Mary Stuart, aka Mary, Queen of Scots

1542-1587, Queen of France and Scotland

Here is something completely different for the series so far: a woman who was not particularly bright or politically-savvy, was decidedly not French, and is mostly here because of a series of accidents of politics and birth.  Her story is long, so get settled in.

Mary Stuart was the daughter and sole heir of James V of Scotland, and the great-niece to King Henry VIII of England.  Her life was constantly marked by her political rivalry with her cousin-once-removed, sometimes friend, sometimes enemy, Elizabeth I.  Nearly her whole life was spent as pawns of other people's political ambitions, and the few times she asserted herself for her own wishes she made extremely poor and rash decisions.  Frankly I'm not sure why she is included in this series of statues; although there is something profoundly moving and sad about her life, she was not very important to history in any way, nor was she personally remarkable.

Anyway, her life started with a very dramatic first week: she was born prematurely (extremely dangerous at the time) to the queen of Scotland, a French duchess, and six days later her father, the king, died unexpectedly.  Mary, at six days old, therefore was the youngest person I know of to ascend a throne.  A council of regents governed for the infant queen, but for the last few decades Scotland's ruling class had been severely polarized by the issue of religion, so the council was always quarreling.  The traditional Scottish aristocracy was largely Catholic, while most of the rest of the population had converted to Calvinism, a very strict and puritanical form of Protestantism.

Henry VIII of England attempted to betroth Mary to his young son, Edward, in order to unite the two countries.  Just before this was official, a powerful Scottish Catholic cardinal got in the way to push a pro-Catholic agenda.  For him, and other Scottish Catholics, the best course of action was to ally with Catholic France against Protestant England.  The six month old baby Mary was of course at the center of the controversy, with both sides afraid the other would kidnap her, and she was moved into protective custody for the first of many times in her life.

Conditions worsened over the next few years between Scotland and England, and when Mary was five she was betrothed to the three year old heir to the French throne, and sent to France to grow up there.  She received a stellar education, was reputed to be extremely beautiful, and developed a close friendship with her future husband.  They made a strange pair: the very tall, beautiful, eloquent Scottish Mary, and the short, ugly, stuttering Francois.  Just before their marriage in 1558, Mary, 15 years old, was manipulated into signing a secret agreement passing both the kingdom of Scotland and her claim to the English throne on to her husband if she died without children.

This was probably because Mary Tudor, then the queen of England, was dying, and the heir apparent was her Protestant sister Elizabeth. Long before this, Henry had annulled his marriage with Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn, declaring it had never happened, and therefore making Elizabeth illegitimate.  Although Henry later restored her to the succession many English Catholics did not recognize her claim to the throne.  Mary Stuart, as the granddaughter of Henry's sister, was the last remaining Catholic Tudor heir.  Realizing this, French nobles thought they could use her claim to take over the throne of England, and convinced her to sign that agreement.  It would be the start of a long struggle over the English crown.

When Mary was fifteen the king of France died, making her queen of France.  Sadly, though, her husband died a year and a half later (of an ear infection!) and Mary was sent back to Scotland.  [Note: this is the extent of Mary's having any impact on the government of France, so I don't quite know why she is honored as a Frenchwoman here.]  While Mary had been growing up in France, the regent council had continued to rule Scotland for her, and the religious tensions had increased.  Mary herself was Catholic, although not terribly pious, and this linked her far more with the minority aristocracy rather than the Scottish people.  She always spoke English with a bit of a French accent, and was completely out of touch with her subjects; by the time she returned to Scotland she was already unpopular as an absentee queen.

In spite of the religious strife Mary didn't involve herself: she tolerated and even sometimes supported the Protestants on the council.  There was a lot of pressure for her to remarry, and of course each faction suggested princes of their own religion.  Elizabeth of England herself suggested that if Mary married an English noble she would consider making her heir (as Elizabeth had no intention of marrying).  Mary rejected all of these ideas and when she was 22 more or less eloped with her first cousin, the deeply unpopular Catholic aristocrat, Robert Darnley.  This infuriated Elizabeth firstly because as her cousin Darnley was technically not allowed to marry without her permission, and because both Mary and Darnley had claims to her throne.  The marriage also incited the most powerful Scottish Protestants into open rebellion against Mary. 

Much has been written about Mary and Darnley's marriage, but suffice to say here, that Mary was infatuated with him while he was clearly angling to become co-sovereign of Scotland.  He was absolutely hated by the Protestants, he personally helped murder Mary's closest friend in front of her while she was pregnant, and was just generally a detestable guy.  Just a year and a half after their marriage Darnley was murdered, probably with Mary's complicity.  They had had one son together, who would become James VI of Scotland.

The whole affair of Mary's marriage was sordid and surrounded by gossip, and it made her even more unpopular.  When rumors of Mary's involvement in Darnley's death reached Elizabeth she sent Mary a letter advising her to be seen to severely punish the murders, so that people would see her being a strong, just monarch.  During this period Elizabeth still saw Mary as a possible heir to England, and often sent her friendly letters with advice.

Mary did nothing, however, and a couple of months later was kidnapped and coerced into marrying the man who was in charge of Darnley's murder, James Bothwell.  This alienated both Catholics and Protestants, who were shocked that she would marry Darnley's murderer, and, you guessed it, she became more unpopular.  The rebellion against her continued and four months later Mary was forced to abdicate her throne in favor of her one year old son.  Her husband was exiled and she was imprisoned in Scotland.

She remained there for one year before escaping across the border into England, where she expected Elizabeth to help her get the Scottish throne back.  Elizabeth was not overjoyed about this, considering Mary's likely involvement in Darnley's murder, and set an inquiry into the matter before agreeing to help Mary.  Mary in turn was very angry, saying no court had a right to try her, since she was a sovereign ruler.  It went ahead anyway, but Elizabeth did not want to convict or acquit her cousin; in the meantime there was a Protestant regent of Scotland who was allied with Elizabeth, so she essentially had a puppet government in place.  Elizabeth by this time had realized Mary's unpredictable nature, and that she could become the centerpiece of a Catholic plot to overthrow her.  Therefore Mary was kept imprisoned in grand comfort in England. 

The next year a Catholic rebellion coincided with the assassination of Elizabeth's puppet in Scotland, making her very paranoid and more determined to neutralize Mary.  (Please note: Elizabeth was not just paranoid.  She probably had more attempts on her life than any other Western European monarch, ever, including assassins sent from the Pope.  She had enemies solely on the basis that she was female and Protestant, so it's not hard to see why she felt this was a necessary measure.)  In 1571 Mary was again implicated in a plot to overthrow Elizabeth (although she probably wasn't personally involved, just the figurehead), and this went on periodically for the next fourteen years while Mary was in captivity.

Finally in 1586 letters from Mary were used to implicate her in a plot on Elizabeth's life.  The letters were definitely not forged, and although it's unlikely that Mary was actively plotting against Elizabeth, she was very careless in her correspondence and was friendly towards people who wanted to assassinate the queen.  Mary was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.  In spite of all the plotting Elizabeth still did not want to execute Mary.  This is remarkable, since Elizabeth generally had no problem executing anyone who plotted against her; I tend to think she knew Mary wasn't the mastermind behind these plots, and that she pitied Mary's difficult position.  She also feared a Scottish rebellion if she killed their deposed queen.  Anyway, she eventually signed a death warrant - although there is evidence that she never intended for it to be carried out.  One of her advisers ordered it to be immediate, without Elizabeth's knowledge.

Mary was beheaded in February 1587.  Elizabeth immediately executed the man who was in charge of Mary's death warrant, saying he acted without her authority in enforcing it.

Her life was undoubtedly tragic, and I think it's clear that she had very little control over it most of the time.  Mary was an unremarkable woman living in a difficult position during a tumultuous time, and only a very strong and competent person could have survived it.  However, she had very little impact on history on the whole, and I've never really understood why she is a such a popular figure.  In the end, anyway, Mary had the posthumous last laugh: her son James VI became Elizabeth's heir, and the Scottish throne eventually took over the English one.

Incidentally, Mary's post-France life had very little to do with France - they wouldn't even help her when she was in captivity.  I have no idea why she's in the Luxembourg gardens.