Queen of Scots Mary Trivia

1. On 15th October 1586, Mary Queen of Scots was brought before the jury at Fotheringhay Castle charged with ...?

From Quiz The Cipher of Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: Plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England

Mary was born in December 1542, the daughter of James V of Scotland. However, having suffered a crippling military defeat to the English he had a breakdown and died shortly after her birth. As the only heir, Mary was crowned on the 9th September 1543, aged just nine months. From an early age there were attempts for Mary to be suited by Edward, son of Henry VIII, in order to unite the two nations. However, Mary's mother, Mary of Guise had other ideas. As she was French she decided that it would be better for Mary to move to France (which she did at the age of six) in order to marry the Dauphin Francis and unite Scotland and France. When she was sixteen they married. Then in 1560, when Francis had been king for less than a year he fell ill and Mary was widowed. When she returned to Scotland in 1561, she realised that her Catholic faith was likely to be shunned as many in Scotland were edging towards Protestant Christianity. Mary was imprisoned by Scottish parliament due to her Catholic faith, and having lost control of the Scottish crown she was forced to seek refuge with her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England. Rather than provide refuge, Elizabeth imprisoned Mary as she saw her as a threat to her throne. Mary then lived out the rest of her life in prison leading up to her plot to assassinate Elizabeth shortly before her death.

From Quiz The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: Nine months

Mary actually became queen of Scotland when she was six days old, but she was not crowned until she was nine months old - on September 9th, 1543. She didn't start to reign in person till she was seventeen, for until then regents ruled in her stead.

From Quiz Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

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

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: Linlithgow Palace

She was born here in 1542.

From Quiz Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: 1542

Mary, Queen of Scots was born shortly after the deaths of her two young brothers, James and Arthur. Mary was a great disappointment to the ailing King, her father, who declared that 'As it shall start with a lass it will end with one.'

From Quiz The Cipher of Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: Babington Plot

Anthony Babington was a young Catholic who was very supportive of his faith at a time when it was difficult to be so. Catholics were forced to pay huge taxes and religious leaders could often be subject to gruesome consequences such as disembowelment or mutilation. It was for these reasons that Babington was in support of Mary becoming Queen, as she was a Catholic who would put a stop to all of this. Also, many English Catholics believed Elizabeth to be an illegitimate Queen as she was mothered by Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn. As Catholics did not allow the concept of divorce they believed that Henry could not have married Anne legitimately and therefore Elizabeth was a bastard child. In March 1586, Babington and other conspirators gathered to discuss the plot that would involve the assassination of Elizabeth and the freedom of Mary. However, they felt that they needed Mary's blessing to carry out their plan, and so the secret correspondence began.

From Quiz Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

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.

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles

Answer: George & Geordie

George Douglas was probably in love with Mary, but she did not yield to his advances.

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: wi' a lass & wi a lass

What he mean by this was that his family, the Stewarts, had become Kings of Scotland through marriage to Bruce's daughter. Now James feared that they would lose the position because his only heir was female.

From Quiz Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: James V of Scotland and Marie de Guise

Mary's father died only a few days after Mary was born and James' wife Marie de Guise became Regent for the young Queen.

From Quiz The Cipher of Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: Inside a leather packet inside the hollow bung of a beer barrel

Despite many of these sounding ridiculous, it is known that all four techniques have been used at some point in history. The 'shaved head' and 'wax ball' techniques are older and would clearly be used when there wasn't a great deal of urgency for the message to be delivered as it would take time for the hair to grow back or the ball to be passed. The 'urine' technique is still used today as invisible ink when easier methods are not available. The urea burns brown when heated gently and the message can be discovered easily. However, the 'beer barrel' is the right answer. Gifford (their courier) would go to the local brewery and use the bung to conceal the letter. Then somebody working at the place where Mary was held would open it up and deliver the message.

From Quiz Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

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.

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles

Answer: James, Earl of Moray

Moray was Mary's illegitimate half brother. He was murdered in 1570. Morton later became regent after James's two successors were also murdered.

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: Catholic

Which was unfortunate, as Scotland had undergone a Reformation, leading to Scotland being declared a Protestant country.

From Quiz Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: Henry VIII forcing the betrothal of his son Edward, Prince of Wales and Mary, Queen of Scots

This prompted Marie de Guise to send her daughter to live at the French court and become the fiancé to the French dauphin.

From Quiz The Cipher of Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: The practice of keeping the message hidden

The practice of encoding or enciphering the message is known as cryptography, and is viewed as a separate discipline. On the other hand, steganography involves keeping the message itself hidden, regardless of whether or not the message is encrypted. The practice of steganography has existed for several millennia, with the earliest known examples being some of those in the previous question (Shaved head or wax ball technique). Clearly these methods would have taken a while to carry out and as time progressed, faster methods of hiding the message had to be used. This gave rise to invisible ink and other more modern methods of steganography.

From Quiz The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: Roman Catholic

She continued to attend Catholic Mass privately, although she supported the law banning the celebration of the Catholic Mass in Scotland. On one occasion she was physically attacked by a band of Protestants, but she stubbornly continued.

From Quiz Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

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.

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles

Answer: Lady Jean Gordon

Jean was not happy about being divorced and complained to her brother, Lord Huntly, who then became an enemy of Bothwell.

From Quiz Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: Francis II King of France, Henry Lord Darnley and James Bothwell

Mary married Francis in 1558 and had a brief reign as Queen Consort. Her marriage to Henry, Lord Darnley was love match but she soon tired of him because of his wild mood swings and drunkenness. Her last marriage to James Bothwell was a love match that angered the Scottish nobility and resulted in James being run out of the country.

From Quiz The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: Nine years old

Elizabeth of England celebrated her ninth birthday two months prior to the birth of Mary.

From Quiz Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

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.

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles

Answer: Marie R

Mary never changed her signature all her life. The reason for this is probably because she was taught to sign 'Marie' in France because that is the French form of Mary.

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: 1561

Scotland had been ruled by regents, James Hamilton and Mary of Guise, while she was growing up, and while she was living in France. She returned to Scotland in 1561 after the death of her first husband, Francis.

From Quiz Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: John Knox

During talks together, Mary would break into tears after a religious argument with John Knox who made her mother's Regency in Scotland so tumultuous.

From Quiz The Cipher of Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: A nonsense symbol thrown in to confuse the analyst

It is clear to see how the presence of nulls would add to the security of the message. Given that both sender and receiver are aware of any nulls that may be present in the text then it would be easy to disregard them. However, if a cryptanalyst was trying to break the cipher and read the message then nulls give a clear advantage for the sender as the presence of nulls may deter frequency analysis as it would throw up false truths.

From Quiz The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: James

Her son, James (later James VI of Scotland) was probably sired by Lord Darnley although some suspect that he was really the son of her private secretary, David Rizzio. He became King James I of England after Elizabeth's death in 1603.

From Quiz Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: 2nd

This was part of the reason why Mary apparently married Darnley, as he would bring her even closer to the English throne.

From Quiz Mary, Queen of Scots

Answer: James

James became King of Scots at an early age and later ascended to the English throne upon Queen Elizabeth I's death in 1603.

From Quiz The Cipher of Mary Queen of Scots

Answer: The next symbol represents a double letter

The dowbleth indicates that the next letter or symbol represents a double letter. This is another useful security tool as it deters frequency analysis by potentially halving the number of one letter that occur in the message. Also, the dowbleth itself could be seen as a separate symbol, again causing havoc with frequency analysis. An example of how this would work can be seen by writing out the word MISSISSIPPI with a dowbleth symbol of '+' In the normal word there are - 4 I's, 4 S's, 2 P's and 1 M. MI+SI+SI+PI In this case there are - 4 I's, 3 +'s, 2 S's, 1 P and 1 M. Obviously it would be easy to decipher the message in this case despite the differences in frequency of each letter, but if a whole letter was enciphered then the differences in frequencies could throw an analyst off of the track.

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