Why is the action of Maria Stuart limited to the final three days of Mary’s life?

In Friedrich Schiller’s Maria Stuart, the action is compressed into the final three days of Mary, Queen of Scots’ life to facilitate a focused, intense psychological drama centered on the protagonist's moral rebirth.1

By limiting the timeframe to the period immediately preceding her execution at Fotheringhay, Schiller uses retrospective analysis to reveal all necessary historical antecedents—such as her French marriage, her Scottish reign, and her long imprisonment—without needing to depict them on stage. This structural choice allows the play to function as a profound study of the hero’s moral transformation through voluntary self-abnegation. As Mary accepts the unjust verdict of the English tribunal as expiation for her past sins, she turns outward disaster into inward triumph, rising above the jurisdiction of her judges and achieving a state of redemption. This approach aligns with Schiller’s theory of tragedy, which emphasizes the character's internal journey over the chronological retelling of historical events.1