On 16th May 1568, a small fishing boat carrying Mary Queen of Scots set sail from Scotland for Engli

On 16th May 1568, a small fishing boat carrying Mary Queen of Scots set sail from Scotland for English shores, she would spend the rest of her life in various locations, never to set foot in Scotland again.Days after the defeat at Langside Mary Stuart decided her only option was to fee south.  Her supporters begged her to stay in Scotland or head for Catholic France. But she was convinced that Elizabeth – her cousin, and like her an anointed monarch – would help her raise an army to return to Scotland in triumph. Before leaving Scotland she wrote to Elizabeth requesting a meeting and sending a diamond ring as a token of her friendship. Without waiting for a reply, she and 16 supporters made the four-hour crossing of the Solway Firth (the strait that forms part of the border between England and Scotland). Mary had watched her army soundly beaten by an army led by her half brother, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, she would flee the scene and later write, to a relative in France; “I have endured injuries, calumnies, imprisonment, famine, cold, heat, flight not knowing wither, ninety two miles across the country without stopping or alighting, and then I have had to sleep upon the ground and drink sour milk, and eat oatmeal without bread, and have been three nights like the owls.” Such a fall from grace for our beautiful Queen, Mary at the time was only 25.On 18th May, local officials took her into protective custody at Carlisle Castle.  Mary spent just eight weeks at Carlisle Castle, from 18 May to 13 July 1568, with Sir Francis Knollys as her custodian. Although Mary was permitted to take walks outside the castle walls with her ladies, and walk the stretch of castle walls that later became known as ‘the lady’s walk’, the other limitations placed upon her movements (such as the fact that she couldn’t travel elsewhere or receive guests without the permission of Elizabeth I) were a foreshadowing of the long years of imprisonment to come.Mary was kept in Queen Mary’s Tower, which was largely demolished in 1834 due to its unsafe condition and is now a ruin. As the original Norman entrance this was one of the oldest parts of the castle. Mary arrived after a four-hour crossing of the Solway Firth with her retinue, and she expected that her stay at the castle would be a short one – believing she was simply awaiting the help of her cousin Elizabeth I who would help her to regain the throne. Sadly for Mary, this ill-advised plan was to lead to her being imprisoned for the rest of her life.Although Mary wrote to a supporter soon after her arrival that she had been ‘right well received and honourably accompanied and treated’ whether or not she realised it at this point, she was a prisoner, and was being kept under armed guard. Sir Francis Knollys was sent north from London by Elizabeth I to be Mary’s keeper and although he described her as ‘pleasant’ he was under pressure not to allow his royal prisoner to escape. For the next nineteen years our unfortunate Queen was lodged in various castles and mansions around England Pics are Mary, a depiction of her on the Solway Firth and s Drawing of Queen Mary’s Tower at Carlisle Castle by JMW Turner -- source link

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