Brief post: Mary Queen of Scots 101

This is such an unbelievable waste of time, but I LOVE procrastinating and have to set the record straight on Mary, Queen of Scots. Jomarie, she's not the bad one who murdered all the Protestants!

That was "Bloody Mary," Queen Mary I of England, who is remembered for returning England from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. In the process, she had almost three hundred religious dissenters executed, leading to the nickname Bloody Mary. The two queens are sometimes confused, unfortunately. Scottish Mary is much prettier and less evil.

Wikipedia, lend me your hand! This is Mary, Queen of Scots:



** Mary I of Scotland (Mary Stuart, popularly known as Mary, Queen of Scots) was the Queen of Scotland from 1542-1567. She also sat as Queen Consort of France for a year. Because of her tragic life, she is one of the best-known Scottish monarchs. Vivacious, pretty, and clever (according to contemporary accounts), Mary had a promising childhood. Mary, being a devout Roman Catholic, was regarded with suspicion by many of her subjects as well as by Queen Elizabeth I of Protestant England, who was her father's cousin. Scotland was torn between Catholic and Protestant factions, and Protestant reformer John Knox preached against Mary, condemning her for hearing Mass, dancing, dressing too elaborately, and many other things, real and imagined.
Did you hear that? She danced! What a fucking bitch, right? Ugh.

** Then psycho Henry VIII tried to force Scotland to have Mary wedded to his son, so the English tried to invade Edinburgh and kidnap Mary, but she was hidden in the secret chambers of Stirling Castle. You can see pics of this castle in a previous post. When the Scots suffered a bitter defeat to the English, Marie de Guise, fearful for her daughter, sent her temporarily to Inchmahome Priory. This priory is on an insland in the Lake of Menteith. Menteith and Monteith are associated with the same clan, so this means that my ancestors helped save Mary from the bloody English! And so I love her, and that's that.

** Under the ordinary laws of succession, Mary was also next in line to the English throne after her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, who was childless. In the eyes of many Catholics Elizabeth was illegitimate, making Mary the true heir. Mary eventually became a liability that Elizabeth could no longer tolerate. She spent years and years in captivity. Elizabeth did ask Mary's final custodian, Amias Paulet, if he would contrive some accident to remove Mary. He refused on the grounds that he would not allow such "a stain on his posterity." Mary was implicated in several plots to assassinate Elizabeth, raise the Catholic North of England, and put herself on the throne, possibly with French or Spanish help.

** Mary denied the accusations and was spirited in her defense. One of her more memorable comments from her trial was, "Remember Gentlemen the Theatre of history is wider than the Realm of England." She drew attention to the fact that she was denied the opportunity of reviewing the evidence or her papers that had been removed from her, that she had been denied access to legal counsel and that she had never been an English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason. The extent to which the plot was created by Sir Francis Walsingham and the English Secret Services will always remain open to conjecture. Mary was ultimately convicted of treason, and was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.

** She spent the last hours of her life in prayer and also writing letters and her will. She expressed a request that her servants should be released. At her execution she removed a black cloak to reveal a deep red dress - the Liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic Church. Though Mary Stuart has not been canonised by the Catholic Church, many consider her a martyr, and there are relics of her. Her prayer book was long shown in France.

** American actress Scarlett Johansson will play Mary in a film scheduled to begin production by the end of summer 2007.

And there you have it. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS WHAT WHAT??