Holyrood Palace

Holyrood palace was an unexpected treat. I had read that very little of the palace was open for viewing because it is still used as living quarters by the Queen during the summer, and they aren't going to let tourists traipse all through it. As it turned out, this was misinformation, and we traipsed to our hearts' content. Of course, there are large parts of the palace where we weren't allowed, but we went through the bulk of the second story including the rooms that had belonged to Mary Queen of Scots (the old part of the palace.)

We learned all about how Mary was crowned queen as an infant but then sent to France our of fear for her wellbeing. At 16 or so, she married the French King, who died a year later, at which point she returned to Scotland. There she married again, but shortly thereafter she was rumored to be having an affair with her advisor. One night, while she was having dinner (and she was extremely pregnant at the time) her husband tore into the room, upended the table, dragged Mary to the adjoining room, where the advisor had been brought, and proceded to stab him to death in front of her.

Within a year of this, Mary's husband was killed (strangled?) and the building he was in was blown up. It was rumored that the culprit was Mary's new lover, and there was speculation that she had been involved in plotting her husband's demise, but there was never any evidence to that effect. Mary married the lover, which raised a great deal of ire and she was eventually forced to abdicate the thrown to her son. My knowledge of what happened next is foggy, but somehow Mary's infant son is taken away from her on grounds that she will corrupt him (he later united Scotland and England) and Mary escaped to England where she hoped to gain the support of her cousin, Elizabeth I. This proved none-too-wise, and Mary was immediately imprisoned. It seems she had more of a claim to the English throne in some eyes than Elizabeth did. Mary wrote many letters begging her cousin to free her, but it was all in vain. Eventually Elizabeth accused her of conspiring against the throne and had her beheaded.

Real life can be so much more dramatic than fiction...