MARY STUART (Stuarta), Queen of Scotland. - B. 8 Dec. 1542 in Linlithgow Castle; daughter of James V, king of Scotland, and of Mary of Lorraine, a fervent Catholic and niece of the duke of Guise, of France.
In Nov. of the same year her father suffered a military reverse at Solway Moss while fighting against the reformers, and shortly thereafter he died, six days before the birth of his daughter. Calvinism had penetrated into Scotland and was putting down deep roots there through the work of John Knox, a bold preacher. For the infant M. her mother was regent; a circumstance that favored the rebellion of the Scottish nobility adhering to the Reformation. France, for many years an ally through dynastic kinship, now tightened its ties with Scotland, while the Anglican Church threatened to absorb it, and Henry VIII supported the Protestant party there in the hope of a union of the two crowns. M. found herself contested by both sides: in London they wanted to betroth her to the prince of Wales; in Paris they wanted her as dauphine of France. France won and the regent favored its plans: in July 1547 a French fleet took the fortress of St. Andrews from the Calvinists; Knox was captured and taken to France, and shortly thereafter M. was betrothed to the dauphin Francis (the future Francis II); in July 1549 the Scottish Parliament approved the betrothal. It was the official victory of the Catholic party. But the regent did not feel secure. A French fleet, which she had urged on, drove out the English garrisons and carried the little M. off to France, where she was raised at the court of the Valois. Meanwhile Knox regained his freedom and came to preach in England, then in Scotland, from 1550 to 1551, forming a league among the reformers and opening the struggle against the Regent. In 1558 M. married the Dauphin of France, who upon the sudden death of his father ascended the throne of the Valois under the name of Francis II. At 17 M. was queen of France and queen of Scotland. Indeed the Catholics of England considered her the legitimate heir of Mary Tudor, since Elizabeth was for them the "bastard." So much royal splendor soon entered into eclipse. In Dec. 1560 M. lost her husband and the throne of France; Elizabeth threw all her forces into her war against Catholicism. Knox had again become popular. An insurrection of the nobility and the common people stripped Mary of Lorraine of all power; she died shortly thereafter (June 1560). Parliament, summoned in haste through Knox's influence, forbade the exercise of Catholic worship, under penalty of death, and sanctioned Calvinism. Returning to her own Kingdom, M. was awaited by a republican nobility, by a rough common people with habits of violence. A difficult task to set back on its feet the depressed monarchy and the stifled Catholic religion.
M. obtained for herself the right to a private chapel, for her Catholic worship: but even there she was the object of insults on the part of the reformers; Knox himself presumed to lecture her on Calvinism in the halls of the palace. M. believed she had a protector by marrying (July 1565) a cousin, Henry Stuart earl of Darnley. Because of her husband's political inexperience, M. made use of an Italian, a good Catholic, a singer in her chapel, David Rizzio. Darnley, made jealous, murdered him before M.'s eyes, while she was held motionless with a dagger at her throat. She was in the sixth month of pregnancy. The thought of vengeance entered her heart. An adventurer, the earl of Bothwell, with whom the Queen had fallen in love, was the executor. Darnley fell with his own house, through an explosion of gunpowder, in the night of 9-10 Feb. 1567. Three months later, Bothwell was M.'s husband, after having divorced his own wife.
John Knox, more than seventy years old, reawakened the agitation with youthful impetuosity. There was open war. The insurgents defeated the Queen's troops. Bothwell took refuge in Norway; M. was taken to Edinburgh, a prisoner. Confined in the castle on the island of Loch Leven, she signed the act of abdication in favor of her son, after having entrusted the regency to the earl of Moray.
A year later M. managed to escape (2 May 1568): she summoned her adherents, and was able to dispose of an army. Defeated by Moray at Langside, she took refuge in England, hoping for hospitality from Elizabeth. The latter held her prisoner for 19 years. The conspiracies attempted by the Catholics of England and France, with the aid of Philip II, to free her by overthrowing Elizabeth from the throne, had a negative outcome. The discovery of a plot, in 1586, against Elizabeth's life, served to legalize the death sentence of M. after a parody of a trial. The sentence was carried out 3 months later, on 9 Feb. 1587, arousing an emotion that reached as far as the romantics (cf. Schiller).
Bibliography11 works
Ettore Rota