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On This Day...

: 1542
In 1542 Mary became Queen of Scotland

Mary became Queen of Scotland on the 14^th of December 1542, aged six. She was sent to France to be educated and married the French dauphin on the 24^th of April 1558. The Dauphin became King Francis II of France on the 10^th of July 1559 and reigned for less than a year with Mary as his queen when he died on the 5^th of December 1560 of what started as a chronic ear infection. Mary returned home as queen of Scotland and in 1565 she married her cousin, Lord Darnley who was of House Tudor. This wedding was a way for Mary to enforce her claim to the English throne (her great-uncle was Henry VIII and her aunt was Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland). Mary was Catholic and had many supporters to her claim for the throne of England and who disliked Elizabeth who established the Protestant Church of England, but many Protestants in Scotland also distrusted Mary.

Mary became involved in various plots by Spanish and English Catholics to overthrow Queen Elizabeth, Mary was placed under arrest. In 1586 another foiled plot was directly started by Mary she was tried and convicted of treason. She was executed on the 8^th of February 1587. Elizabeth never married and never gave birth to an heir. When she died in 1603 the son of Mary Queen of Scots became King James VI of England, Ireland and Scotland uniting the realm.; 1918 In 1918 Ireland gained full legislative independence on this day in 1949 and became a republic denouncing King George VI As part of the United Kingdom's general elections, votes cast in Ireland overwhelmingly supported the Irish Republican Party, (called Sinn Fein). However, there was still massive support for the Unionist Party in the northern province of Ulster (this region would later become Northern Ireland. Instead of the elected members of Sinn Fein attending the Imperial Parliament in London, Sinn Fein created their own Parliament in Dublin called the ‘First Dáil Eirean’ (first Irish Assembly). On the 21^st of January 1919, Sinn Fein declared Ireland’s Independence from the United Kingdom. On the same day, two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) were shot dead. This was the beginning of the Irish War of Independence. A large group of Irish Gorilla fighters formed and by September of 1919 they would be known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The IRA began “liberating” weapons for their cause from the UK forces. The UK declared both Sinn Fein and their government illegal and sent in troops. But with the army recovering from the losses of WWI many of the troops sent were ex-soldiers. The influx of soldiers in their tanned uniform and the black uniform of the police led to their nickname of ‘Black and Tan’. Many of the troops acted less than professionally, drunk brash and badly organised. The IRA were able to assassinate members of the Black and Tan then council themselves as normal members of the public and on many occasions when members of the British armed forces were attacked they would open fire on civilians in retaliation. Many left the Royal Irish Constabulary through fear and within 2.5 years the IRA had won their freedom. On the 6^th of December 1921, the Anglo-Irish treaty was signed creating the Irish Free State. The Province of Ulster used the Ulster Month Clause to remain part of the United Kingdom and became Northern Ireland. The Statute of Westminster in 1931 gave Ireland and many countries full legislative independence and on this day in 1949 Ireland became a republic denouncing King George VI.

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