The Miserable Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

Описание: February 8, 1587 — What was meant to be swift royal justice became one of history's most horrifically botched executions. After 19 years of imprisonment by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was finally sentenced to death for treason. But even in her final moments, dignity would be stripped away by shocking incompetence.

Mary walked to the scaffold at Fotheringhay Castle with the grace of a true queen, wearing crimson silk beneath her mourning clothes — the Catholic color of martyrdom. She had prepared for a noble death, but what followed was a nightmare that traumatized every witness present.

The executioner's first blow missed her neck entirely, striking the back of her skull. As blood poured from the wound, Mary's body convulsed in agony. The second strike cut deep but failed to sever completely, leaving her head hanging by sinews and skin. Only the third desperate blow finished the gruesome task.

But the humiliation wasn't over. When the executioner lifted Mary's head to display it to the crowd, her auburn wig slipped off, revealing the gray, withered hair of a woman aged by decades of captivity. The gasps of horror echoed through the great hall.

Then, in a heartbreaking moment that moved even the hardest witnesses, Mary's small dog emerged from beneath her blood-soaked skirts, its white fur stained crimson, frantically searching for its beloved mistress who would never comfort it again.

This is the shocking true story of how a queen's execution became a public disaster — a brutal spectacle that haunted witnesses for life and transformed Mary Stuart from political prisoner into Catholic martyr. Her botched death would echo through European courts and contribute to the very conflicts Elizabeth had hoped to end.