Mary, Queen of Scots

I'd be lying if I said I found Queen Mary of Scots interesting before watching Reign. I don't regret that either because not only was that show really good, but Mary Stuart's life was very interesting. She was born the only living heir of King James V of Scottland and got stuck taking the throne at only a few days old. James thought that a female heir was a bad omen for the country but he died six days after Mary's birth so there wasn't another option. At the age of five, Mary became betrothed to Francis II, the heir to the French throne. She then moved to France and was raised and educated with the French royal children and her and Francis took the throne when they were only teenagers.

After ruling France for only about a year, Francis died and Mary eventually returned to Scotland. After she returned to Scotland, her influence went downhill. She married twice more and after supposedly being involved in the murder of her second husband, she lost all support of her subjects. In fact, her subjects turned against her and had her kidnapped and forced her to give up the throne to her young son. From here she was involved in multiple plots and threatened her cousin, the queen of England, Elizabeth I. Because they were cousins, Mary was a threat to take the crown and Elizabeth only put up with it for so long. That's where I made my research question. I wanted to know what caused Elizabeth to execute Mary after all the years that Mary spent in England and though it seems like a mix of Mary's claim to the throne, losing her own throne, and being involved in assassination plots against Elizabeth. I'd dare to say that the assassination plots were the last straw.