Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587) [Orlando, Chapter 3, page 172] was the Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 – 24 July 1567, and caused great controversy over her legitimacy as a monarch. Her father was King James V of Scotland who died soon after her birth on December 8, 1542. Mary left Scotland at the age of five and was brought up in the court of King Henry II in France, eventually marrying the eldest son of Henry II and Catherine in 1558 for the political purpose of bringing union between France and Scotland. Mary returned to Scotland in 1561 and took on her role as monarch, maintaining a policy of religious tolerance as one way to gain the trust of the people. Mary was Roman Catholic, but the official religion of Scotland had been reformed to Protestantism in her absence. Although Mary may have been met with some suspicion as she returned to Scotland to take on the role of monarch, there were many Roman Catholics who viewed her as being a more legitimate ruler than Queen Elizabeth I, and the true heiress to the English throne because they didn’t view Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine as valid. In Orlando, Mary Queen of Scots is referenced in relation to her faith as Orlando finds her prayer book: "It was a little book bound in velvet, stitched with gold, which had been held by Mary Queen of Scots on the scaffold, and the eye of faith could detect a brownish stain, said to be made a drop of the Royal blood" (Woolf 172).

In July of 1565, she was married for the second time to her cousin Lord Darnely, which proved to be a very disadvantageous decision as she antagonized all the elements that upheld the power structure in Scotland. Darnley killed her confidant and then died very suspiciously, most likely at the hands of the nobles. Mary was married off to the chief suspect in his murder Lord Bothwell, and sought refuge with Elizabeth in England. Elizabeth held her in captivity in a series of prisons for eighteen years, under the accusation that she was involved with Darnely’s murder. Mary was eventually tried in English courts and executed in 1587. (369 words)

“Elizabeth II.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Feb. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-II.