A direct descendant of Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, Mary had a legitimate claim to the throne of Elizabeth I. However, she was a catholic.

Mary was raised at the court of France and married Francis II when she was 17. After Francis died she sailed to Scotland to in her homeland.

The sophistication of her youth in France was not a good fit for the austere court of Scotland. She was beautiful, extravagant, headstrong, passionate and impulsive. Mary had a knack for bad timing and unsuitable marriages. Her second husband was a dim, pretty English aristocrat who was murdered by the Scottish lords with the complicity of Mary’s second husband the Earl of Bothwell. The result of the marriage resulted in the abdication of Mary and exile to England, the country of her cousin and enemy Elizabeth.

Mary was placed under arrest for plotting the overthrow of Elizabeth and the re-establishment of the Catholic church in England. She remained in isolation for almost nineteen years. After a cask of letters were discovered that implicated Mary’s involvement in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth she was executed.