Scotland. Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley and husband of Mary Queen of Scots, is assassinated. He was surly and brutal, and at one point murdered David Riccio, Mary’s secretary, in front of her. Henry Stewart’s house was set on fire on February 9, 1567, and when he tried to escape, he was strangled and killed. Mary then married James Hepburn, Fourth Earl of Bothwell, but with no better luck: Scottish Protestant nobles managed to imprison Mary, who was forced to abdicate in favor of her son, James VI, who was only 16 months old. Mary then had 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 ciphers. But the agent working for Mary, Gifford, is actually a double agent, and is also in the pay of Walsingham, who obtains copies of each letter, which are then resealed after being copied. The letters are then deciphered by Phelippes using the frequency of each letter and suggested attempts. Mary’s trial begins on October 15th. She maintains a composed and dignified demeanor throughout the trial and denies everything. But she is sentenced to death, a warrant signed by Elizabeth, and is beheaded on February 8, 1587, in front of a crowd of three hundred people in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scotland. Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley and husband of Mary Queen of Scots, is assassinated….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-618461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ev-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n