Mary Stuart. Her life and struggle for crown

IntroductionMy favorite subject at school ishistory, so the history of England is very interesting for metoo. Elizabeth the First and Mary Stuart are very important persons in thehistory of England. The struggle of Queen Elizabeth and the Queen of Scots often is told in literature, theater, and itis very famous.

This moment was very dramatic and made the future ofEngland. I have seen a perfromance about Mary Stuart and Elizabeth the First,andit made me curious in this part of history of England. It seemed to me the mostinteresting part in the English history.I wanted to know more about Mary Stuart,

Queen of Scots, QueenElizabeth, her rival about thosetimes, in which Mary Stuart lived.I was interested in who was Mary Stuart, what was the story of herlife, why wasn t she the Queen of England, what did she struggle for why wasshe executed. Working with this materials, I wanted to answer my questions and findnew of interesting facts

Mary s biography. Manepart 1. The beginning of Elizabeth s career Weary of the barbarities ofBloody Queen Mary s reign, the people looked with hope and gladness to the newSovereign. The nation seemed to wake up from a horrible dream. Queen Elizabeth was twenty- five years old when she rode through thestreets of London, from the Tower to Westminster Abbey to be crowned.

She was not beautiful, but she was well enough, and looked all thebetter for coming after the gloomy Mary. She was well educated, clever, butcunning and deceitful, and inherited much of her father s violent temper. Shebegan her reign with the grate advantage of having a very vise and carefulminister, Sir. William Cecil. 2. Mary s appearens and the story of theconflict The one great trouble of thisreign was Mary Stuart,

Queen of Scots. She was the daughter of the Queen Regentof Scotland, Mary of Guise. She had been married, when a mere child to Dauphin, the son and heir of the King ofFrance. The Pope, who pretended that no one could rightfully wear the crown ofEngland without his gracious permission, was strongly opposed to Elizabeth, asthe Roman Church had never recognized the marriage of

Henry the Eight s and AnnBoleyn, Elizabeth s the First mother. And as Mary Queen of Scots would haveinherited the English crown in right of her birth, supposing the EnglishParliament not to have altered the succession, the Pope and most of hisfollowers maintained that Mary was the rightful

Queen of England, and Elizabeththe wrongful Queen. After her marriage to Dauphin Mary became closelyconnected with France, and France was jealous of England, so there was fargreater than it would have been without her alliance with the great power. Andafter death of her husband s father Dauphin became Francis the Second, King ofFrance, and the matter grew very serious.

The youngroyal couple wanted to be English King and Queen, and the Pope was disposed tohelp them.3.Political situation in ScotlandNow, the reformed religion, under the guidance of a stern and powerfulpreacher, named John Knox, had beenmaking progress in Scotland. It was still a half-savage country, where therewas a great deal of murdering and rioting continually going on, and theReformers instead of reforming this

evils as they should have done, went towork in the ferocious old Scottish spirit, laying churches and chapels waste,pulling down pictures and altars. The Scottish reformers secretly represented to Elizabeth that, if thereformed religion failed in their country , it would be the same in England. Thus,Elizabeth, though she had a high notion of the rights of Kings and Queens to doanything they liked, sent an army to

Scotland to support the Reformer, who werein arms against their sovereign. Mary and her young husband renounced theirassumed title of King and Queen of England. But this treaty they neverfulfilled.4. Struggle alone Soon, the young French King died, living Marya young widow. She was then invited by her old

Scottish subjects to return homeand reign over them. She wasn t happy in France after her husband s death, soshe left for Scotland. It happened in 1561. Elizabeth had been Queen for three years whenMary Queen of Scots embarked at Calais for her own country. She was very fondof France, and set on the deck, looking back and weeping

Farewell France! Farewell France! Is hallnever see you again! 5. Elizabethobtained her own way When Mary came to Scotland and settled at the palace of Holyrood inEdinburg, she find herself among strangers and wild customs, very differentfrom the court of France .John Knox himself often lectured her, violently andangrily, and did much to make her life unhappy.

All this reasons con-firmed herold attachment to the Romish religion. Thus, from the moment of Mary s coming to England she began to be thecenter of plots and miseries. A rise of the Catholics in the north was the nextof these, and it was only checked by many executions and much bloodshed. It wasfollowed by a great conspiracy of the

Pope and some Catholics sovereign ofEurope to depose Elizabeth, place Mary on the throne, and restore theunreformed religion. At last, one great plot was discovered, and it ended thecareer of Mary. Her letters were found. Queen Elizabeth had been warned longago that in holding Mary alive, she held the wolf, who would devour her.

Thequestion was what to do with her? The Earl of Leicester wrote a little note,recommending to poison her. His advice was disregarded, and Mary was brought to trial at Fotheringey Castle inNorthamptonshire, before a tribunal of forty, composed of both religions. TheQueen Elizabeth asked to consider some means of saving Mary s life. TheParliament answered No . They supposed that all the troubles would be endedby the death

of the Queen of Scots. Elizabeth wished one thing more than Mary s death, and that was to keepof blame of it. Only on the 1 of February, 1587, the Queen signed the warrant for theexecution. So, on the 7 of February, the Earls of Kent and Shrewsbery, with theSheriff of Northamptonshire, came with the warrant to Fotheringey, to tell theQueen of

Scots to prepare for death.6. Tragicstruggle When the messengers were gone, Mary made a frugal supper, read over herwill, went to bed, slept for some hours, and then passed the reminder of thenight saying prayers.While the sentence was being read, Mary sat upon a stool, and, when itwas finished, she again denied her guilt, as she had done before.Some say, her head was struck off in two blows, some say in three.

Whenit was held up, streaming with blood, the real hair beneath the false hair shehad long worn was seen to be as gray as that of a woman of seventy, though shewas only in her 46 years. Conclusion So, the life of Mary Stuart was very tragic and romantic, full ofadventures and evils. Her struggle for crown cost her life. When I was looking formaterials, Iread books, saw a performance, and now I know more about

Mary Stuart Queen of Scots and not only about her. I knowmore about Queen Elizabeth, her rival in struggle for the crown of England.Mary had full rights for crown of England, she fought for it, and shefailed in this struggle. This fact is often in literature because it is the first moment in history when theperson of royal blood was executed. We don t know what could be, if

Mary Stuart stay alive and became theQueen of England. Of course, the history would develop in other way. But the reign of Elizabeth wasthe glorious one, and is made for ever memorable. Apart from the great voyages,statesmen and scholars, whom it produced, the names of Francis Bacon, Spencer,Shakespeare, will be always remembered in the civilized world.

It was goodreign for commerce, discovery, and for England in whole. Contents Name Page Introduction 2. The beginning ofElizabeth s career 3. Mary s appearance and thestory of the conflict 3. Political situationin Scotland 4. Struggle alone 4.Elizabeth obtained her own way 5. Tragic struggle 6. Conclusion 7.