Stirling Castle and expanded his father's building programme, creating the centrepiece of the castle, the Royal Palace, built under the direction of Sir James Hamilton of Finnart and masons brought from France. James V also died young, leaving unfinished work to be completed by his widow, Mary of Guise. His infant daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought to Stirling Castle for safety, and crowned in the chapel royal on 9 September 1543. She too was brought up here, until she was sent to Inchmahome Priory, and then to France in 1548. In the 1550s, during the Regency of Mary of Guise,
Mary, Queen of Scots (opera) Amy Johnson singing all three heroines. A live recording of Virginia Opera's performance of the US premiere with Ashley Putnam in the title role was released on CD by Novello Records in 1989. Setting: Scotland from 1561 to 1568 Act 1 The opera opens in 1561 with the arrival at the Port of Leith of Mary, the recently widowed Queen of France. The Lords of Scotland have invited her to assume the Scottish crown. Meanwhile, her half-brother James, Earl of Moray is scheming to take the throne himself. Enraged that Cardinal Beaton has exposed his ambitions and written to Mary