Stirling Castle - Court Life - Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots

The infant Mary was crowned Queen of Scots in the Chapel Royal in 1543. Stirling castle was to be her safe haven.Nevertheless, Mary became a political football as England and France competed for influence over a kingdom whose monarch was too young to rule.

The English king Henry VIII waged war against Scotland – the Rough Wooing – to force her marry his son. But Mary wed the son of the French king instead, the first of her three marriages.

In 1567, the Catholic queen was forced to abdicate by hostile Protestant noblemen. Twenty years later she was dead, beheaded after a long imprisonment in England having fled Scotland to seek the protection of her cousin Queen Elizabeth.

The infant Mary was crowned Queen of Scots in the Royal Chapel in 1543.

Mary staged the first firework display in Scotland to celebrate the baptism of her son, the future James VI. She also enjoyed football, watching a match among her courtiers played at Carlisle.

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