The True Story of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I

The True Story of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-mary-queen-scots-and-elizabeth-i-180970960/#v2F6zRwDUzm3Qkex.99
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Josie Rourke’s film sees Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie transform from allies into rivals, but in actuality, the queens’ relationship was far more complex

image: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/6wRYnpDYvSE87jTDLAKOc6GneP8=/420x240/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/e4/c5/e4c5c8fd-5329-4b44-876e-4fa4b09dd7df/2000.jpeg

As biographer Antonia Fraser explains, Mary’s story is one of “murder, sex, pathos, religion and unsuitable lovers" (Liam Daniel/Focus Features)

By Meilan Solly

SMITHSONIAN.COM 3 HOURS AGO

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Mary, Queen of Scots, towered over her contemporaries in more ways than one. Not only was she a female monarch in an era dominated by men, she was also physically imposing, standing nearly six feet tall.

Her height emphasized Mary’s seemingly innate queenship: Enthroned as Scotland’s ruler at just six days old, she spent her formative years at the French court, where she was raised alongside future husband Francis II. Wed to the dauphin in April 1558, 16-year-old Mary—already so renowned for her beauty that she was deemed “la plus parfaite,” or the most perfect—ascended to the French throne the following July, officially asserting her influence beyond her home country to the European continent.

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-mary-queen-scots-and-elizabeth-i-180970960/#v2F6zRwDUzm3Qkex.99
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