Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Mary, Queen of Scots

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

One of the most significant figures in 16th-century Britain was Mary Stuart, aka Mary, Queen of Scots.  Mary’s life was one of the most fascinating of the period. Depending on which historian you consult, she was a schemer, a traitor, a pawn, or a victim. According to some, she was all of these things.  What is certain is that Mary was ultimately responsible for the union of the Scottish and British crowns and the creation of the United Kingdom that we know today. Learn more about Mary, Queen of Scots, and her incredible story on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Sign up for ButcherBox today by going to Butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily at checkout to get $30 off your first box! Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Ben Long & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the most significant figures in 16th century Britain was Mary Stewart, aka Mary Queen of Scots. Mary's life was one of the most fascinating of the period. Depending on which historian you consult, she was a schemer, a traitor, a pawn, or a victim. According to some, she was actually all of those things. What is certain is that Mary played a major role in the Union of the Scottish and English crowns and the creation of the United Kingdom we know today. Learn more about Mary, Queen of the Queen of the United Kingdom.

Scott's and her incredible story on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. In the aftermath of the War of the Roses in the 15th century, the Tudor dynasty rose to power with the ascension of Henry the 7th to the throne of England.

Everyone thought that Henry the 7th's ascension to power finally solved the problem of succession to the English crown. While Henry did end the war, the tutors ushered in a whole century of succession controversies. Henry VIII followed Henry the 7th, and he went through a series of wives in an attempt to produce an heir. In the process, he ousted the Catholic Church and established a new Protestant Church of England with him as its head. Henry VIII eventually did have a son with his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward.

When Henry the 8th died, his Protestant son, Edward VIII, became king at the age of nine and was dead at the age of 15. The crown was then passed to his eldest daughter, Mary, from his first wife, the Spanish Catherine of Aragon. This Mary is not the subject of this. episode, which often confuses people. Mary was Catholic, married the King of Spain, Philip the 2nd, and never had a child. So when she died in 1558, the crown passed to her younger half-sister, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was Protestant, and many Catholics in

England didn't consider her legitimate because they didn't consider Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn as legitimate. If Elizabeth wasn't the true heir, then who should be the monarch? You'd have to go back up the ladder to Henry the 7th and his eldest daughter and the older sister to Henry VIII Margaret Tudor. She was married to King James IV of Scotland. Their son became James V of Scotland. And James V had only two legitimate children. James, who died before he was one year old, and Mary, who finally is the subject of this episode. Mary was nine years younger and a contemporary of Elizabeth. She was born in Scotland on December 8, 1542. Just six days after Mary's birth, her father, James V, died, and the infant Mary became the

Queen of Scotland. Her regent selected to rule until she became of age was James Hamilton, the second Earl of Aaron. He served in the role for 12 years. It's believed that Mary grew up speaking Scots as her first language and also learned French, the language of her mother. She did eventually learn English, but she never really wrote anything in it until later in life, and her fluency level was probably very low. In 1548, with the threat of an English invasion of Scotland looming, she was sent to the French court to be raised. Mary was well educated in the French court, learning Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and her native Scots language, as well as acquiring skills and poetry, horsemanship, and music.

She was noted for her beauty, grace, and intelligence, which made her a celebrated figure in the French court. In 1558, 16-year-old Mary was wed to Francis, the Doféne of France, and was next in line to the throne. They were wed for little over a year when the King of France died and her husband became King Francis II. Mary was now 17 years old and was the Queen Monarch of Scotland as well as the Queen Consort of France. Her mother had taken over the duties of Regent in 1554 and was still exercising them when Mary was married.

Unfortunately, Mary's marriage and her reign as Queen of France didn't last very long. Her husband died the next year in 1560, leaving her a widow at the age of 18. In 1561, with her influence and power in France now gone due to the death of her husband, she decided to return to Scotland to take up her duties as queen. Upon her return to Scotland, Mary, who was a devout Catholic, found herself ruling a nation that had recently undergone a Protestant Reformation. Scotland's religious tensions were high, and Mary's Catholicism made her a divisive figure amongst her Protestant subjects.

One of the leading Protestant figures in Scotland was John Knox. Knox. Knox hurled vitriolic invictives and insults at her from the pulpit. Knox feared that having a Catholic monarch meant that she may try to reintroduce Catholicism back to Scotland and perhaps have a Catholic European power such as France or Spain intervened militarily. Mary, for her part, found Knox relentless criticism intolerable. However, there was little she could do about it. In most countries, criticism of the monarch would get you arrested or killed. However, if she did that to Knox, she risked a Protestant uprising that could overthrow her monarchy. To the south in England, her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, constantly had to deal with the issue of marriage and producing an heir.

She never did end up marrying or having children. That was not the case in Scotland. In 1565, Mary became wedded to her cousin, Henry Stewart, the Lord Darnley. This marriage, while initially popular, soon became a source of scandal and conflict. Darnley was arrogant and ambitious and stylized himself as king despite only being the king consort. And his behavior alienated many of Mary's supporters. The marriage produced one son, James, but it was otherwise disastrous. On February 9, 1566, Mary's secretary, David Rizzo, an Italian, was murdered in front of her by a group of Protestant nobles,

heightening the tensions between Catholics and Protestants at court. On the morning of February 10, 1567, Darnley's residence at Kirkofield in Edinburgh was destroyed by an explosion. But his body, along with that of his servant, was discovered outside of the ruins, seemingly unharmed by the blast. It appeared that Darnley had been strangled or suffocated, leading to widespread suspicion that he was murdered. The event was shrouded in intrigue and scandal with many people believing that Mary's close associate,

the Earl of Bothwell was involved, possibly with Mary's complicity. Just three months after the death of Lord Darnley, Mary married the Earl of Bothwell. Given the previous rumors of their involvement in the death of Lord Darnley, this did not help their cause. Rumors had spread throughout all of Europe of Mary's involvement in the death of her husband. Even her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, warned her about it. She wrote her a letter and noted, quote, I should ill-fulfill the office of a faithful cousin or an affectionate friend if I did not tell you what all the world is thinking.

Men say that instead of seizing the murderers, you are looking through your fingers why they escape, that you will not seek revenge on those who have done you so much pleasure, as though the deed would never have taken place had not the doers of it been assured impunity. For myself, I beg you to believe that I would not harbor such a thought." End quote. The marriage to Bothwell was deeply unpopular. Her Catholic subjects didn't recognize Both Both Catholics and Protestants objected to her marrying the man accused of killing her ex-husband. The Scottish nobility became outraged and actively began working against their queen. 26 Scottish nobles came together to create their own army to oppose Mary and Lord Bothwell.

On June 15, 57, Mary and Bothwell's army met the nobles at Carberry Hill just east of Edinburgh. However, the battle of Carberry Hill never happened, as negotiations took place between the two sides. Almost all of Mary's army deserted her, abandoning her on the battlefield. Mary was captured by the Scottish nobles and taken to the Lock Levin Castle north of Edinburgh, where she was held in captivity. During her captivity, she had a miscarriage, and finally on July 24th, she abdicated the Scottish crown in favor of her infant son, who now became James the 6th of Scotland. Her husband, the Earl of Bothwell, was allowed to leave. He subsequently fled to Norway and was taken captive in Denmark. He was put in prison where he died in 1578, 11 years after fleeing Scotland.

After he left Scotland, he never saw his wife again. She never saw her son again, as he was to be raised by Protestant nobles in particular, her illegitimate half-brother James Stewart, the first Earl of Moray. She was held at Lock Levin for ten months. Then on May 2, 1568, she escaped with the help of the brother of the owner of the castle. She managed to raise an army of 6,000 men and met her half-brother at the Battle of Langside. Mary lost the battle, and then fled south into England where she thought that her. her cousin Elizabeth would help her. On the one hand, Elizabeth did want to help her cousin,

who was a duly anointed queen. On the other hand, Mary was a threat to Elizabeth as she was a rallying point for all of the Catholics in England. The Scottish regent, James Stewart, presented to Elizabeth a box of letters that were supposedly written by Mary to her husband. Known as the casket letters, they were a series of eight controversial documents, including love letters, sonnets, and other papers. These letters were reportedly found in a silver casket in June of 1567, after Bothwell fled following the defeat of his forces by the Scottish nobles. The contents of the letters seemed to suggest that Mary was not only involved in a romantic relationship with Bothwell, but also complicit in the plot to murder her husband, Lord Darnley. Mary was put on trial in

abstentia in York for the murder of Lord Darnley, but Mary didn't recognize their right to put her on trial. Elizabeth didn't want to find her cousin and another queen guilty of murder, so she just put Mary away. And it should be noted that there have been serious debate amongst historians as to the authenticity of the casket letters. Mary was held as a captive of Elizabeth's for the next 19 years. She was only 25 years old, when her captivity in England began. Over the years, she was moved from castle to castle, and Elizabeth's ministers kept a close eye on all of her visitors and correspondence. During the time, she became the focus of numerous Catholic plots to overthrow Elizabeth

and place Mary on the English throne. Although she denied involvement in these plots, her association with them ultimately led to her downfall. In 1586, Mary was implicated in the Babington Plot. a plan to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary. Despite her protests of innocence, Mary was tried and found guilty of treason. Elizabeth was reluctant to sign Mary's death warrant,

but eventually did so under pressure from her advisors. On February 8, 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded at Fathering Hay Castle. She faced her death with dignity, dressed in red, the color of Catholic martyrdom. As with the casket letters, there has been a great deal of debate as to if Mary was actually involved with the plots against Elizabeth, or if Elizabeth's advisor set her up to get rid of her and remove a potential threat to her power. Either way, Mary Queen of Scotland and France was dead.

Elizabeth lived for another 16 years after Mary's death. When she died in 1603 without any errors, the English crown passed to Mary's son. James the Sixth of Scotland was now also James I of England. After centuries of division and conflict, the thrones of England and Scotland were now united and has remained united to the present day. Mary Queen of Scots played an important role in the history of 16th century Britain. Some historians consider her a villain and some consider her a victim. Either way, she played a pivotal part in the creation of the modern British monarchy.

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