Did Mary ever meet Elizabeth?

Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots were two of the most legendary rivals in recorded history even though they never met. Mary and Elizabeth were first cousins once removed through King Henry VII of England

Early in 1562, arrangements were made for the two queens to meet in Nottingham that autumn, but the meeting was called off after the Massacre of Wassy, in which Protestant worshipers were slaughtered on the instructions of Mary’s French family.

Their decades-long verbal boxing war over the English throne would end in Mary’s beheading at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, with Elizabeth’s consent.

Mary returned to her Scottish kingdom three years after Elizabeth became Queen, newly widowed after a brief reign as Queen consort of France.

The coddled queen was unprepared for the rough Scots or her cousin Elizabeth’s coldness. She expected Elizabeth to identify her successor to the British throne as the “second person” in the line of succession. Elizabeth, on the other hand, refused to formalise the arrangement.