Mary, Queen of Scots Was Forced to Abdicate
On this day · 24 July 1567
Imprisoned on an island and still recovering from a miscarriage, a 24-year-old queen was made to sign away her crown.
On 24 July 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to sign the instrument of her own abdication, surrendering the Scottish throne to her 13-month-old son, James. She had been queen since she was less than a week old, yet at just 24 she was pressured into giving up the crown under threat.
The collapse came fast. After her third marriage to the Earl of Bothwell scandalised Europe, rebel lords routed her cause and held her captive at Lochleven Castle, an island stronghold in Loch Leven. Recovering from a miscarriage, she was confronted by Lord Lindsay and made to put her name to the documents that ended her reign.
Mary had believed she would be treated as royalty; instead she was imprisoned and stripped of her crown.
Her infant son became James VI, with Mary’s half-brother, the Earl of Moray, installed as regent. Mary escaped Lochleven in 1568, fled to England, and was eventually executed in 1587 — but the boy she abdicated for would one day rule both Scotland and England as James I.
Sources & references
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