‘Mary Queen of Scots’ on HBO: The True Story Behind The Margot Robbie/Saoirse Ronan Movie

Two queens, cousins even, find their feminist friendship undone by the machinations of the men around them. It’s a pretty concept, but the plot of Mary Queen of Scots — now on HBO — is a bit different from the reality of history. While the film does its very best to weave together the complex politics of the Scottish court of Mary Stuart (played by Saoirse Ronan) into a coherent structure, it makes the mistake Hollywood usually makes when it comes to Mary, Queen of Scots. And that’s romanticizing her tense relationship with cousin and rival Queen Elizabeth I (played in Mary Queen of Scots by Margot Robbie and a lot of makeup). Mary, Queen of Scots had an interesting enough life without trying to pretend she and her more famous cousin were frenemies.

And yes, we’ll get to Margot Robbie’s insane Queen Elizabeth makeup in Mary, Queen of Scots.

The real Mary, Queen of Scots was born in Scotland on December 8, 1542. Less than a week later, her father, King James V of Scotland passed away, leaving her in the care of her French mother Mary of Guise. Since she was an infant, Scotland was ruled by regents, and from the get-go there were tensions between Protestant and Catholic forces. Like, actual murders and schemes and stuff. Eventually, the young Mary was promised to the Catholic heir of the French throne, the Dauphin Francis. At the age of five, she was sent to France and she spent the next thirteen years of her life there, eventually marrying the Dauphin.

Around the same time Mary — who was a star in the French court — wed her prince, Queen Mary I of England I (aka Bloody Mary) passed away clearing the way for her sister Elizabeth I to take the throne. Following the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth had once been declared illegitimate. While that had been reversed before her father Henry VIII’s death, it still made her position weak, especially in the eyes of Catholics. They would prefer a Catholic queen on the throne, and Mary, Queen of Scots happened to be next in line for the throne. (Her grandmother was Henry VIII’s eldest sister, making her the next oldest legitimate Tudor heir.) The following year, the French King Henry II died following a jousting tournament, and the teenaged Dauphin Francis and his wife Mary became King and Queen of France. However, Mary’s moment of glory in France would be short-lived. The following year, her mother passed away, and not long after, Francis died of an ear infection.

Now a widow and an orphan, Mary did the obvious thing and returned home to Scotland to take her throne. After all, she was now of age and no longer required a regent. When she arrived in Scotland, she entered a court run by Protestant lords, including her illegitimate half-brother. It’s widely thought that Mary was not totally fluent in Scots or English, and preferred to speak in French. That might have rankled the proud Scots lords even more than having to bow to a woman.

Beautiful, wealthy, and with a claim to the English throne, moves were made by multiple parties to woo and wed her. Queen Elizabeth I even contrived to have her court favorite/probable lover Robert Dudley marry Mary, but Dudley was less than thrilled with the idea. Eventually, Mary fell in love with her cousin, English noble Henry, Lord Darnley. It would be a passionate, but doomed match. The good news is that it produced a son: the future James VI of Scotland (known as James I of England — spoiler alert). The bad news is Darnley effing sucked.

Henry, Lord Darnley was handsome, but he lacked the self-esteem to be a queen’s consort. This meant that he had a hissy fit when she wouldn’t allow him to rule as King of Scotland, and it lead to a deadly strain of jealousy. Dogged by vicious rumors that Mary’s Italian secretary David Rizzio was really the father of their infant son, he joined forces with rebel lords to storm Mary’s private rooms and murder Rizzio right in front of the queen. Deemed unstable, if not also a threat to his wife, a new conspiracy emerged to get rid of him. Henry, Lord Darnley finally died under mysterious circumstances in 1567. The house he was lodging in exploded and he was found smothered to death in the garden. Naturally, Mary came under suspicion. The gossip was so heated that we know even Queen Elizabeth I wrote to Mary about it in a letter that is dripping with shade.

Widowed once more, and surrounded by vicious rumors and even more vicious lords, Mary’s luck got worse. She was abducted by the cunning Lord Bothwell and pressed into marriage with him. It was commonly thought that Bothwell murdered Darnley and so their hasty wedding was not met with adulation. Decried as an adulteress and murderer, Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned by her own people and forced to abdicate her throne. Bothwell went into exile and died, a loser.

Eventually Mary fled to England, where a skeptical Elizabeth I kept her in a series of house arrests at various castles while her role in Darnley’s death was examined. However, Mary’s very existence in England would create a new problem as English Catholics could potentially rally to her. A number of conspiracies were hatched by Catholics to try to oust Elizabeth, and after the shady business of the Babington Plot (which is a whole thing; I can’t even get into it right now) Mary was found guilty of partaking in these conspiracies.

Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded on February 8, 1587. She was 44 years old. She would not live to see her son — whom she last saw when he was 10 months old — take the English throne in 1603.

Obviously, there’s enough there for a juicy soap opera, and boy, the CW show Reign tried it. However, more prestigious attempts at dramatizing Mary’s life often emphasize her rivalry with Elizabeth by inventing meetings that never happened. Historians can find no proof the women ever met. They exchanged letters, but that’s all. There certainly wasn’t a moment where Queen Elizabeth I snatched off her own wig to show Mary, Queen of Scots how bald and ugly she was.

That said…In 1562, Elizabeth I did indeed contract smallpox, and her bout with the illness irrevocably scarred her face. Ironically, the white lead and vinegar makeup (!!!) her ladies slathered on her skin every morning may have done even more damage to her complexion. That meant she had to apply more lead as the years go on, and yes, there are accounts of her showing signs of lead poisoning (if not dementia) in later years. So Margot Robbie’s commitment to wearing that ghoulish white makeup is honoring the history of Elizabeth. It is one thing that Mary Queen of Scots definitely does right.

Mary Queen of Scots premieres on HBO tonight at 9 PM ET. 

Where to stream Mary Queen of Scots (2018)