In My End is My Beginning: Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary Stuart or Mary I (1542-1587) is one of the great Romantic and tragic figures of history. She is known to history lovers as Mary, Queen of Scots. She became queen of Scotland when she was only a few days following the death of her father, James V. During this time, Scotland was often looked down on by the other more powerful and prosperous western European nations as backward and uncivilized. It certainly was not an easy place to rule. Mary’s mother, Marie de Guise, learned about the difficulty of ruling the country first hand. She was regent of the country for a number of years until her death. Marie de Guise was a more astute politician than her idealistic and sensitive daughter would be. Still the stress of ruling such a place probably led to her death at age 44.

Mary was sent to France as a child where she was raised by the king of France with the eventual intension of her marrying his eldest son the Dauphin. Four little girls who were her best friends traveled with her there. They were called “the Four Marys,” Mary Beaton, Seton, Fleming, and Livingston. Others from the Scottish nobility traveled along, two of which were Mary’s half brothers. Mary’s father had gotten many illegitimate children. One of the half brothers would be a thorn in the side of Mary in her adult years.

Mary spent thirteen years at the French court. She was given a top notched education, and grew up to be a young lady with both brains and beauty. At the French court she was adored for her poise, liveliness, and sweet nature. When her adoring father-in-law, Henry II died as the result of a jousting accident Mary and her husband Francis II became rulers of France. Francis had long suffered from poor health. He died after ruling for less than two years.

Following her husband’s death, Mary went back to Scotland. Not much had changed since she had left it years before. It was still a turbulent place with England trying to manipulate and control it, the Scottish nobles constantly at each other’s throats, and religious fanaticism by Catholics and Protestants always in the background. Mary, who was a devout Catholic, fell immediately under suspicion when she arrived home. She tried to make it clear that she would not impose her faith on her subjects. She stated that her religious beliefs and practices were a private matter. John Knox, a Scottish Protestant clergyman and reformer, passionately preached against her. He saw her as corrupt in every way, especially because of her Catholicism and her foreign upbringing. Mary tried to reach out to him, like she did to many others, but Knox was having none of it. Mary also tried to placate her older half brother, James Stewart, the Earl of Moray, by making him her chief adviser, but the power hungry Moray was not her friend either. He was also a staunch Protestant. The Earl of Moray would go on to betray her

From the start of her life until the end, various people would try to control Mary. This was especially in the case of whom she would marry. Being of royal blood, issues of whom she would marry were for political reasons. Mary’s decision to marry
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, would put her at odds with her cousin in England, Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth had plenty of reasons to be concerned about her Catholic citizens, many of whom saw Mary as the rightful claimant to the English throne. Darnley, a Catholic, also had claims to the English throne since like Mary, he was related to one of Henry VIII’s sisters. Many saw Elizabeth as illegitimate since her father Henry VIII’s marriage to her mother Anne Boleyn had never been accepted as legal by the Catholic Church. Therefore, Elizabeth was obsessed with the threat that Mary posed to her rule. In order to tame the situation, Elizabeth even proposed that Mary marry her favorite, Robert Dudley. Mary was greatly offended. She refused to marry someone whom she saw as little better than a queen’s servant and lover, a man much lower in rank than herself who had already been queen of a world power and was now queen of a second country.

In the meantime, Mary married again. Whereas her first marriage had been happy, her marriage to Lord Darnley was a disaster. Initially the couple did love each other, but as time went on Darnley’s true nature came out. He was weak, untrustworthy, mean, petty, cowardly, jealous, and a drunkard. The marriage completely caved in when Darnley had a hand in the murder of Mary’s close friend and secretary, David Rizzio. Mary was pregnant at the time when Rizzio was murdered right before her eyes. She never fully forgave her husband.

Darnley’s lifestyle finally caught up with him. While ill with perhaps syphilis, the house where he was living was blown up. He managed to flee the house in time, but still died outside as a result of being strangled by the conspirators who had tried to blow him up.

Lord Darnley’s murder was the beginning of the end of Mary’s rule. Suspicion fell on her and a man in her political circle, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. The Earl of Bothwell was an adventurer and womanizer. Rumors circulated that Mary and Bothwell were lovers and had plotted and succeeded in having Darnley killed. Political turmoil grew until Bothwell kidnapped Mary either with her consent or without it. It will never be known, but it is believed that during the ten day period when Mary was held captive, she was repeatedly raped by Bothwell and brainwashed. Shortly after she was freed, she married him in a Protestant ceremony. That Mary would knowingly marry a man of Bothwell’s caliber and background and she being a devout Catholic participate in a Protestant marriage ceremony is highly unlikely unless she had been brainwashed and so humiliated by the rape that she felt the need to cover her shame by marrying her attacker. But there is also the possibility that Mary did love Bothwell. She and he had become very close. In her novel, Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles, novelist Margaret George puts forth the theory that Mary really did love Bothwell.

The Bothwell marriage put the Scottish nobility up in arms against Mary and Bothwell. Mary’s half brother, James Stewart, the Earl of Moray, were one of the chief individuals who was willing to fight his sister and her husband. In the end Mary was defeated and imprisoned. She was forced to abdicate. Her little son James by her second husband Lord Darnley became king. She would never see him again.

Mary escaped to England. She hoped that her cousin Queen Elizabeth would help her regain her throne. In the past she made friendly overtures to her tough, clever, and resilient cousin. However, Elizabeth had long been rather envious of Mary because of her beauty and the affect she had on men. Also there was the dangerous political threat the former Scottish queen posed. Elizabeth had Mary arrested and imprisoned as soon as she set foot on English soil.

For almost 20 years Mary, Queen of Scots was a prisoner in England. Elizabeth and she never met face to face. From the age of 24 until 44, Mary was imprisoned.
She was imprisoned first in Scotland, but she escaped. During the years of her incarceration in England, she was involved in a number of plots to overthrow Elizabeth. She was finally tried for treason and sentenced to death. Earlier in prison she had the phrase in ‘In my end is my beginning,’ embroidered on her cloth of estate. On the day she faced execution she was brave. She said as her outer garments were being removed before she put her head on the block, “Never have I had such assistants to disrobe me, and never have I put off my clothes before such a company.” On February 8, 1587, Mary I, Queen of Scotland was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle. She was 44 years old.

Mary, Queen of Scots has long been one of my favorite tragic and Romantic heroines. She was unique in not only her level of education and physical attractiveness, but she was very tall for a woman of her time and even for the average woman now. Her adult height was 5’11”!

The equally tall and tragic Diana, Princess of Wale has been called the “Queen of Hearts.” To me, Mary, Queen of Scots was a true “Queen of Hearts.”

If you want to learn more about Mary, Queen of Scots, see these links:
Mary, Queen of Scots
The World of Mary, Queen of Scots