This Tragic European Monarch Was Executed for Treason on Her Cousin’s Orders
Elizabeth I ordered the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic claimant to the English throne, on this day in 1587
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On February 8, 1587, the executioner’s ax struck three times, beheading Mary, Queen of Scots. The monarch’s demise has captivated scholars for more than 400 years—and its cause has made Mary’s story even more compelling to historians and Hollywood filmmakers alike.
Mary ascended to Scotland’s throne when she was just 6 days old. Her father, James V, who likely died of cholera or dysentery after suffering a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss in November 1542, left behind his newborn daughter as his only legitimate heir.
The child queen spent her early years in France, where she eventually married the heir to the throne, the future Francis II. During Francis’ brief reign, which spanned July 1559 to December 1560, Mary also served as queen consort of France.
Across the pond, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth I, who’d ascended to the English throne in November 1558, was watching her closely. The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, the new English queen had a tenuous claim to the crown. Her mother’s fall from favor and subsequent execution in 1536 caused the public to question Elizabeth’s legitimacy as queen. Her Protestant faith also put her at odds with a large swath of the population.
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Elizabeth became increasingly paranoid over the course of her 45-year reign, fearing a coup by subjects who clung to their Catholicism and favored another claim to the throne. In her enemies’ eyes, Elizabeth’s cousin Mary—the paternal granddaughter of Henry VIII’s older sister Margaret—was the legitimate English ruler.
This troubled dynamic ultimately led to Mary’s execution. Communicating through letters and intermediaries, Elizabeth initially sought to remove the threat her cousin posed to her; she asked Mary to formally give up her claim to the English throne via the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh. But Mary declined, preferring an informal gentlewoman’s agreement instead.
As time went on, the cousins maintained their correspondence, and Elizabeth even briefly considered naming Mary her heir.
Then their relationship began to sour. At home in Scotland, Mary was losing popularity, and she was ultimately forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in 1567. She fled to England, hoping to find an understanding compatriot in her cousin.
Instead, Elizabeth imprisoned Mary for 19 years, fearing the deposed Scottish queen as a threat to her reign.
Under house arrest, Mary stoked the fires of Elizabeth’s paranoia. She zealously embraced her Catholic faith, gaining the support of Pope Pius V and later Pope Gregory XIII, and she exchanged thousands of coded messages aimed at securing her freedom. Over the course of the 1570s, several attempts were made on Elizabeth’s life, and the English queen suspected Mary was involved. Then, in 1586, Mary was officially implicated in a plot to kill Elizabeth and spark a Catholic uprising in England.
Elizabeth had Mary arrested and put on trial for her role in the conspiracy. When the Scottish queen was found guilty, Elizabeth signed her death warrant.
On February 8, Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle. Forty-four years old at the time of her death, Mary had been married three times. Her only child, James, had assumed the throne in Scotland when she abdicated. When Elizabeth died in England in 1603, James claimed power there as well. Ultimately, argues biographer John Guy in Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart, “If Elizabeth had triumphed in life, Mary would triumph in death.”
Death also brought the queens were closer together than ever before: On James’ command, they were entombed opposite each other in Westminster Abbey.
