Mary Stuart. Her life and struggle for crown

England. Thus, Elizabeth, though she had a high notion of the rights of

Kings and Queens to do anything they liked, sent an army to Scotland to support the Reformer, who were in arms against their sovereign. Mary and her young husband renounced their assumed title of King and Queen of

England. But this treaty they never fulfilled.

4. Struggle alone

Soon, the young French King died, living Mary a young widow. She was then invited by her old Scottish subjects to return home and reign over them.

She wasn’t happy in France after her husband’s death, so she left for

Scotland. It happened in 1561. Elizabeth had been Queen for three years when Mary Queen of Scots embarked at Calais for her own country. She was very fond of France, and set on the deck, looking back and weeping

«Farewell France! Farewell France! Is hall never see you again!»

1. Elizabeth obtained her own way

When Mary came to Scotland and settled at the palace of Holyrood in

Edinburg, she find herself among strangers and wild customs, very different from the court of France .John Knox himself often lectured her, violently and angrily, and did much to make her life unhappy. All this reasons con- firmed her old attachment to the Romish religion.Thus, from the moment of Mary’s coming to England she began to be the center of plots and miseries. A rise of the Catholics in the north was the next of these, and it was only checked by many executions and much bloodshed. It was followed by a great conspiracy of the Pope and some

Catholics sovereign of Europe to depose Elizabeth, place Mary on the throne, and restore the unreformed religion. At last, one great plot was discovered, and it ended the career of Mary. Her letters were found. Queen

Elizabeth had been warned long ago that in holding Mary alive, she held the

«wolf, who would devour her.» The question was: what to do with her? The

Earl of Leicester wrote a little note, recommending to poison her. His advice was disregarded, and Mary was brought to trial at Fotheringey

Castle in Northamptonshire, before a tribunal of forty, composed of both religions. The Queen Elizabeth asked to consider some means of saving

Mary’s life. The Parliament answered: «No». They supposed that all the troubles would be ended by the death of the Queen of Scots.

Elizabeth wished one thing more than Mary’s death, and that was to keep of blame of it.

Only on the 1 of February, 1587, the Queen signed the warrant for the execution. So, on the 7 of February, the Earls of Kent and Shrewsbery, with the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, came with the warrant to Fotheringey, to tell the Queen of Scots to prepare for death.

Tragic struggle

When the messengers were gone, Mary made a frugal supper, read over her will, went to bed, slept for some hours, and then passed the reminder of the night saying prayers.

While the sentence was being read, Mary sat upon a stool, and, when it was finished, she again denied her guilt, as she had done before.

Some say, her head was struck off in two blows, some say in three. When it was held up, streaming with blood, the real hair beneath the false hair she had long worn was seen to be as gray as that of a woman of seventy, though she was only in her 46 years.