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The prayer beads of infamous 16th - hundred swayer Mary , Queen of Scots have been stolen in a venturesome armed robbery from Arundel Castle in England . The beads and other steal items are worth around $ 1.4 million ( 1 million British pounds ) , but their historical importance is " invaluable , " concord to a castle interpreter .

Thieves better into the castle , in West Sussex , on May 20 , less than a week after the site reopen to the populace after being closed during most of the COVID-19pandemic . law think the burglar entered through a castle window ,   smashed the glassful storage locker displaying the artifacts and made off with the contents before security could respond to the alarm . The thief likely used a 4x4 as the getaway fomite and then sic it on fire and abandon it nearby , grant to the BBC .

The rosary beads and bible belonging to Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587) on display at Arundel Castle.

The rosary beads and bible belonging to Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587) on display at Arundel Castle.

Mary , Queen of Scots , who in short ruled Scotland and was considered by some to be the rightful heir to the English pot , reportedly carry the ornate set of gold prayer beads beads during her 18 - yr incarceration at the paw of her paranoid first cousin Elizabeth I , faggot of England , and even held them during her carrying into action in 1587 , accord to the BBC .

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" The rosary is of little intrinsic value as alloy , " an Arundel Castle representative told the BBC , " but as a piece of the Carry Amelia Moore Nation ’s inheritance , it is irreplaceable . "

An illustration of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, who is depicted holding the rosary beads.

An illustration of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, who is depicted holding the rosary beads.

The stealer also steal a stage set of coronation cups that Mary gave to the Earl Marshal , a royal title currently contain by the possessor of all the slip artifacts , Duke of Norfolk Edward William Fitzalan - Howard .

Police are ask anyone with information regarding the robbery to come forward .

Who was Mary, Queen of Scots?

Mary was born in 1542 and was the only child of King James V of Scotland , who died just six daylight after she was bear , leaving the state to be govern by regents . At old age 5 , Mary was sent to France , the fatherland of her female parent , where she grew up in the court of justice of King Henry II and eventually married his son Francis , who climb up the Gallic throne in 1559 . That made Mary the queen choir of France . However , Francis die prematurely just a year after , leaving Mary a widow at the age of 18,according to Britannica .

Mary returned to Scotland in 1561 to take her jacket as queen of Scotland but was unpopular among the Scottish nobility . During her absence , Scotland had transitioned from Roman Catholic to Protestant , and many see the openly Catholic and France - raise queen as a noncitizen . After six years and two poorly chosen marriage by Mary , the first of which led to the birth of her boy James , the Scottish nobility revolt and she was forced to take flight to England to take refuge with her cousin-german Elizabeth I , the queen of England , fit in to Britannica .

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Elizabeth resent Mary because she was next in line for the English throne , as well as being queen of Scotland , with some nobleman even considering her to be the rightful queen . Elizabeth , therefore , had Mary tried and convict of hit her second hubby , Henry Stewart , a crime that has never been proved by historiographer despite tenseness between the couple at the time . Mary spent the next 18 age imprisoned at various English castles before being executed in 1587 at the years of 44 . Her son James I after rise the English throne after Elizabeth die out without an successor , according to Britannica .

The coin hoard, amounting to over $340,000, was possibly hidden by people fleeing political persecution.

Originally put out on Live Science .

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