13 – Dynastic convolutions and convulsions 1553 to 1650

 
In 1553, Edward died at the age of 15. He named his cousin Lady Jane Grey as his heir, excluding his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. But Lady Jane was Queen for only nine days, before she was deposed in favour of Mary I. Mary died in 1558, and the crown passed to her half-sister Elizabeth I.

That same year, in France, Mary Queen of Scots married Francis. When King Henry II died in 1559 Mary Queen of Scots became Queen of Scotland and France, and Francis became King of France and king consort of Scotland.

In 1560, King Francis II died. English and French troops withdrew and Mary Queen of Scots returned to Scotland. She faced a complicated political situation involving religious divides and competing claims to the English throne. More complications followed the murder of her husband Darnley and her remarriage to Bothwell, who was accused of being his murderer. Denounced as an adulteress and murderer she was imprisoned in 1567 and forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son James VI.

In 1568, she escaped from prison and fled to England hoping for support from Elizabeth to regain her crown. Instead she was imprisoned for 19 years. In 1587 Mary was implicated in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth. She was tried then executed in 1588.

1603 Union of the Crowns

When Elizabeth died childless in 1603, James VI of Scotland became James I of England and James VI of Scotland. After 500 years of dispute, the crowns were finally united.

However, the 1603 Union of the Crowns made James I & VI the head of an unwieldy merger of three kingdoms, three parliaments and three state churches. Disagreements eventually erupted into civil war pitching Parliament against the Monarchy.