Mary Queen of Scots

[Rachel_E]

After visiting Holyrood, I became intrigued with Mary Stuart/Stewart. I just finished a novel that is based on history, but obviously fictionalized from the author's perspective on her life. So, from what you've read, learned, or heard, or maybe even what you HOPE the truth to be... do you think of Mary, Queen of Scots as the woman who never had luck turn her way? Who was trapped in an unhappy marriage to Darnley and who might've thought he was murdered but was not involved herself in it? Do you think she truly loved Lord Bothwell? Do you think she planned to assasinate Queen Elizabeth or was she just looking to be freed from her prison? Was she the cold hearted serpent that some made her out to be? Or an unfortunate woman who was doomed from the start?

[ANDY-J]

Rachel,
The French court where Mary had spent her adolescence,was the wealthiest in Europe and she would have been used to pursuing all the usual pastimes of renaissance royalty and as Queen she would have grown used to being obeyed.Sixteenth-century Scotland was an altogether different proposition and I don't think Mary quite got over the culture shock.Scottish monarchs had to be unscrupulous in order to control the powerful Scots aristocracy and the few Scots monarchs who achieved success employed bribery,treachery and any other available means to keep the nobility under control.Mary had spent her life wrapped in cotton wool in the confines of the French court and she never really developed the political skills necessary to govern Scotland.Her refusal to give up Catholicism certainly created many problems for her and John Knox was responsible for adding to her worries.Her unwillingness to give up Catholicism ensured that she could never be accepted by the Scottish people.I think that initially she loved Darnley until she discovered he was a drunkard and womaniser but her ability to subsequently use Darnley to further her own political ends indicates that she was not totally naive.Possibly she felt she had a just claim to the English throne but there were many catholics in England who wished to see the end of Elizabeth's reign and Mary was used as a pawn in their political schemes.All in all she was just a woman who lacked the strength of character and political skills necessary to rule Scotland when it was involved in the religious upheavals of the reformation.

I think Mary was very much the author of her own downfall. In addition to the many reasons given by Andy I would just like to add the total naivety she showed by crossing into England after she was defeated at Langside, rather that taking a ship for France as she was advised.

In France she was practically a member of the Royal Family. Scotland had long-standing ties with France and Mary would have received at least a fair hearing. (France was also Roman Catholic, as was Mary.)

In Protestant England, Mary was never going to be anything but a problem. Roman Catholics throughout Europe regarded Mary as the legitimate Queen of England because, in their eyes, Elizabeth of England's parents were not legally married and she was thus a ******* and could not claim her father's throne on the death of her half-sister (Bloody) Mary Tudor. Mary Stewart was the closest legal heir to the English throne after Elizabeth, which is why her son eventually became King of England on Elizabeth's death. Mary Stewart, in true Stewart style, did nothing to deny these claims or put people off making them on her behalf, so there was absolutely no way Elizabeth could ever have Mary free in her (Elizabeth's) kingdom. By crossing into England after Langside Mary condemned herself to a life of imprisonment and more-or-less signed her own death warrant.

[Mamie]

she made very poor choices in husbands and politically. Raised at the French court she was not trained to deal with her own people as she was expected to remain in France with her husband the Dauphin. Unfortunately for her he died.

If he had lived what would have happened in Scotland? Would he have become the King as Mary's husband or would the country have been ruled by other members of the Stewart Family.

[ANDY-J]

A French King could never have ruled in Scotland after the reformation.Mary of Guise,the mother of Mary Queen of Scots,had stationed French troops in Scotland and had made the country a virtual French colony.This had so enraged the protestant nobility,who termed themselves the lords of the congregation,that they invited an English army into Scotland to remove the French.At the conclusion of a bloody war a treaty was signed which effectively ended French involvement in Scotland's affairs.Mary was only tolerated as Queen provided she practised the Catholic religion in private and professed her allegiance to protestantism in public.Many Scots,most notably John Knox even found this unnacceptable.The King of France could never reject Catholicism and therefore could never become the King of Scotland and furthermore the English would never again contemplate the idea of a French army on Scottish soil.I think if the Dauphin had lived Mary would have been solely concerned with French affairs and the Scots would probably have found one of her Stewart relatives to rule the country.

[Mamie]

It's what I suspected.

[Monco]

Queen Marys reign up until her marriage to Darnley actually went quite well. Post Darnley it was an absolute disaster.

She never could be sufficiently decisive in respect of her Catholic faith. The reformation was in its very early days and could have been reversed. But Mary did nothing and left the Catholic faction directionless and leaderless.