Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed 1587

In October 1586, Mary, Queen of Scots, had been found complicit in the Babington Plot to depose and assassinate Elizabeth I and place Mary on the throne. The plot had been infiltrated by Sir Francis Walsingham agents, and a communication channel between the plotters and Mary was arranged, which involved smuggling messages in and out of Chartley Hall in Staffordshire where Mary was being confined. On June 14th 1586 Mary wrote a letter approving of the plot which was intercepted.

She was executed, in front of 300 witnesses, at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, on the 8th of February 1587. She was buried at Peterborough cathedral, and then finally at Westminster Abbey.