I have at last seen ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ in the cinema! As a piece of entertainment I thoroughly enjoyed it. The highlights are the spectacular acting of Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth whose performances are outstanding. Josie Rourke’s objective has been to provide compelling cinema not a slavish adherence to history. […]
Historians have puzzled long and hard to establish Mary Queen of Scots‘s motive for marrying the Earl of Bothwell after the murder of her husband Lord Darnley. Contemporary evidence from several sources suggests that she had taken part in a long-running affair and became involved with him in a crime of passion. The principal sources […]
Following Mary Queen of Scots‘ imprisonment in England, William Cecil, the English Secretary of State, looked for a means of preventing her from succeeding Elizabeth on the English throne as was he dynastic right. After the debacle of the reign of Mary Tudor, he was determined to avoid a Catholic succession. His plan was to […]
Following the murder of Henry Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots, Mary failed to arrange a proper investigation into a crime generally thought to have been planned by the Earl of Bothwell. Furthermore, she agreed to marry him. This implied that she was involved with Bothwell in a crime of passion, but […]
Mary Queen of Scots was deposed from the Scottish throne while imprisoned at Lochleven Castle. She was not brought to trial in Scotland but was implicated in the murder of her husband Lord Darnley particularly as she had married the Earl of Bothwell, generally thought to have perpetrated the crime. When she escaped […]
Mary Queen of Scots spent her early years in Scotland, having succeeded to the throne as an infant after the death of her father, James V. In 1547, the Scottish government concluded that the only means of resisting English belligerence was for the 5-year-old Mary to be sent to France for her education and to […]
There are very few books that have been written on the life of Lord Darnley, and very little was known about him prior to his marriage to Mary Queen of Scots. In my new book, I tell the story of one of the great cads of history, whose deluded ambitions led him to position himself […]
James VI of Scotland, son Mary Queen of Scots, was born between 10 and 11 in the morning on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle. He was handed over to his wet nurse Helen Little to be suckled, but he slept in a crib beside his mother’s bed, as she was in fear of […]
It is generally assumed that Henry, Lord Darnley was extremely good looking, captivating Mary Queen of Scots as soon as she set eyes upon him. He was the son of handsome parents, Matthew Stuart 4th Earl of Lennox, who was closely connected to the Scottish Crown and Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Princess Margaret Tudor, […]
With her precious son, Prince James having been born in 1566, there is no doubt that Mary wanted to be rid of her husband Lord Darnley. She approached Maitland, her Secretary of State, while recuperating at Jedburgh to see if a way could be found to provide a divorce without sullying her honour. She knew […]