Mary, Queen of Scots

1542 – 1587

Mary Stuart was Queen of Scotland from 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567, having inherited the throne at six days old following the death of her father, James V. Raised in the French court and briefly Queen consort of France, she returned to a Scotland riven by Reformation conflict and was eventually deposed and driven into England, where she became a focus of Catholic plots against her Protestant cousin Elizabeth I. After 18 years of imprisonment she was tried and beheaded in 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle on contested treason charges, becoming a defining symbolic figure for Catholic resistance in early modern Europe.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM