Mary Queen of Scots

She was the quintessentially regal: statuesque, beautiful. Birth gave her claim to two nations' thrones. Her marriage to the young French dauphin promised a 3rd. Instead, Mary Stuart became victim of her impulsive heart, scandalizing her world with foolish passion leading to abduction, rape & murder. Betrayed by those she trusted, she'd be lured into a power struggle, only to lose to her envious, unforgiving cousin, Elizabeth I. This is the story of a queen who lost a throne for love, pampered & adored even as she was to be beheaded.

As enumerated in an "Author's Note", Fraser aims (1) to test the truth of legends surrounding the subject & (2) to set Queen Mary in the context of the age in which she lived. Her portrait is largely sympathetic. Tho she stresses what she sees as Mary's virtues, she believes that Scotland at the time required an extraordinarily strong ruler to pull the nobles into line.

The book dismantles legends about Mary arising during & after her lifetime. Fraser recounts the circumstances surrounding the plot to murder the Queen's 2nd husband Darnley in detail. At the York Conference, the Regent Moray produced the Casket Letters, presented as love letters from Mary to her 3rd husband, Bothwell, with whom she had allegedly plotted to kill Darnley. After rigorous research, Fraser concludes that they were forgeries, an amalgamation of real letters that Mary wrote & love letters written to Bothwell by one of his mistresses.