Mary Queen of Scots (1560-1568) PDF

## Unit 2: The challenges of Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1560 – 1588) ### Unit 2: Sub-topics (within the unit) 1. Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I, 1561 - 1568 2. The Revolt of the Northern Earls, 1569 3. The rivalry with Spain, 1560 - 1585 4. War with Spain, 1585 - 1588 ## The Treaty of...

## Unit 2: The challenges of Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1560 – 1588) ### Unit 2: Sub-topics (within the unit) 1. Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I, 1561 - 1568 2. The Revolt of the Northern Earls, 1569 3. The rivalry with Spain, 1560 - 1585 4. War with Spain, 1585 - 1588 ## The Treaty of Edinburgh and the death of King Francis II of France, 1560 ### The Treaty of Edinburgh, 1560 In 1560, Scotland's Protestant nobles who had been ruling Scotland as a Council while the true heir, Mary Stuart, grew up in France, wanted to rule the country permanently. The Council, and many Scots of similar Protestantism, did not want French, Catholic rule of Scotland that would be brought to them when Mary and her husband, Francis II, who had now become King of France, aged just 16, came to rule Scotland. The Scottish Council raised an army to defend their independence. Queen Elizabeth secretly sent money to help the Protestant Scottish Council, and eventually sent English troops too. The French also sent troops to Scotland. Francis II had no wish for war against Scotland. Elizabeth did not want to get involved in war. The 'Treaty of Edinburgh' was signed by the governments of France, England and Scotland. The treaty said that French and English troops would leave Scotland. It said Mary Stuart would give up her claim to the English throne. It allowed the Protestant lords to be left in charge of Scotland. ### The death of King Francis II of France and Mary Stuart's new situation, 1560 Suddenly, in 1560, King Francis II died of ear infection. This left Mary Stuart, aged only 18 herself, a widow and no longer the Queen Consort of France. With her mother, Mary of Guise, also now dead, Mary felt pointless at the royal court in France and they did not have much use for her. It was time for Mary to return to Scotland and become its Queen. ## Mary Stuart returns to Scotland to become ‘Mary Queen of Scots', 1561 Mary Stuart returns to Scotland to become 'Mary Queen of Scots', 1561 In 1561, Mary Stuart returned to Scotland to become its Queen. When she arrived in Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, Scottish Protestants, especially the Protestant Noble Council who believed they should rule, looked at her with distrust because: * Mary had grown up entirely in France. She was a total stranger to them. * Mary was Catholic. * Mary spoke English, but often spoke French, and she had a French accent. * Mary was surrounded by many French servants and courtiers who she brought with her. * Mary and her courtiers and servants had French customs and behaviours that seemed unusual and foreign to the Scots. * Mary was a tall and strikingly beautiful woman. She was also very confident, flirtatious and romantic. * She had no experience of ruling and no knowledge of Scotland. * Mary was a woman and Scotland had never been ruled by one. The Protestant Council could not oppose the Queen from returning if she wanted to, which she now did. Mary chose to keep Protestant nobles from the Council on her own Privy Council, hoping to gain their support. She could have filled her Council with Catholic supporters, but did not. Mary also said she would not try to enforce Catholicism on Scotland and allowed total religious freedom, including for Catholics, like herself, to be allowed to worship as they wished. However, the nobles on the Council still did not at all trust her and they wanted her to convert to Protestantism. ## Mary Queen of Scots' request to be Elizabeth's heir and her marriage ### Mary Queen of Scots requests to be made heir to the English throne, 1561 Mary returning to Scotland was not good news for Elizabeth. Mary had never signed the Treaty of Edinburgh - her now dead husband had. So, Mary now did start claiming that she was rightful heir to the English throne. She started sending letters to Elizabeth, asking her to name her - Mary - as her heir. Elizabeth refused, fearing that would just bring about plots to remove her by extreme Catholics keen to accelerate Mary's arrival on the throne of England. ### Mary marries Lord Darnley, 1565 Mary instead chose to marry Lord Henry Darnley, a half-English, half-Scottish nobleman. Darnley was Mary's cousin as both were grandchildren of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's sister. Darnley, therefore, had his own claim to the English throne. His marriage to Mary boosted Mary's claim to be the rightful heir to the throne of England. Darnley was also a Catholic. Elizabeth was furious, as Darnley was an English subject and was actively helping Mary against Elizabeth. He had also not asked Elizabeth permission to marry, which he should have as an English subject. ## Elizabeth tries to control Mary's choice of husband, 1562 Elizabeth suggested to Mary that she marry Lord Robert Dudley, whom Elizabeth could use to control Mary so that she behaved in England's interests as Dudley would mainly be loyal to Elizabeth. However, Dudley was not keen and nor was Elizabeth, given that she loved him. Mary rejected Dudley as husband because she could see that this was a plan by the English and she wanted to choose her own husband. ## Mary Queen of Scots' worsening situation, 1565 ### Mary's bad choice of husband and the Protestant rebellion against her, 1565 It quickly became obvious that Mary had chosen badly in her choice of husband. Her marriage to an English Catholic angered the Scottish Protestant nobles. The Protestant nobles began a rebellion against Mary, raising an army against her. Elizabeth sent weaponry and money to help them. Furthermore, Darnley turned out not to be the charming man he first seemed. He was a drunkard and emotionally abusive of Mary. Darnley was mainly interested in becoming King of Scotland himself and he demanded that Mary name him as heir to Scotland and give him equal status, not just as King Consort. Mary had fallen in love with the handsome Darnley, but she now regretted her choice. ### Mary becomes pregnant and the murder of her best friend, David Rizzio, 1565 The Queen had a large enough army of soldiers, which managed to defeat the rebellion. The Queen's army stayed loyal, for now. Despite the problems of her marriage with Darnley, which was very toxic, Mary became pregnant in 1565. Darnley, helped by some of the Protestant nobles, stormed into Mary's private bedroom, while she was very pregnant. They murdered Mary's private secretary, David Rizzio, an Italian Catholic, right in front of Mary, because they suspected that Rizzio was having an affair with Mary and that he was actually the father of Mary's baby. This terrible incident showed how fragile Mary's authority was. It also totally turned her mind against her husband. ## The birth of Queen Mary's son and her marriage problems, 1566 ### The birth of Mary's son and heir, James Stuart, 1566 Mary and Darnley's son, James Stuart, was born, in July, 1566. Mary now had an heir, not only to the Scottish throne, but, possibly, for the English throne. This strengthened Mary's position in asking to be the heir to the English throne. Elizabeth, accepted the position of godmother to the baby. ### The Protestant nobles plot to remove Darnley, 1566 The Protestant nobles and Queen Mary met to discuss what to do about Darnley, who had become a problem. He was a drunk and a fool, yet he was also keen on ultimate power. Plus, he had Catholic lords using him to get more power for themselves. It is probable that this meeting led to an agreement between Protestant nobles to get rid of Darnley, by killing him. Whether or not Mary also agreed with this is not known as it seemed that, at this time, Mary and Darnley's relationship was improving. Darnley was staying at a house outside Edinburgh called Kirk o'Field… ## The murder of Lord Darnley and Queen Mary's marriage to Lord Bothwell, 1567 ### The murder of Darnley, 1567 At Darnley's house, in the middle of the night, there was a gigantic explosion of gunpowder. Darnley was found dead in the garden. It seemed he had been smothered and suffocated. There were no marks of strangulation or violence on the body. It seemed that Darnley had not been hurt by the explosion and was killed as he ran from the house. ### Mary's marriage to Lord Bothwell (or abduction?), 1567 Only a few weeks after the death of Darnley, Mary was taken away from Edinburgh for her own safety by Bothwell and his personal soldiers, in case there was an attack on her. Bothwell had already managed to get the other protestant nobles to agree that he should marry Mary. What happened next is not known for sure. Either Mary and Bothwell did actually love each other or Bothwell abducted Mary while on the road. Either way, Mary ended up shut up inside Bothwell's castle. The two were married straight away, either willingly on Mary's part, or perhaps not. ## Rebellion against Mary Queen of Scots, 1567 ### Rebellion against Mary Queen of Scots, 1567 At first, Mary, Bothwell, and the Protestant nobles, believed that most in Scotland would approve of the new marriage, but they were wrong. The majority of the public saw Mary and Bothwell as murderers who had organised Darnley's death in order to marry. Confidence in the Queen was shattered. This f… Catholics who had supported Mary considered her new marriage to be unlawful, as Bothwell had quickly divorced his wife in order to marry the Queen. Before long, Mary had lost all public support and was abused wherever she went in public. Bothwell was also incredibly unpopular. The Protestant nobles soon began to dislike him for how powerful he had become. He was acting like King himself, with Mary, exhausted by her difficult life since her return from France, began to hide away. She even became pregnant with Bothwell's child, though she had a miscarriage. Another rebellion began against Queen Mary, and Bothwell, led by the Protestant nobles, but now also joined by Catholic nobles and massive numbers of the public. Mary and Bothwell raised their own army, but they had little support. The rebel army, far larger, allowed Bothwell to leave Scotland, in exchange for his life. This, Bothwell did, sailing to Denmark, where he died. Queen Mary, helpless, surrendered herself to the control of the nobles, who placed her in prison. Mary's son, the 2 year-old James, was taken from her. Mary would never see him again. ## The abdication of Mary Queen of Scots and her escape to England, 1567/68 ### The abdication of Mary Queen of Scots, 1567 The Scottish nobles, mostly Protestants, decided to reform the old Council which had ruled Scotland before Mary's return. They demanded that Mary 'abdicate' (give up) the throne of Scotland. Mary had no choice and she signed her abdication. Mary's illegitimate half-brother, the Protestant Earl of Moray, was given custody of Mary's baby son. He would raise little James to be a Protestant, who, one day, would be King of Scotland. ### Mary's escape from prison and journey to England, 1568 In 1568, Mary, only 26, charmed some guards to help her escape from her island prison on a small boat. She and her remaining close supporters gathered an army of 6,000 that bravely but hopelessly tried to regain her crown. Mary's army was beaten in a short battle by the noble Council's forces. Mary escaped and managed to get across the border into the north of England. The English kept her under guard at Carlisle Castle. ## The imprisonment of Mary Stuart, 1568 onwards… ### Queen Elizabeth imprisons Mary Stuart, 1568 onwards… Queen Elizabeth decided to imprison Mary. The two women still had not met face to face. Imprisonment for a woman of Mary's status was more comfortable than for most prisoners who were ordinary people. Mary was placed under 'house arrest'. She was moved around every few months between castles and homes of nobles and gentry trusted by Elizabeth. Mary was allowed some servants and lived in some comfort, but she was under constant guard and allowed very little freedom, especially when it came to going outside at all. Her communications with the outside world were very limited. ### The danger of keeping Mary alive, 1568 onwards… Queen Elizabeth's decision to keep Mary alive, but in prison, was made because she feared the consequences of killing Mary, and, she certainly did not want to help her regain her old power in Scotland. However, as long as Mary was still alive, she was dangerous. Catholics in England committed to overthrowing Elizabeth had the perfect replacement in Mary, if Elizabeth could be removed and Mary freed. If plots and plans to do this could be supported by the Spanish, the French or the Pope, who also wished for Mary to replace Elizabeth, all the worse for Elizabeth.