’s eyes, because Mary was the true heir; furthermore, that made Mary an even deeper threat to Elizabeth. Sir Francis Waisingham greatly desired to create a strong case against Mary which gave him every reason to spy on her. In 1586, Anthony Babington created a plot to kill Elizabeth and rescue Mary. He wrote a coded letter to her in prison setting forth the idea (History Learning Site). Although, Mary did not discourage the idea, she led him to believe she approve. In retrospect, that would have been one of the largest mistakes that she would ever make. Sir Francis’s spies intercepted the letters, arrested him, and charged him with treason. In September of 1586, Anthony Babington was executed. Moreover, her involvement generated a clear case against Mary. In October of 1586, Mary was put on trial. Even with the foreknowledge that she did not have very great odds of winning the trial, Mary still remained hopeful as she defended herself against the trial. As previously expected, Mary was charged with treason for attempting to assassinate Elizabeth. The trial proceeded for two days as follows, "Mary: ‘You are indeed my enemies’ Judges: ‘We are the enemy of the enemies of our queen’" (History Learning Site). In February of 1587, Mary was given twenty-four hours’ notice of her execution. Already in frail condition, questions soon arose among the people that she would not have been healthy enough to plan such an atrocity. Some people believed the letters were forged; however, that conspiracy was never validated. Babington’s confession to the plot was most likely a cause of torture, but like the other conspiracies, it was never proven either. After futile hesitation, Elizabeth signed Mary’s warrant for execution. Mary pleaded with the envoys to allow her time to ready herself. The Count of Shrewsbury replied, "No, no, Madam you must die, you must die! Be ready between seven and eight in the morning. I cannot be delayed a moment beyond that time" (Eye Witness to History). Mary’s last day on this precious earth was spent writing farewell letters as last words to her loved ones; when she finished writing, she prayed for the remainder of the day (History Learning Site).

Mary’s execution had many unusual aspects. Even upon request, Mary’s chaplain was not permitted to attend her execution. Mary adorned herself in a scarlet, martyrdom colored dress and a golden crucifix made out of the wood from Jesus’ cross; her dress showed she truly believed she was dying for her faith. Due to her frail condition, she was aided onto the scaffold. She inquired to the Major, "Please help me mount this. This is the last request I shall make of you" (Eye Witness to History). Followed by her inquiry, she then asked him to tell give her son a message. Furthermore, she again made another inquiry of him but was abruptly turned down as she had already been previously told that her chaplain could not attend. Her captor’s presented her with the opportunity to have a protestant minister present, she then said, "Nay, my good man, touch me not" (Eye Witness to History). Her ladies in waiting then approach her upon her summoning to remove her black veil, head-dress, and other various accessories. Upon their tear stained faces she assured them their tears would not alter the outcome. She spoke to her ladies in waiting in French saying, "Ne crie vous, j’ay prome pour vous" (Tudor History). Her only request of them was to stand silently praying for her soul and to be witnesses of her death in the religion of Catholicism. One of the ladies in waiting tied a handkerchief over the queen’s eyes. The queen of Scots then turned to bravely kneel showing no expression whatsoever to the outside world. She again repeated "Nay, my good man, touch me not" (Eye Witness to History) as the executioner touched her; however, her plea was futile. The executioner lowered her dress waist length as he firmly gripped her arm and ripped her doublet so low that her neck was bare. By the end of the disrobement, Mary was only left with a petticoat and a kirtle. There were four to five hundred attendees; Mary then stated she was not accustomed to disrobing in public (History of the Monarchy). She received gasps from the audience as the disrobement revealed a red petticoat symbolizing her martyrdom. She then uttered, "Even as Thy arms, O Jesus, were spread upon the cross, so receive me into Thy arms of mercy and forgive me of all of my sins" (Education Scotland). The executioner then knelt before her and asked for her forgiveness; little did he know she had already forgiven everyone responsible for her murder (Various p. 712). Mary then said, "I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles" (Tudor History). One of the morbid executioners stated he would not only kill her body, but her soul as well. Her last words were uttered in Latin. The queen recited the beginning of Psalm in Latin, "In te, Damine, speravi: nan confundar in aeternum" (Eye Witness to History). As she placed her weak head onto the block she uttered, "Into your hands, O Lord" (History Learning Site) three more times in Latin. It took a grand total of two swift swings of the ax to remove the head of Mary Queen of Scots. The executioner then uttered "God save Queen Elizabeth. May all the enemies of the true Evangel thus perish!" (Eye Witness to History). As the executioner attempted to pick up her head, he instead picked up a wig, revealing the tremendous hair loss and coat of silver fuzz atop her head. Mary created her best efforts to mask the tremendous hair loss and gray hair. As the executioner glanced back at her corpse, he realized her body was moving. Hidden underneath her skirt was a small skye terrier that Mary had brought to her execution, drenched in Mary’s blood. On February 8, 1587, at Fotheringay Castle, Mary was executed. Approximately twenty-five minutes after Mary’s death, a man named Mr. Dean approached Mary’s corpse and said, "So perish all the Queen’s enemies" (Tudor History). Another man, the Earl of Kent, stated, "Such end of all the Queen’s and Gospel’s enemies" (Tudor History). In 1612, James transported his mother’s body to Westminister Abbey where she was buried in an extravagant tomb.

Innumerous evidences have proven Mary’s unjust death for her faith. It was because of her martyrdom that her memory lay to rest in history books. Martyrs like Mary Queen of Scots truly gave millions religious liberty. Mary’s name lived on because of the entitlement she gave her name due to her outstanding actions. Through the course of history, her name prevailed the tests of time and created its own meaning; the meaning of martyrdom. Although Scotland despaired over a great loss, her name gave light for centuries to those in pursuit of religious liberty. Her unjust execution shed light to the proof needed for a revival; not only a religious revival, but a moral one as well. It was through her name she provided hope for a great many. She inspired Scotland to pursue their own freedom of separation and she inspired people of the Christian faith to stand steadfast in your faith. Mary Queen of Scots did not die in vain, but rather in the name of religion and hope for the future.