Queen Mary and King Francis are in need of resources, and engage a privateer named Martin (Sameer Usmani) to steal for them.

Queen Mary releases her mother-in-law from prison to help block Nicholas's attempts to interfere; they are successful and King Antoine signs away his claim.

Don Carlos of Spain (Mark Ghanimé) visits England to court Queen Elizabeth, but is rejected when he demands she disprove a rumour that she's secretly a man.

March 1560: Queen Catherine reads the letter from the embalmer that states the date when he received Francis's body.

Late April, 1560:[8] Three weeks have passed since Francis's death, but Catherine has been unable to rally support from the Privy Council to be voted regent.

Queen Catherine believes that Narcisse will help her become regent, especially when he makes her leave her servant lover, Christophe (Nathaniel Middleton), for him.

However on the day of the vote, Cardinal Morel (Blair Williams) presents a blackened liver that supposedly belonged to Francis, "proving" that the king was poisoned and Catherine the likely culprit.

Fadrique, Duke of Alba (Richard De Klerk) investigates the accident, but Mary and Catherine escape being implicated.

Don Carlos secretly regains his memory, and seeks his revenge on Mary by asking for the crown matrimonial of Scotland.

Angered by what happened to Princess Claude, Prince Charles forces the Privy Council to remove Lord Narcisse as regent and appoint Queen Catherine instead.

Prince Charles's coronation is marred by the discovery of dead bodies in the castle, victims of the same murderer Bash has been tracking.

She and Gideon discover that although the Vatican wish to put Queen Mary on the English throne, they are going to replace her with a distant Catholic cousin, Joseph Tudor.

Gideon kidnaps Joseph but is arrested by Archbishop Ridolfi before he can expose the plot, so he passes the task of warning Elizabeth to Robert.

Mary and Narcisse narrowly escape being killed by a local clan, the McFee, while Bash is taken by druids to be healed.

Mary consolidates her power in Scotland, and successfully uses the suicide of a Catholic priest as propaganda in gaining support.