Of the many women of the Tudor Epoch, the two that I feel most sorry for are Lady Jane Grey and Mary Queen of Scots – But for this point, I will concentrate on the latter,

Everyone will have to forgive me as I am writing from memory in my office where I have no access to my books.

I think I have spoken before about the ”Gold and Silver children”. The “Silver” children (example Elizabeth 1) tended to have a hard childhood but that stood in good stead as years went by. The “Gold” children , on the other hand, had a relatively easy youth but were unable to cope with problems as time went on.

I see Mary as the latter.

Marys’s father married twice, both to Frenchwomen. The first died shortly after the marriage and then he was wedded to Mary of Guise who, as a widow with a son, had attracted H8, but before anything could come of the offer, she was well ensconced in Scotland.

She gave James V two sons who after some years died very shortly within the space of time and as James and H8 were always ready to get at each other, gave birth to a daughter, Mary, two days before James died at the battle of Flodden Field. He is supposed to have said about the Stewart (Scots style)/Stuart (French style) dynasty “It started with a lass and will end with one” .

H8 wanted Scotland and as time went on and he finally got a son by Jane Seymour, he tried to forcibly organise the marriage between his son, the future Edward VI and the young Mary.

As her mother was from a very high powered French family (The Guise) and the Scottish regime was still, in theory Roman Catholic, Mary was sent to France with the idea of espousing her in the future to the Dauphin. France is where she spent her childhood and where she was dreadfully spoilt.

She was highly educated but indoctrinated into the Roman Catholic way of thinking. On her marriage at 16 years old to the Dauphin Francois, she did secretly sign papers saying that in the event of no children being born of the union, the crown of Scotland would pass to France. (Novel – “Checkmate” by Dorothy Dunnet and other sources)

However, by that time the new learning of the Protestants had taken hold in Scotland.

Mary did become Queen of France but for an extremely short time (a year?) .

She seems to have alienated her mother in law, Catherine of Medici, as she was sent back to her place of birth. Somewhere she had not known for years and which was much poorer that the land of her adoption.

She was still young, full of “joie de Vive” and on the look-out for another husband. Her Catholic faith seemed to be constant but she was being made to accept the Protestant form of worship as well.

Her grandmother, Margaret Tudor, had married twice – first to James IV and then to Archibald Douglas by whom she has a girl child, Margaret.

Margaret Senior seemed to put her foot in it a number of times and had to escape with daughter to her brother’s court in England, that of Henry VIII.

Daughter, after various “adventures” was married of to the Earl of Lennox, a Scottish renegade, by whom she had two living sons, one being Henry Darnley.

The question is who arranged or not, his escape from England to Scotland? But there he went. According to my Scottish sources when I was on one of my many visits there, Mary had two huge probs., that of being over 6 ft. tall (which is those days was exceeding high for man or woman) and that she had a hair-lip which is only seen in the “Orkney Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots” held at Dunrobin Castle near Inverness.

Henry Darnley had the charm and the height and so persuaded Mary to marry him with the idea that he would become King of Scotland.

However, he had been a spoiled brat and an ideal husband for Mary in the eyes of the English Court as he had no ideas about responsibility.

Although he was most probably unfaithful to Mary from the start (with both sexes), he managed to impregnate her. However, his way of living became wilder and wilder. At almost full term Mary was forced to witness the slaughter of her secretary, David Riccio, at the hands of Darnley’s supporters. But she did give birth to a healthy son, James.

The couple were completely at odds – It is said that Darnley was suffering from syphilis – but in any case although words were said, it was sure that the marriage was over. On a night where the couple were supposed to have met to resolve their differences, Darnley was killed, supposedly by an explosion at the palace he was staying at, but his body was found outside in the grounds. Who was responsible????????

Not so long afterwards, Mary was supposed to be captured and raped by Lord Bothwell whom she subsequently married. However, this event was not welcomed by the Scottish parliament nor the Lords and both were hounded. Bothwell was caught and imprisoned although he did escape to Denmark where he met the same fate (and died there) and Mary fled to England thinking she was be supported by her cousin, Elizabeth.

For reasons unbeknown, but probably on the advise of her council, Elizabeth did not want to meet her cousin face to face and for a number of years, Mary was shunted around castle after castle or palace.

Was Mary really as beautiful as novels make out , therefore making Elizabeth jealous of her, or was the fact that the North of England was still highly Catholic, that lead to the various plots against Elizabeth.

I am also sure that Walsingham, a fanatical protestant, had more than one hand in the ways things were going.

But, everything points to the fact that Elizabeth was very much against putting a fellow sovereign to death – so why did she finally give way, sign the warrant and give it to Davison only to afterwards to imprison him? (Another novel “Unicorn’s Blood”)

In the end, the protestants had their way. Mary’s son, James was bought up as one and succeeded Elizabeth.