Queen of Scots Mary - Queen of Scots: the true life of Mary Stuart

First Mariner Books edition 2005

Copyright 2004 by John Guy

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Guy, J. A. (John Alexander)

Queen of Scots : the true life of Mary Stuart / John Guy.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN -13: 978-0-618-25411-8 ISBN-10: 0-618-25411-0

ISBN -13: 978-0-618-61917-7 (pbk.) ISBN -10: 0-618-61917-8 (pbk.)
1. Mary, Queen of Scots, 15421587. 2. ScotlandHistoryMary Stuart, 15421567. 3. Great BritainHistoryElizabeth, 15581603. 4. QueensScotlandBiography. I. Title.

DA 787- A 1 G 89 2004

941.105'092dc22 [ B ] 2003067592

Title-page calligraphy by Bernard Maisner

Maps by Jacques Chazaud and Richard Guy

e ISBN 978-0-547-52696-6
v1.0614

In memory of my mother

Princes at all times have not their wills, but my heart being my own is immutable.

Mary to Thomas Randolph, English ambassador to Scotland, March 8, 1564

W RITING 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, D.C., I acknowledge the generosity of Dr. Gail Kern Paster, director, and the Trustees.

Preliminary drafts of the maps and genealogical tables were drawn and digitized by Richard Guy of Orang-Utan Productions. For undertaking the picture research and obtaining loans of transparencies, I thank Sheila Geraghty, whose expertise was invaluable. My colleague Stephen Alford at Cambridge University 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.

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

Ive nothing but thanks and admiration for Peter Robinson and Emma Parry, my agents in London and New York, for their constant encouragement and for persuading me that I could write this book and make it work. Both read the manuscript and gave helpful advice. In preparing a book in which the interpretation counts for just as much as the archival research, Ive also realized how much Ive learned from the BBC producers with whom Ive been privileged to work during the past four years, in particular Catrine Clay, Dick Taylor and Jane McWilliams.

I owe an immense debt to Eamon Dolan, my editor at Houghton Mifflin. His comments on my drafts were pitched exactly right, always helpful and to the point. I feel privileged to be published by Houghton Mifflin, whose magnanimity in allowing me to get on with my work uninterrupted for almost three years created the closest thing to ideal conditions. For assistance in the editorial and publicity stages, I also wish to thank Larry Cooper, Bridget Marmion, Lori Glazer, Whitney Peeling and Carla Gray.

I express heartfelt gratitude to my former students at the University of St. Andrews, and those I currently teach at Cambridge, for their contributions to seminars and supervisions where Mary made her appearance more often than she should have. Other debts are to Fiona Alexander, who saw instantly that the mysterious object Mary holds in her left hand in the placard of the mermaid and the hare, previously defying explanation, is a rolled-up net. Frances and David Waters offered constant encouragement, uncannily predicting the date on which Id deliver the final manuscript, and making sure we had tickets for Mozarts Le Nozze di Figaro for the very next night.

Most importantly, Julia accepted Marys presence in what must increasingly have seemed like a mnage trois, showing infinite patience. She pored over innumerable drafts, reading some chapters as many as a dozen times and discussing Mary at all hours. I can never adequately thank her or repay her love. Emma was just as tolerant, never complaining that she hardly saw her father, and merely teasing him about when hed finish the book. Lucy, Susie and Gemma sometimes got their paws into Marys affairs more than I might have liked, but in doing so kept me in touch with normality.