Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart

Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I

Jack Lowden as Lord Darnley

Joe Alwyn as Robert Dudley

David Tennant as John Knox

Guy Pearce as William Cecil

Gemma Chan as Bess of Hardwick

Martin Compston as Earl of Bothwell

Ismael Cruz Cordova as David Rizzio

Brendan Coyle as Earl of Lennox

Ian Hart as Lord Maitland

James McArdle as James, Earl of Moray

Richard Cant as Thomas Andrews

Guy Rhys as Earl of Kent

Thom Petty as Earl of Shrewsbury

Izuka Hoyle as Mary Seton

John Ramm as Bull

Simon Russell Beale as Robert Beale

Maria Dragus as Mary Fleming

Liah O'Prey as Mary Livingston

Eileen O'Higgins as Mary Beaton

Greg Miller Burns as Thomas Hepburn

Aneurin Pascoe as John Hepburn

Adrian Derrick-Palmer as George Dalgleish

Kal Sabir as The Laird of Ramorny

Luke Kidd as James Haliburton

Adrian Lester as Lord Randolph

Georgia Burnell as Kate Carey

Alan Turkington as Thomas Jenye

Euan Macnaughton as William Kirkcaldy of Grange

Scot Greenan as Hector Maclean

Karen Dunbar as Commoner

Ian Hallard as Sir Richard Knightley

Andrew Rothney as King James I

Angela Bain as Snuffer Woman

Abby Cassidy as Fotheringhay Gentlewoman

Shalisha James-Davis as Fotheringhay Gentlewoman

Adam Bond as Sir William Douglas

Katharine O'Donnelly as Young Holyrood Servant

Grace Molony as Dorothy Stafford

Luke Hobson as Henry Killigrew

Ben Wiggins as John Tamworth

Eldredd Wolf as William Killigrew

Eric MacLennan as Portrait Painter

Nathen East as Andrew Ker of Fawdonside

Daniel Booroff as Knox's Secretary

Sean Buchanan as Francis Yaxley

Matthew Pidgeon as Wedding Announcer

Benjamin Barraclough as Officer

Jordan Turk as James MacDonald

Adam Stevenson as Urie Campbell

Chris Grahamson as Moray's Drummer

Ed Jones as William Taylor

Owen Gorman as Bishop

John Stahl as Fisherman

Kadiff Kirwan as Attaché

Alex Beckett as Sir Walter Mildmay

Will Rowlands as Soldier

Grant Crookes as Bothwell

Philip Gascoyne as English Nobleman (uncredited)