Random Tragic Facts About Mary, Queen of Scots, Most Unlucky Queen In History (14 items)

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  (#1) She Became Queen Of Scotland At The Tender Age Of Six Days Old

  Mary was born at Linlithgow Palace outside of Edinburgh on December 7 or 8, 1542 – she succeeded her father to the throne six days later. James V had unfortunately died from disease some believe he may have contracted from drinking contaminated water. So the infant Queen relied on regents – including her formidable French mother Marie of Guise – to rule on her behalf. She would not take full command of her throne until she was 19 years old.
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  (#2) She Got Engaged When She Was All Of 5 Years Old

  Mary's mother secured a marriage with the royal house in France, which was part of an "Auld Alliance" with Scotland. Following the principle "my enemy's enemy is my friend," France and Scotland had been building an alliance for centuries through their shared hatred of England. So Mary of Guise sent 5-year-old Mary to the French court for safe keeping. Her intended, the heir to the French throne, was barely out of diapers – Francis was 3. For the next several years, Mary's happy home became the French court, replete with intrigue, luxury, and politics.

  Mary and Francis properly married when she was 15. It proved to be a happy – if brief – marriage, and it is unclear if it was ever consummated.
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  (#3) She Was Queen Of France Until Her First Husband Died Of An Ear Condition

  Mary's first husband was the young dauphin, or heir, to the French throne, Francis II. So when her father-in-law King Henry II died in a tragic jousting accident in 1559, young Francis took the throne with Mary as his queen. The reign was brief; Francis would die only 17 months later of an ear condition. Without her husband, the French court lost the charms and delights it had once held for Mary. Catherine de Medici became regent, ruling in the stead of her 10-year-old son Charles. As a result, Mary soon returned to Scotland to take up her royal duties. 
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  (#4) Her Second Husband Was A Complete Jerk

  Mary knew that her second marriage had to count, so she chose Lord Darnley, a handsome cousin with an impeccable pedigree and a legitimate claim to both the Scottish and English thrones, as her second husband. Though Mary was attracted to his looks as much as his connections – she once described him as the "lustiest and best proportioned man" she had seen – the marriage proved to be a disaster. Darnley quickly proved himself to be a vain cad and drunkard. Moreover, Darnley probably had syphilis.
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  (#5) Darnley Murdered Mary's Secretary Before Her Eyes

  One of the most traumatic moments in Mary’s life happened in 1566. Mary’s second husband Lord Darnley had become jealous and weary of the growing influence of Mary’s secretary David Rizzio. So, Darnley took matters into his own hands. On the night of March 9, a posse (with whom Darnley was affiliated) burst into Mary’s private apartments and murdered Rizzio right in front of her and her ladies in waiting. It was a chilling sight that the pregnant Mary would not soon forget. Although Darnley denied any involvement, his accomplices showed Mary his written agreement to the hit on Rizzio.
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  (#6) People Accused Her Of Murdering Darnley

  Nobody really liked Lord Darnley, least of all his own wife. So when he died on February 10, 1567, under mysterious circumstances – he was discovered strangled in an orchard after the house he was supposed to be in exploded – people were quick to point the finger at Mary and the man they claimed to be her lover, the Earl of Bothwell. Whether or not Mary had a hand in Darnley's death remains a contested issue. But it is true that a group of Scottish noblemen – with or without Mary's knowledge – were likely the conspirators behind his assassination. 
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  (#7) Her Third Husband May Have Raped Her And Forced Her Into Marriage

  James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell was one of the most ambitious – and disliked – noblemen at Mary's court. So when Mary's second husband Lord Darnley died under mysterious circumstances, Bothwell seized the opportunity. After hastily divorcing his first wife, in April 1567, Bothwell and 800 men met Mary's royal entourage as they were making their way back to Edinburgh from Stirling Castle, where her young son resided. Bothwell literally abducted Mary, raped her, and forced her to marry him.

  Though some speculate there may have been romantic feelings between the two, the marriage shocked and appalled Scottish nobles who did not trust Bothwell and used the event to further discredit Mary. Her marriage to Bothwell more or less marked the end of her reign. In a matter of months, Mary would give in to pressure and abdicate.
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  (#8) She Made A Dangerous Escape From A Scottish Castle

  After abdicating her throne in favor of her one-year-old son, Mary was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle, a small castle on an island in the middle of a loch. But Mary had no intention of being a prisoner in her own kingdom. So she set about orchestrating her escape. After 11 months as a captive, on May 2, 1568, Mary got her captors drunk on wine and, with the help of two Douglas boys, managed to disguise herself and get off the island. In fact, she walked right out of the front door of the castle; May Day festivities provided the perfect rambunctious distraction from her exit. But Mary's freedom was short lived, as she would spend the remainder of her life imprisoned in England.
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  (#9) She Spent 20 Years Of Her Life As Her Cousin's Prisoner

  After Mary was forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son James, she fled south to England. She had hoped her cousin Elizabeth I would give her a warm welcome and help her retake the Scottish throne. Instead, Elizabeth virtually imprisoned Mary. Since Mary had Tudor blood – her grandmother was Elizabeth's aunt – the exiled Scottish queen was a legitimate claimant to the very throne upon which Elizabeth sat. So, to stem the threat her Scottish cousin posed, Elizabeth locked Mary away in a series of remote castles scattered across central and northern England over the course of roughly 20 years.

  In one of the darkest moments of her glorious reign, Elizabeth ordered her cousin's execution in 1587. Ironically, the rival queens share eternal rest: Mary and Elizabeth are buried across the aisle from one another at Westminster Abbey in London.
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  (#10) Elizabeth's Advisors Probably Trapped Her In Their Web

  Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's spymaster, knew that the ex-Scottish queen was a thorn in his queen's side. Yet, Elizabeth could not bring herself to order the death of her cousin and fellow consecrated queen. So, Walsingham had to gather evidence that Mary was an actual threat to Elizabeth's throne. The chance came when a Catholic Englishman by the name of Anthony Babington was organizing a plot to overthrow the Protestant Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary. Walsingham employed a double agent to ferry letters for Mary, and so the spidery spy master knew everything she was writing. When Babington finally reached out to Mary and received her permission to follow through with the plot, Walsingham jumped at his chance to prove Mary's guilt. 
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  (#11) After Abdicating In Favor Of Her Young Son, Mary Never Got To See Him Again

  24-year-old Mary officially abdicated the throne on July 24, 1567. Her young son was crowned King James VI of Scotland, and a retinue of regents would rule the kingdom until he came of age. Though Mary would live for another 20 years, she would never get to see her son again. James would be raised a Protestant, without ever truly knowing his mother and hearing from his own tutor that Scotland was correct in getting rid of her. 
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  (#12) She Saw Herself As A Catholic Martyr

  When Mary returned to Scotland after living at the French court for the better part of 13 years, the religious landscape of the country had changed. Mary was a Catholic queen in an increasingly Protestant country. A firebrand Protestant reformer by the name of John Knox spoke vehemently against the Catholic Mary – as well as female rulers in general. Mary wasn't just a political and cultural outsider in her country; she was also a religious outsider. As evidenced by the very last letter she wrote only hours before her death, it seems as though Mary saw herself as a Catholic martyr. 
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  (#13) She Carried Her Little Dog With Her To Her Very Public Execution

  After her trial for high treason – though, as Mary herself pointed out, she was not an English subject and therefore could not be tried for treason – in the wake of the Babington Plot, Mary was swiftly sentenced to death. On February 8, 1587, she mounted a scaffold that had been constructed at Fotheringay Castle and lowered her head for the executioner with dignity. 500 spectators watched in horror as the executioner swung a few times before finally decapitating her. It must have been an excruciating death.

  According to at least one eyewitness, her little dog had been hidden in the voluminous folds of her dress and was discovered covered in its mistress's blood and in a state of great agitation. He wouldn't leave her body. At the end of her life, it seems that Mary still had at least one loyal friend.
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  (#14) Her Son Inherited The English Throne

  Though Mary would be executed because Elizabeth feared she would usurp her throne, it was Mary's line that persevered. The unmarried, childless Elizabeth named Mary's only son James as her heir. So when good Queen Bess died on March 24, 1603, James VI of Scotland also became James I of England. Thus, Mary's son (James I), grandson (Charles I), great-grandsons (Charles II and James II), and great-great-granddaughters (Mary II and Anne) all ruled the English and Scottish thrones. The Stuart dynasty would survive as the royal house of England and Scotland until 1714, when Germanic cousins – more of Mary's descendants – took over and ruled as the House of Hanover. Mary's blood, not Elizabeth's, runs through the veins of the current royal family. 

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