Mary

Mary (1542-87), queen of Scots (1542-67). The sole legitimate heir to James V, she inherited the throne on 14 December 1542 when only 6 days old. The ensuing minority was dominated by the conflict between France and England for control of Scotland through the promise of the infant queen in marriage. Initially betrothed to Henry VIII's son Edward, the Scots' rejection of the match led to war with England and Mary's removal in 1548 to France and an eventual marriage to the Dauphin Francis.

The maintenance of French catholic interests in Scotland was the prime aim of the queen mother, Mary of Guise. Her daughter's marriage to Francis in April 1558 bound Scotland to a French monarchy heavily influenced by the militant catholicism and dynastic ambition of the young queen's Guise relatives. When Henri II died on 10 July 1559, the new French monarchs, Francis II and Mary, united a dynastic inheritance encompassing potentially not just France and Scotland but also England and Ireland.

The potential was never realized, however, for the death of Francis on 5 December 1560 left Mary a childless widow. Her decision to return to Scotland in August 1561, where in 1559-60 a protestant revolution had seen the defeat and death of Mary of Guise and the establishment of an English-backed administration led by Mary's half-brother Lord James Stewart, was driven by the desire to pursue her dynastic ambitions within Britain.

Yet the stability of Mary's rule depended on a delicate balancing act which the explosive issue of her marriage was always likely to upset. Mary's catholic marriage to Darnley on 29 July 1565 was a love-match, but the problems posed by the rapid breakdown of relations with Darnley proved insoluble. Embittered by the now pregnant queen's refusal to grant him the crown matrimonial, Darnley joined the Rizzio conspiracy of March 1566. Mary gave birth to a son on 19 June 1566 and the future James VI was baptized a catholic on 17 December.

Mary's complicity in Darnley's murder on 10 February 1567 cannot now be established with certainty. However, her marriage on 15 May to the leading suspect, the earl of Bothwell, handed her opponents the chance to destroy her. Moves to ‘liberate’ her from Bothwell led in July 1567 to her enforced abdication. Although defeated at Langside, it was her ill-considered flight to England which sealed her fate. Characteristically, Elizabeth prevaricated endlessly over signing her dynastic rival's death-warrant. But Mary's incessant plotting led finally to her execution at Fotheringhay on 8 February 1587.