Quotes from John Guy

Mary and her six servants shouted louder and louder

until the queen, in tears, slipped off her stool, at which point she knelt and continued as before.

playing a leading role in the Protestant revolution

She prayed that Elizabeth might prosper and long continue to reign, serving God aright.

the only women important enough to have them in Henry II's reign were Catherine de Medici and Diane de Poitiers.

By Christmas 1568, Mary had not been found innocent, but neither had she been convicted.

She confessed that she hoped to be saved

forming the ideas that were to pit him so vehemently against Mary in later years.

horse-drawn litter covered with velvet and fringed with gold and silk, as well as a coach

by and in the blood of Christ at the foot of whose crucifix she would willingly shed her blood.

In Paris, Elizabeth's accession was greeted with unconcealed scorn.

Mary wanted to appeal directly to Elizabeth at the level of queen to queen.

she finished, kissing the crucifix and making the sign of the cross in the Catholic way.

Only two weeks before, on November 24, her father's forces had been routed by the English at the battle of Solway Moss.

She ended with a grim warning: "Burn this letter, for it is too dangerous

Mary found this insulting. It implied that she was Elizabeth's inferior.

Satisfied, she calmly turned to Bull, who meekly knelt and sought her forgiveness

Guises swiftly proclaimed their niece to be "queen of England, Scotland and Ireland," challenging Elizabeth's right to succeed her elder sister on the grounds of bastardy and Protestantism.

Sumptuousness of this kind was unknown in Scotland. James V's belongings had been more modest.

forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles.

and Mary was to lure Darnley to his fate at Kirk o'Field.

The executioners helped Mary's gentlewomen to undress her down to her petticoat.

Elizabeth's right to succeed her elder sister on the grounds of bastardy and Protestantism

the queen my good sister coming of the brother, and I of the sister.