Mary, Queen of Scots

Feb 8, 1587. Mary Stuart, the queen regent of Scotland, was beheaded at Fotheringhay, England, after being accused of plotting Queen Elizabeth I’s death. Mary, the daughter of James V of Scotland by his second wife, Mary of Guise, was born Dec 7 or 8, 1542, at Linlithgow, Scotland, and became queen a week later upon the death of her father, although she did not begin governing until after her mother’s death in 1561. Accused of knowingly marrying the alleged murderer of her second husband, Lord Darnley, she was forced to abdicate in favor of her son (James VI) and fled to England for protection, only to find herself a prisoner for the rest of her life—a victim of Elizabethan political intrigue.

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