to receive FREE search credits to trace your ancestry on Scotlandspeople.gov.uk, and our quarterly enewsletter with exclusive travel deals, exciting events and travel tips.
I'd like to register now >
In the sixteenth century dynastic troubles once again created problems for Scotland, this time compounded by religious differences. The defining period is the reign of Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic child Queen of a Scotland that was rapidly becoming a Protestant country. The story of her life and execution in 1567 on the orders of Elizabeth I of England is a romantic tragedy.
In a sense, however, whereas she suffered in life she triumphed in death because her son James united the crowns of Scotland and England, when he became at the same time James VI of Scotland and James I of England.
