Mary, Queen of Scots

I'm not sure why I have always been so fascinated by someone who lost her head a very long time ago, but I like to read about Mary, Queen of Scots.

Mary Stuart (December 8, 1542 – February 8, 1587) ruled over Scotland from December 14, 1542 to July 24, 1567.

Mary was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V, who died when his daughter was only six days old. She immediately took the throne but spent most of her childhood in France while regents ruled Scotland. In 1558, Mary married the Dauphin of France, Francis. He ascended the French throne as King Francis II in 1559, and Mary briefly became queen consort of France.

Unfortunately, her husband died shortly thereafter, in December 1560. The now-widowed Mary returned to Scotland to rule. Four years later, she married her first cousin, Henry Stuart, also known as Lord Darnley, but their union was not a happy one. In February 1567, an explosion demolished Henry Stuart's residence, and Lord Darnley was found murdered in the garden.

James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley's death, but he was acquitted of the charge in April 1567, and the following month he married Mary. The people did not like this, and after an uprising against the couple (were there pitchforks, I wonder?), Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. On July 24, 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favor of James VI, her one-year-old son who was fathered by Henry Stuart.

After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southwards hoping to receive protection from her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England. However, Mary had previously claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North.

Elizabeth perceived Mary Stuart as a threat, and had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen and a half years in custody, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586. She was beheaded the following year.

I think I have always romanticized this woman because of something that happened when I was very young. According to my mother, when I was around two, I began chattering on about a castle in the moors and the beheading of a queen, going on then to describe my own death and my grave. This upset her so that I was forbidden to speak of it again, and I have no recollection of it, only this version as told to me by my mother when I was a teenager.

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Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. I'll going to give it a go. Because, you know, I don't have enough to do. April 6 done!