A Queen is Born

Mary, Queen of Scots was born on 14 December 1542 at Linlithgow Palace in Scotland. Six days later her father, James V, died and Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland in September 1543 at Stirling Castle. Her early years were fraught with fear of her abduction when Henry VIII, the King of England, tried to force Catholic Scotland to adopt Protestantism and marry its child-queen to Henry’s son Edward.

Put all to fire and sword. Burn Edinburgh town, so razed and defaced when you have sacked and gotten what you can of it, as there may remain forever a perpetual memory of the vengeance of God…burn and subvert it and all the rest, putting man, woman and child to fire and sword, without exception…sparing no creature alive… Henry VIII, April 1544