My
Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary...
Queen of Scots.
A long-overdue and dramatic reinterpretation of the life of
Mary, Queen of Scots by one of the leading historians at work
today. She was crowned Queen of Scotland at nine months of
age, and Queen of France at sixteen years; at eighteen she
ascended the throne that was her birthright and began ruling
one of the most fractious courts in Europe, riven by religious
conflict and personal lust for power. She rode out at the
head of an army in both victory and defeat; saw her second
husband assassinated, and married his murderer. At twenty-five
she entered captivity at the hands of her rival queen, from
which only death would release her. The life of Mary Stuart
is one of unparalleled drama and conflict. From the labyrinthine
plots laid by the Scottish lords to wrest power for themselves,
to the efforts made by Elizabeth's ministers to invalidate
Mary's legitimate claim to the English throne, John Guy returns
to the archives to explode the myths and correct the inaccuracies
that surround this most fascinating monarch. He also explains
a central mystery: why Mary would have consented to marry,
only three months after the death of her second husband, Lord
Darnley, the man who was said to be his killer, the Earl of
Bothwell. And, more astonishingly, he solves, through careful
re-examination of the Casket Letters, the secret behind Darnley's
spectacular assassination at Kirk o'Field. With great pathos,
Guy illuminates how the imprisoned Mary's despair led to a
reckless plot against Elizabeth, and thus to her own execution.
The portrait that emerges is not of a political pawn or a
manipulative siren, but of a shrewd and charismatic young
ruler who relished power and, for a time, managed to hold
together a fatally unstable country.
Queen
of Scots: The True Life of Mary... Stuart. The gloves
were taken off in this portrayal of Mary; the 'real person'
emerges from the descriptions of her personal life, the events
that shaped it, and some of the reasons behind the actions
of herself and her courtiers. Mary comes out looking stronger
than ever, but having the same general human weaknesses that
people have. How she coped with her world is wonderfully displayed
in this book.
Mary
Queen of Scots Antonia Fraser tackles the life of Mary,
Queen of Scots, in this excellent biography. Written originally
in the late sixties this book details every twist and turn
in the fateful Queens life. Not only does it give step by
step accounts of those famous episodes in Mary's life - her
3 marriages, 2 widowhoods, incarceration by Elizabeth I and
execution, but it gives the reader an insight into Mary herself.
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