Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart

Rating:
Summary: Well-Research Whale of a Book
Review: John Guy seems to have spent much fruitful time digging up everything he could for Queen of Scots, the True Life of Mary Stuart. Along the way he seems to have fallen completely and hopelessly under her spell. That is not to say he does not, on occasion, find fault with her (her marriage to Bothwell could never be presented as a smart idea) but he puts up the best defence against Mary's detractors (Cecil and Elizabeth) since the reign of the Renaissance papacy. This is only occasionally a problem in this otherwise interesting and mammoth book. Mary has been oft maligned in favour of Elizabeth and it seems, for some reason, one is always expected to choose between these two British queens ruling at the same time and the author makes his choice abundantly clear. The author covers the complicated factionalism of Scotland with adroitness. The murder of Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, is handled with more thoroughness in other books (such as Alison Weir's) but this author places the assisnation in its context quite comfortably. A good book on a fascinating woman.

Rating:
Summary: The real Mary!
Review: Mary Stuart was to the manor born, if indeed anyone ever was. She was the daughter of James V of Scotland and the great-granddaughter of Henry VII of England. She was raised in the Royal Court of France and was married at sixteen to the heir to the French Throne. Mary's father had died a few days after her birth and she had actually been Queen of Scotland since that time. Her realm was governed however by a regent who was for most of that time Mary's mother, Mary of Guise. The Guise family was a rich and powerful French family and they used young Mary to their advantage whenever they could. This misuse by her mother's family was just to be the beginning of a long series of betrayals that would finally end in Mary's execution.

John Guy has undertaken a huge task with this biography. The well-ingrained image of Mary Queen of Scots is one of a manipulative siren or of a Queen who was well out of her depth or both. Guy has examined many documents that have never been considered before and has reached an entirely different conclusion. In every way she was the equal of her cousin Elizabeth I, and in many ways her better. Mary's problem was that her Kingdom had been divided up by clan loyalties for years and the squabbles among the nobles made for an unruly Kingdom. Add to this the recent arrival of the Reformation in Scotland, and the further division it caused and the situation Mary faced on her return to Scotland was an almost hopeless one. Not phased in the least, Mary jumped right in and even her detractors had to admit that she was doing well. Even the rather unpleasant John Knox had to admit that the Catholic Queen did not lack courage.

Mary's also faced the problem that Scotland was so small and weak. That fact gave her very little leverage when bargaining abroad or with her cousin to the south. Then of course there was William Cecil, Elizabeth's Secretary of State, who hated Mary with a blind passion. Many Catholics in Europe, including many in England didn't recognize Elizabeth as the legitimate Queen of England, but instead looked to her cousin, the Queen of Scots. For that reason and his raging Protestantism Cecil decided that Mary had to go. And he went to extraordinary lengths to see that she did go.

Guy argues quite clearly that most of the charges that were leveled at Mary by rebel lords of Scotland were trumped up. Supported only by forged and doctored documents. The author is very convincing in his argument that Mary had nothing to do with the death of her second husband Lord Darnley and that in fact her accusers were the guilty parties. In all, Mary seems to have been caught up in events that simply were too much for anyone to handle. She seems to have made the right decision most of the time but with her own lords out to steal her throne and with William Cecil at work in London she simply had no chance.

Her only real guilt came near the end of her life when she did indeed conspire to remove Elizabeth from the English Throne. This conspiracy was more of an act of desperation than anything else, for she had languished in English custody for years. Day catches the sense of desperation Mary must have felt and the reader will understand why she acted thus. Day in fact does an excellent job of catching the spirit of the times as well as the spirit of Mary. Reading this book, one will see how often Mary was wronged while she was trying desperately to do the right thing. The author's thesis is that Mary was not only wronged in her own time, but has been badly wronged by history. In my opinion, he makes his point and it is well taken. After reading this wonderfully well-written book I don't think I will ever think of Mary Queen of Scots in the same way. She had her flaws, but she was indeed an impressive woman.

Rating:
Summary: Huge and hugely satisfying
Review: This is a big book in more ways than one. Even though it's a tome I read it very quickly and with great satisfaction. The religiosity of Elizabethan politics were clearly as cynical as the politics of our own time, but in those days you could have your head removed for it. That thought never left my mind as I plowed through this great read. This is a serious book, but it reads like a novel.

Elizabeth is always held up as a master politician, and although Mary may or may not have been her equal politically she was her superior in charm by a long shot. You cannot help sympathizing with her, admiring her courage, even if she might have been complicitous in her own victimization. She was a very complex character, and this book does an excellent job of teasing out the various strands of her personality.

There is a lot of new information here as well. If you have read the other books on the subject, especially Antonia Fraser's, or are looking for a good place to begin, this is the book for you.