Antonia Fraser - Mary Queen of Scots

Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works including the biographies King Charles II, the recently republished Mary Queen of Scots and Marie Antoinette: The Journey which won the Franco-British Literary Prize in 2001 and was made into a film by Sofia Coppola in 2006. Most recently she has published Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King.

Antonia Fraser won a Wolfson History Prize in 1984, was made CBE in 1999, and was awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000. She lives in London and has six children and eighteen grandchildren.

By Antonia Fraser

Mary Queen of Scots

Cromwell: Our Chief of Men

King James VI of Scotland, I of England

(Kings and Queens series)

King Charles II

The Weaker Vessel: Womans Lot

in Seventeenth-Century England

The Warrior Queens: Boadiceas Chariot

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

Love and Louis XIV: the Women in the

Life of the Sun King

ANTONIA FRASER

A WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON EBOOK

First published in Great Britain in 1969 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
This ebook first published in 2010 by Orion Books

Copyright Antonia Fraser 1969

The moral right of Antonia Fraser to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

eISBN: 978 0 2978 5795 2

This ebook produced by Jouve, France

The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martins Lane
London WC2H 9EA

An Hachette UK Company

www.orionbooks.co.uk

For George Weidenfeld

To salute his 90th birthday and

celebrate nearly 60 years of friendship

A King is historys slave.
History, that is the unconscious general swarm-life
of mankind, uses every moment of the life of kings,
as a tool for its own purposes.

Tolstoy

1 The palace of Linlithgow (Crown copyright. Reproduced by permission of the Ministry of Public Building and Works)

2 Mary of Guise (Photo: Annan. By permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

3 James v of Scotland (Photo: Annan. By permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

4 Letter written by Mary aged eleven (By permission of the Scottish Record Office, HM General Register House, Edinburgh, Duntreath Muniments (GD 97) section 3, no. 31)

5 Mary aged nine (Muse Cond, Chantilly)

6 Mary and her husband Francis (Muses Nationaux: Muse du Louvre, Paris)

7 Mary as Dauphiness of France (By permission of the Bibliothque Nationale)

8 Bust of Mary as Queen of France (Muses Nationaux: Chteau de Versailles)

9 Diane de Poitiers (Chteau dAnet)

10 The deathbed of Henry II of France (By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum)

11 The Deuil Blanc portrait of Mary (By gracious permission of HM the Queen)

12 Henry Lord Darnley and his brother Charles (By gracious permission of HM the Queen)

13 Marys signet ring (By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum)

14 James Stewart, Earl of Moray (Photo: Annan. By permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

15 Coins struck at the time of Marys marriage to Darnley (By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum)

16 James Douglas, Earl of Morton (Photo: Annan. By permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

17 The supper room at Holyrood Palace (Photo: Central Public Library, Edinburgh. From Swarbricks Sketches in Scotland, c. 1854)

18 Riccios guitar (Photo: B. Fleming. By permission of the Royal College of Music, London)

19 William Maitland (Photo: Tom Scott. By permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

20 The palace of Holyrood (Crown copyright. By permission of the Controller, HM Stationery Office. Drawings: National Monuments Record of Scotland)

21 Bothwell (Photo: Annan. By permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

22 James VI and I as a child (Photo: Annan. By permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

23 George Buchanan (Photo: Annan. By courtesy of the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

24 The scene after the murder of Darnley (Facsimile of Crown copyright records in the Public Record Office, by permission of the Controller of HM Stationery Office)

25 Hermitage Castle, Liddesdale (Crown copyright. Reproduced by permission of the Ministry of Public Building and Works)

26 The castle of Lochleven (Photo: the author)

27 The field at Carberry Hill (Facsimile of Crown copyright records in the Public Record Office, by permission of the Controller of HM Stationery Office)

28 Placard of the mermaid and the hare (Facsimile of Crown copyright records in the Public Record Office, by permission of the Controller of HM Stationery Office)

29 Cenotaph of Lord Darnley (By permission of the Trustees of the Goodwood Collection)

30 Tutbury Castle

31 Panel of embroidery at Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk (By permission of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Trust)

32 Letter of Mary to Queen Elizabeth (By kind permission of the Marquess of Salisbury)

33 Casket believed to have contained the Casket Letters (By kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon)

34 Marys first letter in English (By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum)

35 Queen Elizabeth I (By permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London)

36 Miniature of Mary by Nicholas Hilliard (By permission of Mrs D. Herschorn)

37 First page of a contemporary copy of the Fifth Casket Letter (By kind permission of the Marquess of Salisbury)

38 Medal of Mary by Primavera (By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum)

39 Mary and her son James (Photo: Tom Scott. By kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Atholl)

40 Layout at the trial of Mary (By permission of the Radio Times Hulton Picture Library and Jonathan Cape Ltd)

41 Marys veil worn at her trial (Photo: John Freeman. By permission of the Earl of Oxford and Asquith)

42 Marys rosary and prayer-book (Photo from Treasures of Britain, published for the Automobile Association. By kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Norfolk)

43 Execution of Mary (By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum)

44 The tomb of Elizabeth and Barbara Curle

45 Memorial portrait of Mary (Photo: Charles Howard. By permission of the Trustees of St Marys College, Blairs, Aberdeen)