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Mary Stuart did not know much about happiness. She was born in Scotland on 8th December, 1542 to James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise. But, by the age of 6 days old, Mary was officially Queen Mary I of Scotland, with the death of her father. By the age of 6 years, she was betrothed to Francis II, the French Dauphin. Her mother's family was the French connection. This sounds like a life bound for misery for a young child. Yet, the next 12 years she spent in France would be the only happiness Mary would know in her lifetime. She grew into a beautiful, red-headed woman loved by Francis and the French court. Well, loved by all except her mother in law, Catherine de Medici, King Henry II's wife. But Catherine was only the first of many signs that political tensions would ruin any chance of peace and self-fulfilment for Mary I.

When Francis became King on the death of his father in 1559, Mary became Queen of France as well as Scotland. Life seemed good. But Francis died young, in 1560, after ruling for a mere 17 months. Mary really had nowhere to go but back to Scotland.

But the Scotland she found was troubled. There were Protestant versus Catholic factions. There was tension with Queen Elizabeth I in England, who had only just begun her rule in 1558. Elizabeth was the daughter of the King Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn union. Roman Catholics believed the union was illegal, so Elizabeth's claim to the throne was also illegal. The Roman Catholics wanted Mary Stuart to be Queen of England because she was the grand-daughter of Henry VIII's sister, Margaret Tudor. Of course, Protestant factions disagreed. When Mary married her first cousin, Henry Stewart, known as Lord Darnley, in 1565, she stirred up the Scottish protestants, including reformer John Knox, because it was not a politically acceptable marriage. Mary tried to befriend Elizabeth and managed to get the Catholics suspicious of her motives as well.

And now began the final phase of Mary's life which was marked by tragedy after tragedy. Her marriage failed. Protestants openly disliked her Italian adviser David Rizzio, who was subsequently murdered at Holyrood Palace in Mary's presence. She gave birth to son James in 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, but there was no joy. All Mary could think about was dissolving her marriage with Darnley. He was rather conveniently murdered in 1567 under rather mysterious circumstances.

Shortly afterwards, another marriage for Mary followed to James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, who needed

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