If Mary, Queen of Scots could have foreseen all the trouble her
marriage to Bothwell was going to cause, one can only hope she would
have made a different choice. Without the support of Scottish nobles,
Mary turned to her cousin, Elizabeth, for help. Surely, she must have
thought, Elizabeth would assist a fellow queen and cousin.
Without waiting for the advice of her ministers, who would have
told her NOT to seek help from Elizabeth, Mary left for England. She
was 26 years old.
When she arrived in England, Mary asked to see her cousin, the
queen. For another 19 years Mary would continue to ask for an
audience with Elizabeth. She
never got one. Instead, she was confined in one English castle or
another, never free to leave. Effectively imprisoned without charges,
and without a trial, Mary ceased to live the life of a ruler.
As time passed, Mary
increasingly tried to
return to Scotland. There was always a reason why her English captors
would not let her go. The main, unstated reason was clear. Elizabeth
and her advisors continued to view Mary - the heir - as a threat to the
security of Elizabeth's throne.