Mary, Queen of Scots had always been fond of little dogs, and even managed to have one by her side at the time of her brutal ending.
When Mary, Queen of Scots was sent to Fotheringhay to await her death, she was allowed to bring some servants and her dogs with her. On the day of her execution (February 8, 1587), she hid one of her small dogs under her long skirts and petticoats. No one noticed the dog until after the beheading. According to Robert Wynkfield, a witness to the execution:
"Then one of the executioners, pulling off her garters, espied her little dog which was crept under her cloths, which could not be gotten forth by force, yet afterwards would not depart from the dead corpse, but came and lay between her head and her shoulders, which being imbrued with her blood was carried away and washed, as all things else were that had any blood was either burned or washed clean, and the executioners sent away with money for their fees."
The little dog - one source says a Skye terrier and another says a small white dog (I believe a Maltese) - never moved when the axe struck her three times, and afterwards refused to leave her side. After being washed, one source says the dog refused to eat and died of a broken heart shortly afterwards, and another says it was given to a French princess and lived the rest of its life in France.