Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots
“Jade Scott explains that, depending on your belief, Mary Queen of Scots was innocent, naïve, cunning, manipulative, deceitful, adulterous, tyrannical . . . and more.”
Mary Queen of Scots remains one of the most important and interesting characters in a place and time of incredible historical drama in late 1500s Western Europe, the beginnings of globalization as known today. At different times, the former Queen of France and Scotland would also claim to be the legitimate monarch of England.
A civil war in Scotland that followed the assassination of her second husband led to her imprisonment, escape, exile, and finally imprisonment in England. “The struggle for Mary’s restoration and freedom is the heart of Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots."
Jade Scott explains that, depending on your belief, Mary Queen of Scots was innocent, naïve, cunning, manipulative, deceitful, adulterous, tyrannical, murderous, conspiratorial, and more. Her majesty has been classically portrayed as reckless, frivolous, and gullible, the opposite of her cousin Elizabeth I of England. “We either adore her, romanticize her, and idolize her, or we detest her, denigrate her, and demonize her.”
In Captive Queen, the author does not just retell Her Majesty’s often-told story. Scott opens the book by explaining the key element: 57 secret letters by the subject recently discovered, decoded, and available to scholars for the first time.
The author uses the book to explain how this source opens new information, even though 7,000 of the Queens’ other letters survive “scattered in archives and libraries around the world.” The newly discovered letters reveal much previously unknown about her communications network.
Mary was born into a life of conspiracies on December 8, 1542, to become the only surviving heir of James V of Scotland. The politics of England and Scotland were toxic, as any number of the nobility vied for thrones by blood, death by natural causes, marriage, murder, and even rape.
“Letters became her weapons, her armor, her battle strategy,” Scott writes, when many powerful people, including her cousin Elizabeth I of England and her son James VI of Scotland, would have had Mary disappear completely.
If the Scottish Queen were returned to Scotland and tried for her alleged crimes, that would sanction the people having the right to remove a monarch, including, theoretically, in England. A civil war might break out in Scotland. Sending Mary to France could conceivably result in an invasion of England. Philip II of Spain had the resources to make that happen, and Mary’s imprisonment could be his excuse.
Elizabeth’s chief advisor, Lord William Cecil, Lord Burghley, saw Mary as a threat to the English throne. Mary’s correspondence was carefully monitored during her 18 years as an English prisoner. She used at least 70 ciphers and had to smuggle out her letters. The letters were fixed to be slightly but noticeably damaged if opened.
Particularly sad is how the new letters reveal Mary wanted a relationship with her son, James VI of Scotland (later James I of England). He worked for an association that would free his mother and allow joint rule in Scotland. Like Elizabeth, his holding onto his throne was fragile.
The former queen’s plans to earn release by marriage or be allowed to return to France failed. Her royal lineage was important but not her life. These newly discovered letters prove that she knew of the Throckmorton plot to rescue her with a foreign invasion of England and other conspiracies. She was finally beheaded on February 8, 1587.
Captive Queen reads well and is concise. The period of the Queen’s captivity, discussed in the new letters, is covered in detail. However, the subject is so complex that readers can quickly become lost in the details.
This book is not recommended as a first read for someone unfamiliar with the subject. Mary’s biography is not discussed until well into the book. Too often, the closer one looks, the less one sees.
The author helps with this material by including a bibliography, a chronology, a dramatic personae, maps, and notes. The pictures are in color.