In 1561, an 18-year-old widow returned to Scotland to reclaim her throne
After thirteen years in the French royal court, the teenage Mary Stuart arrived at the foggy docks of Leith to claim her ancestral throne and navigate a nation divided by religious revolution.
In August 1561, eighteen-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to her homeland following the death of her husband, King Francis II of France. Having left Scotland as a child, she arrived to find a country transformed by the Protestant Reformation while she remained a staunch Catholic. Her arrival was so unexpected that no official reception was ready to meet her at the pier.
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