Today is the anniversary of the birth of Mary, Queen of Scots, on 8th December 1542. She was the daughter of James V of Scotland and his second wife, Marie de Guise, and the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor (Henry VIII's sister) and James IV of Scotland.
One of the mottos associated with Mary, Queen of Scots, is "En ma Fin gît mon Commencement" , or "In my End is my Beginning", and she is more famous for her brutal end at the hands of the axeman on 8th February 1587.
You can read more about her on our Mary, Queen of Scots bio page and browse our archives on her here.
Mary is also covered in historian Linda Porter's expert talk on Three Tudor Queens.
I'm looking forward to seeing the new movie about Mary and Elizabeth I, are you? Here's the trailer:
In July 2019, the Tudor Society, in association with British History Tours, is doing the Executed Queens Tour and we're visiting two places associated with Mary: Tutbury Castle and Sheffield Manor Lodge. You can click here to find out more.
I thought that the two queens never met
That’s right, the two Queens didn’t meet. Elizabeth would not meet Mary until she was cleared of the accusations that she killed her second husband, Henry, Lord Darnley, but she then made other excuses on the advice of her counsellors and they never met.
It’s not the first film to have them meet for dramatic purposes. Both Queens wrote first affectionate and then very strongly worded letters to each other and I think having them meet is a way of showing those words in action. Mary made no secret of her claim to be the real Queen of England as well as Scotland and Elizabeth was probably wise not to meet a woman she feared because it was dangerous and she was afraid she might have to admit Mary’s claim if they met.