She lost her husband, the King of France, and set foot once again on the shores of her homeland, Scotland. From the lips of this beautiful 19-year-old widow escaped a quiet sigh.
"Adieu, France."
This farewell would later become a prophecy of her tragic fate.Having lost her father just six days after her birth, she stood at the center of conflict simply by virtue of her royal blood. Sent to France to escape religious and political turmoil, she grew into a woman of dangerous charm, seductive enough to bring men to their knees.
It was a time when politics and religion were inextricably engaged in chaos. Under the reign of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England, Mary was the sole hope for the oppressed Catholics. Mary herself made clear her opposition to the Reformation in her native Scotland. Diplomats of the Vatican warned that this woman, claiming absolute power, would become a formidable counterpoint to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, too, sensed that this cousin, nine years her junior, had become a rival threatening her very seat.
Mary's life was filled with numerous loves, followed closely by bloody murders and assassinations. A marriage to a young, handsome knight (Lord Darnley), a secretary (the musician Rizzio) brutally murdered before her eyes by that husband, and a remarriage to another lover (Earl of Bothwell) suspected of assassinating her husband. She even appointed the lover suspected of killing her husband to a position equivalent to the commander-in-chief. The people were appalled and no longer respected their queen. A rebellion eventually rose against her shameless conduct. Her lover met a miserable end, and she was arrested by her subjects. After delivering a stillborn child of her lover in prison, she escaped and sought refuge with her relative in England, Elizabeth.
In his play, the German literary giant Friedrich Schiller depicts a historic meeting between the two queens in "The Park at Fotheringhay Castle," where trees grew thick in the front and a wide landscape stretched behind.
Mary approached the haughty Elizabeth with humility, but Elizabeth felt jealousy and rage at Mary's beauty and unbroken dignity.
"Yes, you are finished now.
You can seduce no one anymore.
Your cheap honor is nothing but vile beauty."
Mary’s tongue, responding to this hatred, was even sharper and more lethal. She stabbed at Elizabeth's most painful wound: the secret of her birth. Elizabeth, born of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was treated as a bastard in the Catholic world because her mother had been executed for adultery.
"Your mother did not bequeath you chastity.
The throne of England is profaned by a bastard! It is you who should be prostrate at my feet. For I am your King!"
Shocked and enraged beyond words, Elizabeth stormed out. Immediately, she signed Mary's death warrant and affixed the Great Seal.
On this day, February 8, 1587, Mary Stuart, the 'Queen of Scots', was executed at Fotheringhay Castle.
Historically, these rivals of the century never met even once. However, many creators have arranged a meeting between the two queens in their works, decorating the scene as the climax of the tragedy. Schiller’s 1800 play Maria Stuart depicts this confrontation most dramatically.
If these two women had indeed brushed past each other on a page of history, no one would disagree that such a conversation would surely have taken place.
Source: Begegunug mit dem Genius, Rudolf K. Goldschmidt-Jentner
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