QUEBEC-RESEARCH-L Archives

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Subject: May 13th
Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 17:07:01 EDT

May 13

1568 Mary Queen of Scots defeated
At the Battle of Langside, the forces of Mary Queen of Scots are defeated by
a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, the regent of her
son, King James VI of Scotland. During the battle, which was fought out in
the southern suburbs of Glasgow, a cavalry charge routed Mary's 6,000 Catholic
troops, and they fled the field. Three days later, Mary escaped to
Cumberland, England, where she sought protection from Queen Elizabeth I.
In 1542, while just six days old, Mary ascended to the Scottish throne upon
the death of her father, King James V. Her great-uncle was Henry VIII, the
Tudor king of England. Mary's mother sent her to be raised in the French court,
and in 1558 she married the French dauphin, who became King Francis II of
France in 1559 and died in 1560. After Francis' death, Mary returned to
Scotland to assume her designated role as the country's monarch. In 1565, she
married her English cousin Lord Darnley, another Tudor, which reinforced her claim
to the English throne and angered Queen Elizabeth.
In 1567, Darnly was mysteriously killed in an explosion at Kirk o' Field,
and Mary's lover, James Hepburn, the earl of Bothwell, was the key suspect.
Although Bothwell was acquitted of the charge, his marriage to Mary in the same
year enraged the nobility, and Mary was forced to abdicate in favor of her
son by Darnby, James. In 1568, she escaped from captivity and raised a
substantial army but was defeated and fled to England. Queen Elizabeth I initially
welcomed Mary but was soon forced to put her cousin under house arrest after
Mary became the focus of various English Catholic and Spanish plots to
overthrow her.
In 1586, a major Catholic plot to murder Elizabeth was uncovered, and Mary
was brought to trial, convicted for complicity, and sentenced to death. On
February 8, 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason at Fotheringhay
Castle in England. Her son, King James VI of Scotland, calmly accepted his
mother's execution, and upon Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603, he became James I,
king of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1607
Jamestown founded
Some 100 English colonists settle along the west bank of the James River in
Virginia to found Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North
America. Dispatched from England by the London Company, the colonists had
sailed across the Atlantic aboard the Sarah Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery.
Upon landing at Jamestown, the first colonial council was held by seven
settlers whose names had been chosen and placed in a sealed box by King James I.
The council, which included Captain John Smith, an English adventurer, chose
Edward Wingfield as its first president. After only two weeks, Jamestown came
under attack from warriors from the local Algonquian Native American
confederacy, but the Indians were repulsed by the armed settlers. In December of the
same year, John Smith and two other colonists were captured by Algonquians
while searching for provisions in the Virginia wilderness. His companions were
killed, but he was spared, according to a later account by Smith, because of
the intercession of Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan's daughter.
During the next two years, disease, starvation, and more Native American
attacks wiped out most of the colony, but the London Company continually sent
more settlers and supplies. The severe winter of 1609 to 1610, which the
colonists referred to as the "starving time," killed most of the Jamestown
colonists, leading the survivors to plan a return to England in the spring. However,
on June 10, Thomas West De La Warr, the newly appointed governor of Virginia,
arrived with supplies and convinced the settlers to remain at Jamestown. In
1612, John Rolfe cultivated the first tobacco at Jamestown, introducing a
successful source of livelihood. On April 5, 1614, Rolfe married Pocahontas,
thus assuring a temporary peace with Chief Powhatan.
The death of Powhatan in 1618 brought about a resumption of conflict with
the Algonquians, including an attack led by Chief Opechancanough in 1622 that
nearly wiped out the settlement. The English engaged in violent reprisals
against the Algonquians, but there was no further large-scale fighting until
1644, when Opechancanough led his last uprising and was captured and executed at
Jamestown. In 1646, the Algonquian Confederacy agreed to give up much of its
territory to the rapidly expanding colony, and, beginning in 1665, its chiefs
were appointed by the governor of Virginia.

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