Two Queens in One Isle - The Toxic Relationship of Queen Elizabeth I & Mary, Queen of Scots

 

It took 3 blows before the headsman, Bull, at last severed the head of Mary, queen of Scots, from her body in the most seismic, farcical and gruesome execution of the 16th century. Long before that, the lives of Elizabeth I, born 1533, queen of England from 1558, and her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, 9 years her junior, although they never met, had been intertwined.

With an entirely credible claim to Elizabeth’s crown, particularly from a Catholic standpoint, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots from the age of 6 days in 1542, Queen of France between July 1559 and December 1560, then Queen Regnant in her native land, 1561-67, posed a serious threat to Elizabeth Tudor. To Elizabeth’s ministers, Privy Council and parliament, it was self-evident that this threat intensified to the point of outrageous risk once Mary Stuart arrived in England as an asylum seeker in 1568.

Each of these women had endured careers of remarkable peril before one killed the other. Small wonder then that, despite the serious inconvenience for devising a gripping dramatic plot that these two women never actually met, so many playwrights, operatic composers and film-makers, have been drawn to the linked and tragic careers of Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart.

 

Date and Time:

Saturday 5th September

11am

 

 

 

Location:

Old Baptist Chapel,

Old Baptist Chapel Court,

Off Church Street,

Tewkesbury,

GL20 5RZ

 

 

Tickets:

Adults: £7.00

Concessions: £5.50

Children: £3.00