1561, When she noticed that there were bars on her window

                                

I'm not a fan of the TV series, but I watched it out of the need for change,

  [as it was the time of the COVID-19, resulting in boredom at home, and moving freely in the past.

It was a Spanish and British historical drama television series

                              [produced by Televisión Española and the BBC, with a Spanish and British cast.

As a foreigner who has never studied the history of Northern Europe,

                                                         [I can not comment or judge to express an opinion on any facts

which took place in 16th century England, so what I write is the views of the script alone,

                            [on the other hand no one knows the essential and true motives of the royal acts.

Mary, Queen of the Scots, at the age of 18, returned to Scotland after 13 years in France,

                            [where she longed for her homeland continuously, unceasingly unremittingly.

Queen of France ? then Queen of Scotland ? then claimant to the throne of England ?

                                                                       [A phenomenon unique in world history, admittedly,

Puzzling to a non-Englishman of which resembles an algorithm
                                  [of succession, marriage, ancestors, perhaps incomprehensible politically.

Mary was the daughter of King James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise,
                           [Henry VIII was her great uncle, Mary influenced life in Albion catalytically.

She was born on December 8, 1542, in West Lothian, Scotland and six days later

          [her father, the King, died when she was only six days old, making her queen of Scotland.

Mary was sent to France in 1548 to be the bride of the Dauphin, the young French prince, 

  [in order to secure a Catholic alliance against England, for Catholics an issue, most important.

Given that she was only an infant, in Scotland her mother, Marie de Guise, ruled

                                  [in her place while she lived in France waiting to wed the next king of France.

In 1559, Mary's husband was crowned Francis II, making Mary both the queen of Scotland

   [and France's queen consort, there were rumors that Francis and Mary married after a romance. 

Following her husband Francis’s death, she returned to Scotland from France,

      [where in the mean time had changed Scotland's religion from Catholicism to Protestantism.

so as a Roman Catholic raised in France, Mary found herself an outsider,

                      [managed to rule while creating an atmosphere of religious tolerance with realism.

Following the mysterious death of Mary's second husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley,

                          [and her quick marriage to Bothwell, the Scottish nobility rose up against her,

 compelled her to hand over rule to her son and imprisoned her,

                    [but still in too many noble hearts the semi-French beauty was an "administrateur".

In 1568, Mary escaped from Lochleven Castle, where she was imprisoned

                                                                                      [she raised an army but was soon defeated.
She fled to England, where she sought Elizabeth's protection, but instead of helping,
          [the queen imprisoned Mary, with the queen's fear of losing her throne gone, left, fleeted. 

English Catholics plotted to get Mary, a Catholic herself, onto the throne

                                                        [by assassinating Elizabeth, with the help of a foreign invader,

Mary was brought to trial, found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, 

            [Elizabeth had doubts about the guilt, but a letter from Mary to the rebels persuaded her.

The American author Margaret George writes, “Mary awoke from her nightmare 

                         [with a pounding heart, convinced that she had only imagined Elizabeth's cruel plot,

 a full moon was shining into her chamber, illuminating everything around her in silvery light,

  [that was when she noticed that there were bars on her window, and that trust was her weak spot.

                                                              to be continued

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* ''IT COULD BE OTHERWISE in verse''

Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //

Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis -CHICAGO//

Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS //

_______________________________________________________________

 ELEGHOS... at history   

1560, As the guns fell silent at dusk in Navarino Bay

The major European sea powers in the Mediterranean
   [for centuries have been clashing violently with the Ottoman Empire (the Turks today)
claiming sovereignty and dominance in this sea-path, to the rich East,
             [a path that was the target of all powerful states then, a greatly desired seaway.

In May 1560 near the island of Djerba, Tunisia,
         [the Ottomans under Piyale Pasha's command gained the sea-path, i.e. a major key,
by defeating a Christian fleet composed of Spanish, Papal, Genoese and Maltese forces.
        [and this victory marked the high point of Ottoman power in the Mediterranean Sea.

Ten years later the rematch took place to the same area as a fleet of the Holy League,
                          [a coalition of European Catholic states, arranged by Pope Pius the Fifth,
in Nafpactos Greece they inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire,
                            [an unexpected victory that many thought was a silly rumor or a myth.

But despite that victory, for almost three more centuries,
                    [the Ottoman Empire remained the strongest power in the Mediterranean sea,
until October1827 during the Greek war of independence, when the Ottoman armada
               [was destroyed by British, French and Russian warships and turned into debris.

As the guns fell silent at dusk in Navarino Bay, news of the outcome raced everywhere,

                              [from London, Paris and Moscow, to Constantinople, Athens and Crete.

It was October 20,1827 and church bells rang a continuous peal throughout the night,

                                         [the Ottoman Sultan no longer possessed a Mediterranean fleet.

Since then, the British fleet has dominated the area for centuries

     [and the vestiges of the imperial presence are to be found across Mediterranean sea,

from Algeria and Tunisia, Israel and the Gaza strip to the Lebanon, Syria, Turkey,

         [and of course Greece, which the British fleet helped by a small margin, to be free.

World War II, the battles of Calabria, of Taranto, of Cape Matapan, of Crete,

                                                                [naval battles very different from those of the past,
now the most dangerous enemy for warships comes from the sky,
                       [the British won the war but lost the Mediterranean Sea, what a contrast.

At 9:08 a.m., U.S., Douglas MacArthur, the Commander in the Southwest Pacific
           [accepted the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of World War II.
The signing took place on the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo on September 2, 1945,
                     [sometime later the ship of the victors sailed the Mediterranean and it is true
that every country in the region, silently or loudly bowed to the nuclear power,

   [it was obvious that Mediterranean sovereignty by Britain had ended,
                                                                                                           [was finished,
                                                                                                                       [and it was through.

The war-torn old Albion was unable to respond militarily and politically to the number
                               [of possessions of the former empire, ie full control of every corner of the globe,
so de facto pressed by history itself, they handed over the baton of Mediterranean domination
                                                              [to the US...... Britain had no other choice to seek, to probe.
   
During the early 21st century, allegations were heard from the Turkish side, the Blue Homeland,
                                    [the sea areas of the Ottoman Empire, and if we go back in history we will see,
in other words, we the Turks are descendants and heirs of Admirals Barbarossa and Piri Reis
                                                          [who dominated for centuries throughout the Mediterranean sea.

                                                               EPILOG

Those ignoring the history of the Mediterranean sea should learn
                                                [that when they were still living in Mongolia and in Siberia region,
that Blue Homeland they are dreaming and talking about, belonged to the Athenian Empire
                                                          [and there is still on the alert one of their descendants legion.
______________________________________________________________________________

to be continued 

_________________________________________________

''IT COULD BE OTHERWISE in verse''
Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis -CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS
_________________________________________________

 ELEGHOS... at history