Dec 8: Mary, Queen of Scots

So this is late. Sorry. Royalty is confusing.

Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1542, d.  

1587)

Our first woman of the day from before photography was invented.

Mary, Queen of Scots was, well, the queen of Scotland. When she was only six days old, her father, King James V of Scotland, died. She was his only surviving legitimate child, so she instantly became the reigning queen. 

Is it a stupid idea for a six-day old child to be a reigning queen? Yes. Is it a stupid idea to let blood and birth order be the sole determiner of who's in charge? Of course. 

Scotland was ruled by regents while Mary grew up in France. At the age of fifteen (well... this was the 1500's) she married the future King of France and actually spent about a year and a half as the Queen of France. Then her husband Francis II died of an ear infection (again, 1500's), and she was left as only the Queen of Scotland (still not too shabby).

After this, she returned to Scotland in 1561 to take over control from the regents. Unfortunately, she had more experience with French politics than Scottish politics, and as a Catholic, many of her subjects did not trust her. In the end, though, she exercised the freedom to practice her own religion while leaving Protestant traditions alone.

Meanwhile, Mary's ambitions were to become Queen of England. She married Henry Stewart, or Lord Darnley, who was in line for the throne, but the relationship soured when he tried to force her into giving him control over Scotland. Later, after he murdered Mary's Italian secretary and friend right in front of her, Mary knew she had to get out of the relationship. They considered divorce, but the lords decided that the prospect of Darnley ruling over anything was too awful. Darnley soon died in a mysterious explosion. 

Just a few months later, Mary married the man accused of murdering her husband, Lord Bothwell. This seemed a little odd to a lot of people. This plus the fact that Bothwell's divorce from his previous wife wasn't recognized meant that basically everyone was unhappy, and Mary was soon forced to abdicate to her one-year-old son (family tradition of starting young, I suppose).

Mary fled to England, seeking the protection of her cousin Elizabeth I. The charges of murder were cleared, but Mary was not allowed to return to power nor leave England. Mary, as ambitious as always, was not content with this state of affairs and plotted to assassinate Elizabeth with the help of Spanish troops and French Catholics. Unfortunately for her, the plot was uncovered, and Elizabeth I had her own cousin beheaded in front of 300 witnesses in 1587. 

Moral of the story: Monarchs know no morals, fool. 

Honorable mention: Ingrid Michaelson (b. 1979), indie singer/songwriter who has had great popularity but never signed with a major record label. Unfortunately far less historically significant than our dear friend Mary.