Queen of Scots

[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS AND THE MURDER OF LORD DARNLEY.]--In the national portrait gallery in Edinburgh, there once was a crudely painted portrait of Mary Queen of Scots. From one angle, one beheld a vision of a lovely woman; from the other the flesh peeled away and left only a grisly skeleton. That is the compelling dichotomy that has bewitched centuries of scholars and history buffs. Mary is the subject of two distinguished, but also distinctly different, recent biographies. Alison Weir attacks the central mystery of Mary's life--the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley--and sets the stage for an eventful night in Edinburgh with meticulous detail. The house where Darnley is staying is blown to bits, and his unscathed body is found nearby, apparently flung free in the blast. Davina Porter narrates masterfully, conveying the gruffness of Scots lords and the lilt of Mary's more musical and feminine voice. The intricacies of court intrigue are rendered more coherent through her characterizations, and this truly scholarly work becomes accessible to a broader audience through her skill. Weir and Porter's queen is a highly emotional and intelligent woman of intrigue. John Guy reads his compelling Queen of Scots himself, bringing his years of experience in lecture halls to this more intimate medium. His is the more complete biography, setting Mary squarely into a time that in turn sends her careening down her doomed path and into the popular imagination. Guy seems to understand his strengths as an audio performer and steers away from investing each character in the tableau with a unique voice. He delivers his captivating story in a clear, unadorned way, which neither adds to nor detracts from the spellbinding text. E.E.E. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

February 23, 2004
The story of Mary Stuart has been told in many contexts (most recently in Elizabeth and Mary
, Forecasts, Dec. 8, 2003), but nowhere has she been defended more rigorously than in this new study. Guy, a fellow at Cambridge University and BBC consultant, describes Mary's formative years in France, but the heart of the book is her short reign in Scotland. Negotiations with Elizabeth Tudor over the succession in England and the shadow of Mary's final fate dominate the narrative, but while Guy effectively establishes that Elizabeth's chief minister William Cecil was Mary's true English enemy, what is most shocking is how suppliant he shows Mary to have been to Elizabeth. The most dramatic moments, however, are supplied by the Scottish nobles, who shifted alliances around her and colluded in kidnappings and assassinations. Though not the first to challenge Mary's femme fatale image, Guy does not even deign to discuss the accusation that she was romantically involved with her Italian secretary Rizzio and convincingly absolves her of involvement in the death of her second husband. He re-examines her actions and choices and offers a lively textual analysis of letters usually used as evidence against her. Yet he does not conclusively argue that she ruled from the head, and, in the end, the question of whether Mary Stuart ruled from her head or her heart appears beside the point. Guy's detailed account of the familial, political and religious machinations of the forces swirling around the queen suggests that it was not flaws in Mary's character but the entire constellation of circumstances that doomed her rule in Scotland and led to her execution. 16 pages of b&w photos.