[MR] Wikipedia: Mary Queen of Scots Abdicates

[Garth Groff via Atlantia]

Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots:

On this day in 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Scots . Mary had recntly 
married James Bothwell, whom she created Earl of Orkney. Bothwell was a 
suspect in the murder of Mary's previous husband (and cousin) Henry 
Stuart, Lord Darnley. Mary, a Catholic, was already very unpopular in 
her largely Protestant country, and her third marriage was just too 
much. Taken captive by forces loyal to her bastard half brother,  James 
Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Mary was forced to abdicate. She later 
escaped from captivity, and after an brief attempt to regain her throne 
with a small army, was forced to flee to England and her eventual 
topping for plotting against Queen Elizabeth.

The Earl of Moray, illegitimate son of James V, was one of the true 
power players of his age and lived up to his unfortunate title (he was a 
slippery and dangerous character, like a moray eel, but the name is just 
a coincidence of history): 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart,_1st_Earl_of_Moray . He 
became regent to his infant nephew James VI (later James I of England). 
Moray was largely successful in suppressing latent support for Mary 
among the remaining Catholic lords, and also maintained a somewhat 
fragile peace with England. Unfortunately he was murdered by James 
Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, a supporter of Mary, who shot Moray from a 
window at Linlithgow in 1570. Moray's death is said to have been the 
first political assassination with a firearm.

See? Scottish history isn't just about daggers. We Scots can be quite 
inventive!

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot