Doomed Queens (31 page)

But marital happiness proved elusive. Upon Henry II’s death in 1559, Mary and François were crowned king and queen of France. Less than a year later, François died of an ear infection. Heartbroken, Mary unwisely decided to return to Scotland, though it was still deemed dangerous.

During Mary’s ten-year sojourn in France, Henry VIII had succumbed to death and the throne of England had seen several uneasy occupants of varying religious loyalties. At last Mary’s Protestant cousin Elizabeth reigned—and there was no way the queen of England was going to be usurped by the queen of Scotland.

To protect herself, Mary Stuart wed Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. Though Darnley was Catholic and English, the marriage did not bring her peace—but it did make them next in line to Elizabeth’s throne, a choice that irked the English monarch. Darnley bullied Mary to make him more than her consort. He grew jealous of Mary’s friendship with her secretary and arranged for his murder while she was six months pregnant. Not long after the birth of their son, James, Darnley was found strangled in his garden.

Some thought Mary was involved in the murder, but others blamed it on James Hepburn, the Protestant Earl of Bothwell. Soon after Darnley’s death, Bothwell kidnapped Mary with the aid of a small army of eight hundred men. Their inevitable marriage, which was cemented by Protestant vows, created even more unrest in Scotland. Hoping for Elizabeth’s sympathy, Mary fled to England in 1568, abandoning sweet baby James to be raised by Protestant Scottish nobles. Instead, Elizabeth imprisoned Mary. Elizabeth wavered for nineteen years before she finally ordered her cousin’s death by beheading. Mary was only forty-four years old and had spent almost half her life in prison.

A queen to the end, Mary played the drama to the hilt. She adorned herself in a regal black gown over a red chemise—the color of martyrdom in the Catholic Church. This red chemise was revealed to a shocked audience when the executioners undressed the monarch of her gown and petticoats for the chopping block. Mary quipped, “Never have I put off my clothes before such a company.”

It took three ax blows to sever Mary’s head from her neck. After the first one, she was heard to murmur “
mon dieu
”—my god. Elizabeth immediately ordered all her cousin’s possessions burned to prevent anyone hoarding them as religious relics.

CAUTIONARY MORAL

Respect your cousin in the family business.

LIFE AFTER DEATH

Mary had the last laugh. To preserve her power, Elizabeth remained unmarried and without issue. Her closest relative was Mary’s son, James, who became king of Scotland at the age of one. Upon Elizabeth’s death in 1603, James inherited the crown of England, uniting the two countries in Protestant glory. Some believe that James’s unpopular policies eventually led to the English Civil War faced by his son, Charles I. So much for Elizabeth’s golden age!

King of it all.

1631

here’s an old saying that if you love someone, set them free; if they truly love you, they will return. In the case of India’s Mumtaz Mahal, it was death that freed her from the loving embrace of her husband, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I. Since Mumtaz was unable to return to him for obvious reasons—corpses aren’t able to do much beyond rotting in a grave—Shah Jahan used his sorrow to memorialize her with the most fabulous tomb ever.

Little is known about Mumtaz outside of the romantic devotion she inspired in Shah Jahan. One fact is certain: Mumtaz was originally named Arjumand Banu Begum upon her birth in 1593. Shah Jahan granted her the title of Mumtaz Mahal—Persian for “chosen one of the palace”—after their 1612 wedding. Since polygamy was de rigueur for a ruler, the monarch had several other wives. But they were accorded scant attention—Mumtaz was far and away Shah Jahan’s favorite. Court historians of the era recorded the steaming intensity of the couple’s erotic connection, which was noteworthy even to a culture ripened on the teachings of the
Kama Sutra
.

Thirteen children followed in the wake of their hot passion. However, a fourteenth proved unlucky—Mumtaz did not survive the birth of a daughter in 1631. She was thirty-nine and had been married to the shah for nineteen years. The emperor was inconsolable. Though he outlived his wife by thirty-four years, he never embraced another woman.

One story claims that Mumtaz’s dying wish was for Shah Jahan to build a monument to their enduring love. A cynic cannot help but wonder if this was a rumor bandied about by the emperor to deflect criticism from the cost of assuaging his loss—the Taj Mahal cost more than 32 million rupees, perhaps the most expensive grief therapy session known to humanity.

Mumtaz’s corpse rests there still today, a testament to eternal love and sublime architecture.

CAUTIONARY MORAL

Love can’t bring the dead back to life,
but it can inspire great art.

A BRIEF DIGRESSION

It took more than fifteen years and a large team of architects to build the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the modern world. It is located near a garden favored by Mumtaz. Rumors that Shah Jahan executed craftsmen who displeased him during the mausoleum’s construction remain unsubstantiated.