James was an infant when Mary fled to England. He never knew her personally, so he had not bond of mother-son love with her. If Mary returned to Scotland, she would insist that her abdication was made null and void.

The question of why James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) did not save his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, from her execution in 1587 is rooted in complex political ambition and religious tension. While James did send formal letters of protest to Queen Elizabeth I, his primary goal was securing his position as the heir to the English throne. Mary was a Catholic figurehead and a perceived threat to the Protestant Elizabeth; interceding too forcefully or declaring war to save her would have almost certainly jeopardized James's "Golden Ticket" to the English crown. Furthermore, James had been raised away from his mother since infancy by Scottish lords who loathed her, so there was very little personal emotional bond between them. He essentially engaged in a "diplomatic performance" of outrage while privately accepting that his mother's death cleared a major obstacle to the eventual Union of the Crowns. History views this as a cold, calculated move where James chose his future empire over a mother he barely knew, ultimately prioritizing the long-term stability of his reign and the Protestant succession over the life of a deposed queen who had been a political liability for decades.