Mary Queen of Scots was a great-granddaughter of Henry VII. After her husband, Francis II of France, died young, she returned as Queen to Scotland but she was a Catholic in an increasingly Protestant country. By 1566, a disastrousmarriage to her cousin Henry, Lord Darnley, and her friendship with Italian musician David Rizzio had increased the tension to breaking-point.
Mary’s jealous husband murdered Rizzio, and was murdered in turn. When Mary married the prime suspect, the Scots made her resign her crown to her infant son James, and drove Mary into exile in England. Persistent intrigues eventually induced Elizabeth I to execute her cousin, but in 1603 Mary’s son James nevertheless inherited Elizabeth’s English crown.
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