Carter Roy

At 18, Mary returned to Scotland and focused on ruling just one country.

Until five years later, when the Lords staged that coup.

They ousted Mary from her throne in favor of her one-year-old son.

Scottish just loved babies and crowns.

Fun fact, for over 200 years, Scotland didn't crown an adult king or queen.

Mary's father took the throne at 17 months, and the four kings before him were also crowned as children.

This dynasty would just have a baby then die, like salmon.

Okay, cute as a baby king is, the real reason Scotland had so many underage monarchs was because the lords always wanted more power and babies were easier to control.

After the lords forced Mary to abdicate, they imprisoned her.

But before they could kill her, Mary hatched an escape plan.

She dressed up as a washerwoman, went on the run, and eventually fled to England.

There, she hoped her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, would help her retake her throne.

If Elizabeth lent her an army, she could vanquish the rebel lords.

But Elizabeth wasn't keen to lend Mary an army, because Mary actually had a chance at being queen of a third country, hers.

Mary was a direct descendant of England's King Henry VII, and technically next in line to the English crown.

Okay, so to break it down, Mary, Queen of Scots, had lost two crowns and two husbands and was eligible for a third crown, all before she turned 25.

In 1567, Elizabeth hadn't formally named Mary as her heir because Mary was not a popular choice.

First, she was a foreigner, Scottish born and raised in France, and worse, like I mentioned earlier, Mary was devoutly Catholic.

England was a Protestant nation under Queen Elizabeth I, and the English lords did not want a Catholic monarch, especially William Cecil, the Baron of Burley and the Queen's spymaster.

As a Protestant nobleman, Cecil was terrified of a Catholic queen, because last time they'd had one, English Protestants lost their powerful positions, their lands, and their heads.