Following her escape and flight from Lochleven Fortress in Might 1568 after virtually a yr’s imprisonment, Mary, Queen of Scots was decided to keep up her royal standing. She left Scotland searching for Elizabeth I’s help to regain her crown from the Protestant nobles who had compelled her to abdicate in favour of her toddler son, James, on 24 July 1567. But inside days of her arrival on English soil Mary discovered herself a prisoner once more, this time by the hands of her hoped-for allies. She could be moved between properties and avoided Elizabeth’s courtroom and individual for the following 19 years.
