Desc: The Haunting Conflict of Elizabeth & Mary: Directed by Lucy Ciara McCutcheon. With Owen Emmerson, Rosie Harte, Elizabeth Norton, Kimberly Parker. Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary Queen of Scots were two of recorded history's most significant, most legendary rivals - although they never met. Elizabeth was the childless "virgin" queen in one castle: bawdy, brilliant, tactical and cynical. On the other hand, Mary is feminine, charming, romantic and reckless. Their decades-long battle over the English crown would end with Mary's beheading at Fotheringhay Castle -with Elizabeth's blessing -in 1587. But the two cousins' tortured relationship was determined long before, during childhoods, so dissimilar and defining that they would inform both Queens' characters -and seal Mary's tragic fate. The rivalry between the two queens was marked by imprisonment, escape and execution.