Battle of Solway Moss. King James V of Scotland suffers a terrible defeat at the hands of Henry VIII. James V then suffers a complete mental and physical collapse and dies shortly thereafter at the age of only thirty. His daughter Mary is only a week old and is crowned queen at nine months. Mary then becomes Queen of France when she marries Francis, King of France, who died only a year after their marriage. She then returns to Scotland to marry her cousin Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley. Henry is surly and brutal and at one point murders David Riccio, Mary’s secretary, in front of her. One day, Henry Stewart’s house is set on fire, and when he tries to escape, he is strangled and killed. Mary later marries James Hepburn, Fourth Earl of Bothwell, without any better luck: Scottish Protestant nobles manage to imprison Mary, who is forced to abdicate in favor of her son James VI, who is only 16 months old. Mary was then forced to flee to England, where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth (who was not recognized as Queen of England by Catholics, as Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII following her divorce from her previous marriage). In 1586, after 18 years in prison, she authorized the plot to kill Elizabeth and exchanged information using encrypted codes. However, Mary’s agent, Gifford, was actually a double agent and was also in the pay of Walsingham, who obtained copies of each letter, which were then resealed after being copied. The letters were then deciphered by Phelippes using the frequency of each letter and suggested attempts. Mary’s trial began on October 15th. She maintained a composed and dignified demeanor throughout the trial and denied everything. However, she was sentenced to death, a sentence signed by Elizabeth, and was beheaded on February 8, 1587, in front of a crowd of three hundred people in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle.
