Mary Stuart inherited a throne at six days old, briefly reigned as Queen of France, and spent eighteen and a half years imprisoned by her own cousin before stepping onto a black-draped scaffold. This deep dive cuts through romanticized myths to the factual events of one of history's most dramatic and disastrous reigns.

Raised at the French court and returning to a Protestant Scotland she barely knew, Mary pursued a calculated strategy of tolerance to secure her claim to England. We trace the catastrophic marriages to Darnley and Bothwell, the murder of David Rizzio, the casket letters, and the decades of English captivity that ended with the Babington plot.

• Henry VIII's brutal 'rough wooing' to seize the infant queen
• Why Catholic Europe viewed Mary, not Elizabeth, as England's rightful heir
• The bizarre murder of D ...