Is Perception Reality?
I don’t think so. I think perception is only a reality to people who just choose to listen to others. They don’t think for themselves, they just listen. They choose to believe storytellers. They choose NOT to seek the truth. Perception has led to the downfalls of many Royals but the one Queen who suffered a life of gossip was the beautiful Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots).
From the start of her life until the end, various people created stories about Mary and eventually, those perceptions led to her downfall and execution. Mary Queen of Scots was a very beautiful, tragic woman who was born to James V and Marie of Guise. Her father died when she was only a few days and she became the Queen of Scotland when she was a baby. She grew up in France because she was betrothed to the Dauphin, Francis, son of Catharine de Medici and Henri III. When they were teenagers, she and the Dauphin married, but he died when he was a teenager.
So as a childless teenage widow she went home to Scotland to rule it. Since she was brought up in France, she behaved more French than Scottish and faced challenges “fitting in”. Plus, she was a Roman Catholic, so she really stood out. This was the beginning of the stories and the rumors. She had to find someone suitable to marry because she needed to produce an heir. She chose Henry, Lord Darnely who was a cousin, descendent of Henry VII and of his daughter Margaret Tudor by her second marriage. She loved Henry with all of her heart. Whereas her first marriage had been happy, her marriage to Lord Darnley was a disaster. Initially the couple did love each other, but as time went on Darnley’s true nature came out.
He was weak, mean, petty, cowardly, jealous, and a drunk. The marriage completely caved in when Darnley murdered one of Mary’s close friend and secretary, David Rizzio. He murdered him because he thought they were having an affair (false). Mary was pregnant at the time when Rizzio was murdered right before her eyes. In February 1567, Darnley was found dead in the garden of his home, after a huge explosion had taken place in the house.
She soon married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was generally believed to be Darnley’s murderer. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle and forced to abdicate the throne in favor of her one-year-old son, James VI. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, Mary fled to England seeking protection from her father’s first cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, whose kingdom she hoped to inherit. Elizabeth, however, ordered her arrest, because of the threat presented by Mary, who was considered the rightful ruler of England by many English Catholics.
After a long period of custody in England, she was tried and executed for treason following her alleged involvement in three plots to assassinate Elizabeth and place herself on the English throne.
James, then a young man ruling Scotland had never known his mother and thus didn’t step in to save her. Plus, he wanted to have the English succession, so that was another reason he did nothing. All in all, Mary’s was a sad life full of rumors, stories and bad decisions.
What do you think? Perception or reality?
