Today in 1561 Mary Queen of Scots arrived back in Scotland after having spent over a decade in France. Her husband, Francis II, King of France, had died in December 1560. Mary had nothing holding her to France, and so she made plans to leave.
The country she would come back to was wary of her, and Elizabeth’s minister William Cecil was worried that she was going to cause trouble for Elizabeth, seeing as how she was Catholic and may not have accepted Elizabeth as the rightful Queen of England.
She left Calais on the 14th of August, and as she was leaving port she saw two ships collide, one sinking with all its men drowned. She saw this as a bad omen, and was worried about what it meant for her return to Scotland.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested links:
Episode 085: Tudor Times on Mary Queen of Scots
Episode 29: Mary Queen of Scots
From the shop:
Mary Queen of Scots Coffee, Because Mug
Ps. All products are made on-demand and can take a few weeks to ship.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop. She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.