Customer Reviews

Mary of Guise (Scot's Lives)

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Mary of Guise is probabely best remembered as the mother of Mary , Queen of Scots, but was a fascinating women in her own right. A devout Roman Catholic , she was also a women of courage and determination , she was never wantonly cruel or spiteful as portrayed by John Knox and some British historians , but had to operate with sharp cunning and resolve. Marshall provides a very different portrayal to that of Mary of Guise in the movie Elizabeth (1998),directed by Shekhar Kapur.
Mary was born on November 22, 1515 at at Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine.
Widowed , at 21, after her first marriage to Louis of Orleans, Duke of Longueville, she became wife of James V of Scotland , at age 23 , in 1538.She was crowned as Queen Consort at Holyrood Abbey in 1540, and the mother of two sons who died in infancy. King James died in 1642 , leaving the 27 year old Mary , Regent of Scotland , with her little daughter Mary (who was sent to France as a little girl for her own safety) .Mary was forced to manouver between various powerful nobles of shifting allegiances , she was loyal to France and the Roman Catholic Church , determined that Scotland should stay Catholic and in alliance with France, she was threatened by the growing power of Scotland's Protestants and of an ever threatening England. This is the story of her life and character , and of her ultimate failure and death.
Rosalind Marshall provides as sympathetic portrayal of Mary of Guise as well as a sharp eye into the Scotland and Western Europe of the time.
An impressive personal and social history.