MARY STUART (MARY, QUEEN or Soars), queen of Scotland: b. Linlithgow Pal ace, 8 Dec. 1542; d. 8 Feb. 1587 at Fotheringay Castle. The only child of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise, she was proclaimed queen upon his death, 14 Dec. 1542, and was crowned 9 Sept. 1543 at Stirling Castle. Negotiations for her hand by the future Edward VI of England came to nothing in spite of the at tempt to effect the betrothal by force of arms. In 1548, having been betrothed to the French Dauphin, she was sent to where 10 years later she married the Dauphin, who died in 1560 soon after coming to the throne. Mary re turned to Scotland, where her French Catholic training and the new Scottish Reformation made her position a hard one. She diplomatic ally yielded to the force of circumstances and surrounded herself with Protestant advisers. A match between the Scottish queen and Don Carlos of Spain, heir of Philip II, was all but arranged when Mary, in 1565, met Lord Darn ley, her cousin, whom she married 29 July 1565. She had hoped to win by this marriage the English Catholics, with whom Darnley had great influence, and to unite all Catholic claims to the English throne, Darnley (see MARGARET TUDOR) being next in succession to Mary; but her husband's weak ambition made him the tool of the Protestant plot against Rizzio, an Italian favorite of the queen, who was killed 9 March 1566, being brutally dragged from Mary's dining-room. Three months later Mary gave birth to a son (later James I of England). She was temporarily reconciled to Darnley; but on 10 Feb. 1567, Darnley's house was blown up and he was killed. Mary had been in the house late the evening before, and the murder was laid to the Earl of Bothwell, whom Mary married 15 May 1567. This act turned all the nobles against her; she was forced to surrender to her enemies and on 24 July 1567 to abdicate the crown. She was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle; escaped thence in May 1568; was un successful in her attempt to raise an army; crossed into England, entrusting herself to Elizabeth; and was almost immediately im prisoned. Elizabeth wished to put Mary out of the way, seeing in her a dangerous rival for the English crown, but fear of France and Spain held her back until 1585, while Mary was imprisoned at Tutbury and entrapped into the Babington conspiracy against Elizabeth.
Although her complicity was not clearly proved she was beheaded at Fotheringay. The moot point in Mary's tragic history is whether she was a party to Bothwell's assassination of Darn ley. That she was is apparently proved by letters from her to Bothwell, which the Scot tish nobles declared they found in Bothwell's jewel-case but the originals of these letters are not to be found, and their authenticity is doubtful. The matter is ably discussed in Cowan's 'Mary, Queen of Scots) (1901), and Lang's 'The Mystery of Mary Stuart' (1901). The point at issue is, however, confused by making it depend on the authenticity of these letters, for Mary's guilty knowledge of the plot against Darnley seems indubitable. But her career had more than a personal signifi cance since in her person were combined the last hopes of Catholic rule in England and an intense devotion to Catholicism. Personally she was of a dazzling complexion, apparently her main claim to beauty, marvelously winning, as her early career shows, and clever in argu ment, as was evidenced nowhere more plainly than in her trial for treason.
Bibliography.— Bell, H. G., 'Life of Mary, Queen of Scots' (2 vols., London 1890) ; Bresslau, 'Die Kassettenbriefe der Kiinigin Marie Stuart) (in 'Historisches Taschenbuch,) 6th ser., Vol. I. Leipzig 1882) ; Cowan, Samuel, 'Mary, Queen of Scots, and Who Wrote the Casket Letters?' (London 1901) ; id., 'Last Days of Mary Stuart and Journal of Bur goyne, her Physician> (Philadelphia 1907); Froude, J. A., 'History of England' (London 1881) ; Henderson, T. F., 'The Casket Letters and Mary, Queen of Scots' (Edinburgh 1889); id., 'Mary, Queen of Scots: Her Environment and Tragedy' (2 vols., New York 1905); Lang, Andrew, 'The Mystery of Mary Stuart' (Lon don 1904) ; Lloyd, C. E. (ed.), 'State Trials of Mary, Queen of Scots' (Chicago 1899) ; Mac cum, F. A., 'Mary Stuart) (2d ed., New York 1907) ; Mignet, F. A. A.,