"An exceptionally well-researched historical whodunit."
- David Ross, The Heritage Traveller (Mary Queen of Scots' Downfall)
Latest from the Blog
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
"This book, and its sequel, can rightly claim to be among the definitive accounts of the most written about and turbulent periods of Scottish history. "
- The Stewart Society, Edinburgh (The Challenge to the Crown)
"Robert Stedall's deeply-researched, intricately-drawn account of the pivotal struggle to provide a protestant heir to Elizabeth I, provides striking evidence of the divisive effects of the religion of the late 16th century."
John Wybrew (The Survival of the Crown)
Mary Queen of Scots
Marie Stuart (1542 – 1587), better known as Mary Queen of Scots, was Queen of Scotland from 1542-1567 and consort of Francis II of France from 1559-1560. One of history's more tragic figures, Mary's complicated personal life and political immaturity were her undoing. She was unjustly implicated in the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley, after she was persuaded to marry his known murderer, the Earl of Bothwell. After being imprisoned and forced to abdicate in favour of her son James, she escaped, and fled to England throwing herself at the mercy of her cousin Elizabeth I. She spent the next 17 years as Elizabeth's prisoner, until, after being implicated in the Babington plot to place herself on the English throne, was executed at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587.
James VI of Scotland
Mary Queen of Scots' son James (1566-1625), had few advantages, but managed to balance the power of opposing factions in Scottish Government to establish the authority of his Kingship. With native cunning he was able to garner sufficient respect to drive him on a wave of popular enthusiasm to inherit the English throne from Elizabeth I. As King James I of England, he became the first Monarch to unite both England and Scotland under one rule.
The Author
Based on a decade of extensive research into the characters surrounding Mary Queen of Scots, genealogist and historian Robert Stedall has unearthed compelling new evidence to explain the alliances and switching loyalties within the Scottish Nobility that led to her downfall. His meticulously researched two-volume history provides a fresh understanding of the events, and paints a vivid portrait of this critical chapter in British history.