Mary Queen of Scots

In 1561, nineteen-year-old Mary Stuart, Catholic Queen of Scotland, returns to her home country from France following the death of her husband, Francis II of France, to take up her throne, where she is received by her half brother, the Earl of Moray. In neighbouring England, Mary's twenty-eight-year-old cousin Elizabeth is Protestant Queen of England – unmarried, childless, and threatened by Mary's potential claim to her throne. Mary dismisses the cleric John Knox from her court. A Protestant and leader of the Scottish Reformation, Knox views Mary as a danger to the kingdom's Protestant supremacy.