Marie Stuart

England, February 1587. Schiller's play begins a few days before the death sentence of the Queen of Scots, who has been a prisoner of Queen Elizabeth I of England for ten years. Accused of orchestrating the assassination of her husband Darnley in order to marry his murderer, Mary Stuart is forced to abdicate and takes refuge in England. Schiller's drama orchestrates the rivalry between the two queens, the fierce hatred that divides them beyond their faith, the conspiratorial maneuvers of their advisors, the fickleness of political passions, against the backdrop of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Determined "to make the freedom of his imagination triumph over history", Schiller allowed himself a few liberties with actual facts to write "the best constructed of all German tragedies" according to Madame de Staël.