Babington Plot – Ingliando

On this day, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle by order of Queen Elizabeth I. The rivalry between the two queens had been brewing for years with Mary claiming the English throne for herself and Elizabeth scared of a possible united Scottish and French Catholic rebellion. After almost twenty years of confinement in various castles and manor houses in England, Mary was eventually tried for her role in the Babington plot to assassinate Elizabeth. Unsurprisingly, she was found guilty of treason and Elizabeth had little choice but to sign her death warrant. It took three strokes to detach her head, and when the executioner held it up for the public to see, he was left with an auburn wig in his hand as Mary’s head fell to the floor revealing that she actually had very short grey hair.