Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eight days old

Mary was the youngest ever Scottish monarch at her accession. Her distant cousin, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, initially served as regent before he was replaced by the queen's mother, the French noblewoman Mary of Guise.

Mary of Guise is how she is commonly known in Scottish history. However, to avoid confusion with her daughter, I shall refer to her as Marie de Guise

Answer: Falkland Palace

Mary herself was born at Linlithgow Palace. James V, returning from a disastrous defeat at the hands of the English at the Battle of Solway Moss, stopped at Linlithgow to visit his pregnant wife, Queen Marie, before moving on to Falkland Palace. It was there, in bed, that he received news of his daughter's birth. He declared: "It cam wi' a lass and it'll gang [go] wi' a lass." - referring to the Stewart dynasty which had come to the Scottish throne through Marjory Bruce, daughter of King Robert I and mother of Robert II, the first Stewart king. The king died shortly afterwards. His death has traditionally been put down to grief but this now seems unlikely and the actual cause remains unknown.

James V was the son of James IV and his wife, Margaret Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII of England and the sister of Henry VIII. It was through Queen Margaret that the Stuarts would derive their claim to the throne of England.

Answer: James and Arthur

James, Duke of Rothesay and Arthur, Duke of Albany were the elder children of James V and his second wife, Marie de Guise. James was born in 1540 and Arthur in 1541, they both died within days of each other in 1541. Mary was not born until the following year.

Answer: Henri II

Mary was sent to safety in France in 1548 to keep her from the clutches of her great-uncle Henry VIII of England, who was keen for her to marry his son, Prince Edward. Mary was brought up at the French court and married Francois de Valois in 1558. The couple became king and queen of France in 1559 on the death of Henri II. However, Francois died of an ear infection in 1560 and Mary returned to Scotland to assume personal control of her realm the following year.

It was following Mary's time in France that the spelling of the royal name changed from the Scottish Stewart to the Frenchified Stuart.

Answer: David Beaton

David Beaton was one of the most powerful Scots of the age and had been James V's closest adviser. He was Archbishop of St Andrews, the highest position in the Scottish church, Chancellor of Scotland (effectively a medieval prime minister) and a Papal Legate. It was Beaton who managed to repudiate the treaty which would have seen Queen Mary married to Prince Edward of England. However, he was widely disliked and distrusted. Cardinal Beaton was murdered in St Andrews Castle by a gang of Protestant reformers in 1546 as the Reformation began to take hold in Scotland.

The other options were all Protestant reformers. Patrick Hamilton was burnt at the stake in 1527 as was George Wishart only a few months before Beaton in 1546. Beaton's murder was carried out to avenge Wishart's death, which was done at the order and in the presence of Beaton. John Knox became the leader of the Scottish reformation and often clashed with Mary over her Catholicism.

Answer: James

James V had an eye for the ladies and fathered at least nine illegitimate children, the most famous of whom was James Stewart, Earl of Moray.

Moray was initially one of Mary's closest advisers when she returned to Scotland. However, he had converted to Protestantism and he and Mary soon became enemies. After forcing Mary's abdication he became regent for her son, James VI, until his assassination in 1570.

James V's known illegitmate children were John, Adam, Jean, Margaret, three Jameses and two Roberts. Mary also had half-brothers through her mother, Marie de Guise, who had had two sons by her first marriage: Francois, who became duke of Longueville and Louis who died in infancy.

Answer: Mary Campbell

The fourth was, in fact, Mary Livingstone. The four Maries were the daughters of Scottish nobles - Mary Fleming was also a first cousin of Queen Mary. They accompanied Queen Mary to France and returned with her to Scotland in 1561.

Answer: Italian

Rizzio was charming, talented and handsome - as well as being arrogant. Being often in Mary's company, he attracted the ire of many of Mary's lords and the jealousy of her husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Darnley engaged in a plot with some of those lords to murder Rizzio.

The unfortunate fellow was stabbed to death (reputedly 57 times) in front of the heavily pregnant Queen. Darnley would later repent and beg the Queen's forgiveness.

Answer: True

Prior to the marriage she bestowed upon him the titles of Duke of Albany (usually reserved for the monarch's second son), Earl of Ross and Lord of Ardmanach. Henry was given the title of king but it was a courtesy title only with no real power, a fact which caused him no end of resentment.

Answer: Smallpox

A loud explosion destroyed the house at Kirk o' Fields on 10th of February, 1567. Darnley had evidently escaped the effects of the explosion but his strangled body was found nearby.

The perpetrators of the murder remain a mystery. Darnley was widely disliked by the Scottish nobles and he and the queen were estranged by this point. Despite the widespread dislike of Darnley, his murder shocked the Scottish people. The finger of suspicion pointed at Mary, especially after her hasty marriage to the Earl of Bothwell, the prime suspect in the murder. Her complicity in the murder was never conclusively proved but the suspicion and the rash marriage to Bothwell were enough to lose her much of her previous support.

The Earl of Morton, who had been regent for James VI, was executed for his role in the murder in 1581.

Answer: Carberry Hill

There was little real fighting at this battle. Mary's third husband, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell fled the field and eventually died, insane, in a Danish prison in 1578. Following her surrender, Mary was taken to Edinburgh and then imprisoned in Lochleven Castle where she was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son James, within days of miscarrying twins.

Her half-brother, Moray, became regent.

Answer: Lochleven Castle

Mary raised an army with the help of the powerful Hamilton family which met Moray's army at the Battle of Langside. After the defeat of her army Mary fled to England, hoping to enlist the help of her second cousin, Queen Elizabeth.

Answer: Francis Walsingham

Francis Walsingham was Queen Elizabeth's secretary of state and spymaster. Many English Catholics saw Mary as the true queen of England (regarding Elizabeth as illegitimate). Walsingham, therefore, determined to remove Mary as a threat to Elizabeth's throne and employed double agents to entrap her into plotting Elizabeth's downfall thus ensuring her conviction for treason.

Answer: Fotheringay Castle

After nineteen years of captivity in England Mary was executed in 1587 for conspiring to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and take the English throne for herself. Mary's son, James VI, ever hopeful of being named as Elizabeth's heir, raised little protest at the execution of a mother he had never really known.

Mary never spent time in the Tower of London although she did spent part of her captivity at Tutbury Castle and Chartly Hall.

Fotheringay is sometimes found spelt Fotheringhay.

Answer: Westminster Abbey

Mary was originally buried at Peterborough Cathedral but in 1612 her son, who was now James I of England, had her reinterred at Westminster Abbey.

The nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" is often said to be a veiled reference to the frivolous excesses of Mary's court. However, the alternative explanation often given is that it is, in fact, a veiled reference to the bloody excesses of the reign of Mary's cousin, Mary Tudor of England.