John Guy - Mary Queen of Scots: Film Tie-In

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First published in print as My Heart is My Own by Fourth Estate 2004
Published in ebook as My Heart is My Own by Penguin Books 2012
This edition published as Mary Queen of Scots by Penguin Books 2019

Copyright John Guy, 2004
All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover image 2018 Focus Features LLC. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-241-98689-9

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THE TUDORS AND STUARTS

THE STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH SUCCESSION

THE GUISE FAMILY

SCOTLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

CENTRAL SCOTLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

FRANCE UNDER HENRY II (showing the principal places connected to Mary Quenn of Scots)

Writing this book has been an exciting, invigorating experience, one of the most thrilling of my life, an adventure even for someone who had already worked on the historical records for a quarter of a century. I had no idea when I began that so much fresh material could be found in the archives about a woman who has been the daughter of debate for four centuries. Then, when I steadily began to uncover this material, I felt a sense of elation. I simply could not stop working on the book until I got to the bottom and the end of the story.

Im deeply grateful for all the help and support Ive received from the archivists and curators whose repositories and libraries Ive ransacked for so many weeks and months. Monique Cohen and her staff at the Dpartement des Manuscrits, Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris, showed me how to find what I needed in a library Id never used before. In more familiar haunts, Dr Sarah Tyacke and her team at the National Archives (Public Record Office), London, and the staff of the University Library at Cambridge were as helpful and courteous as ever. Dr Andrea Clarke and her colleagues in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library were always willing to assist me, supplying microfilms of key volumes of the Cottonian and Additional Manuscripts so that I could read them at home. I also thank the staff of the Rare Books Department for producing every copy in the collection of certain titles, including multiple copies of the same edition. Dr Richard Palmer and his staff at Lambeth Palace Library offered me the opportunity to read newly acquired documents concerning Marys trial and execution, some of which had been out of the public domain for decades. Im most grateful to the Trustees for access to this material.

In Edinburgh, my path was greatly eased by the reading room staff of the National Archives of Scotland, HM General Register House, and of the Department of Special Collections, National Library of Scotland. At St Andrews University Library, Christine Gascoigne and her colleagues in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department repeatedly came to my aid. For access to and permission to quote from the manuscripts of the old Advocates Library and other documents held at the George IV Bridge repository of the National Library of Scotland, I wish to thank the Trustees.

For access to the Cecil Papers at Hatfield House and for permission to cite them, I am most grateful to The Marquess of Salisbury, and to Robin Harcourt Williams, Librarian and Archivist. For access to and permission to quote from the manuscripts and rare books at the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, I gladly thank Dr Mary Robertson, Chief Curator of Manuscripts, whom by a happy coincidence I first met in Sir Geoffrey Eltons Tudor seminar in Cambridge some thirty years ago. For permission to read the manuscripts and rare books at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, I acknowledge the generosity of Dr Gail Kern Paster, Director, and the Trustees.

The maps and genealogical tables were drawn and digitized by Richard Guy of Orang-Utan Productions from rough drafts I supplied. For undertaking the picture research and obtaining loans of transparencies, I thank Sheila Geraghty, whose expertise was invaluable. My colleague Stephen Alford at Cambridge read the entire manuscript in draft and I relished all of our lengthy conversations. Professor Michael Lynch, Department of Scottish History, University of Edinburgh, read and most generously commented on the uncorrected proofs. Im grateful for his suggestions and list of corrections on the Scottish side, and for corrections supplied by Rachel Guy, who also read the page proofs. I accept full responsibility for such errors as may still remain.

I must note here two omissions in the Bibliography. A full transcript of Randolphs letter of 14 February 1566 to Dudley was published in Scottish Historical Review, 34 (1955), 1359, and an article by A. A. MacDonald, Mary Stewarts Entry to Edinburgh: an Ambiguous Triumph, Innes Review, 42 (1991), 10110, provides further detail about the 1561 entry into Edinburgh.

Some academic historians may regret my spelling of Stuart in preference to Stewart for the dynasty. But Mary called herself Stuart not Stewart; her motto Sa Virtu mAtire only works as a near-perfect anagram if the family name is spelled Stuart; and it seemed likely to irritate most readers if Stuart and Stewart were promiscuously used. I also prefer Ker of Fawdonside to the alternative Kerr, adopting the orthography of the manuscripts. Lastly, Ive followed the example of Elizabeth I and William Cecil in styling James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran, as Arran after his father, the 2nd Earl, was made Duke of Chtelherault, even though he was not strictly Earl of Arran until his father died.