When Mary gets undressed for the night her hair-ornament and hairpieces are removed and locks hang down her face. The next moment, when she sits on her bed and chats to her maids, her hair is tied back from her face. In the next shot her locks are tumbling down her face again.
The movie takes place over 16 years. Neither queen seems to age, their hair doesn't go grey, and they don't gain or lose weight. The only exception is Queen Elizabeth's smallpox, which gradually improves, but leaves her face permanently scarred.
When Mary is in bed with Darnley she is lying on her back looking to her left. When they finish she very dramatically rolls on her side, mashing her face into the pillow. Yet in the next shot she is instantly in the original position again.
At the end of the film, Elizabeth's title is stated as "Queen of England and Wales." Wales has never been an autonomous kingdom, and no English monarch has used that title. Elizabeth I would have claimed the title "Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith."
Darnley wasn't exiled to Kirk o' Field, he was sent there with the pox, for medical quarantine.
John Knox, minister within the Church of Scotland, is portrayed as a vocal opponent of Queen Mary, even sitting in her privy council early in the film. The Church of Scotland became formally independent from the Scottish Crown during the reign of James V. Historically, Knox had no presence in Mary's court, and no official position within her government.
In the film, Mary, Queen of Scots, pardons Henry, Lord Darnley, for his part in the plot to kill David Rizzio. In real life, Darnley was never indicted, and no such pardon was issued.
The film contends that Henry, Lord Darnley, tried to attain the title of king and legal sovereign after marrying Mary, Queen of Scots. He'd been granted that title in July 1565, before he married Mary.
Numerous shots reveal multiple piercings in Queen Mary's ears. Each time, Mary is wearing numerous earrings.
At several points, modern conifer plantations are visible in the background.
In a very forced search for the politically correct, a number of people of African and Asian ethnic origin appear, especially in high-ranking positions at court, completely ridiculous in the context of 16th century Britain.
Several shots of large houses and castles show lawns obviously mowed by modern machines and fertilized with modern methods for uniformity of color. The technology available in the 1570s and 1580s could not have yielded such greenery.
When Mary arrived back in Scotland on 19h August 1561 she sailed to Leith Docks. She didn't 'wash up' on a shore somewhere as is portrayed in the film.
The film also portrays The Palace of Holyrood as being a Castle on a rocky outcrop miles from anywhere. In reality, it's at the foot of The Royal Mile which was lined with tenement housing and court houses. It is in reality far from the exposed building portrayed.
In one scene, David Rizzio models dresses in Mary's room and tells her he feels like a sister. Mary tells him that he makes "a lovely sister" and should be who he feels like because he can be "free" around her. No Catholic monarch in the 1500s would have made such a 21st century statement.
The black population may have been several hundred during the Elizabethan period, though their settlement was actively discouraged by Queen Elizabeth I's privy council. Archival evidence shows records of more than 360 African people between 1500 to 1640 in England and Scotland.