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Hello and welcome to Home School History. I'm Greg Jenner and I've spent my whole career

making history fun on the TV show Horrible Histories and more recently on the BBC podcast

You're Dead To Me, although that one's mostly for the grownups.

With everyone being cooped up in the house I thought I'd do a brand new podcast that delivers

a snappy history lesson to entertain and educate the whole family, who says that homeschooling

can't be a bit of fun.

Today we are journeying back nearly 500 years to learn all about the extraordinary life

of Mary Queen of Scots and listen up because at the end of the episode there'll be a quick

quiz to see how much you can remember, but no pressure.

Mary was born in 1542 in Linlith Go Palace in Scotland. Her dad, King James V of Scotland,

took one look at her and killed over dead.

Okay not exactly like that, but he'd been wounded in battle and he really wanted a baby

boy and Mary was a baby girl. So he died of his injuries, slashed disappointment, whichever

one you want to choose. And weirdly that now meant that Mary was Queen of Scotland, even

though she was only six days old.

And holding a coronation ceremony for someone who needs to be burped every two hours.

As you can probably guess, babies are not exactly suited to running the country, so her

French mum, Mary of Guise, ruled on her behalf.

As soon as baby Mary could walk, everyone was obsessed with who she was going to marry

because that would make Scotland a powerful military ally.

England's bearded bully boy Henry VIII tried to marry Mary after his son Edward,

...