Customer Reviews

Royal Road to Fotheringhay: The Story of Mary, Queen of Scots

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I am an avid reader of Tudor fiction and non-fiction. I can't get my hands on the materials fast enough. I found this book, as well as many other of Plaidy's books too be filled with rich images of time in the Tudor age.

I have read much on Mary, Queen of Scots, and the one complaint that I have about this book is that it jumps from the point where Mary was forced into captivity by the Scots, to her execution day. Everything between was left out. I found this to be very different from the other Plaidy books I have read.

I would recommend the book to others, but I would also recommend reading a bit about Mary Stuart, and her life before reading this book.

Mary Stuart led a remarkable life, being the daughter of the King of Scotland and a French noblewoman. Her father died when she was very young and she inherited the throne upon his death with her mother acting as Regent until she was of an age to rule herself. Mary was sent to live in Paris so that she could be raised in the affluent French court and also being betrothed to the young French prince, who would inherit the throne of France upon his father's death.

Unfortunately for Mary, things don't go the way they planned. Her young prince dies and Mary is sent back to Scotland as she is no longer needed in France.

Mary is seen as an outsider in Scotland immediately as she was raised French and cannot even speak English; and worse, she is a Catholic who does not believe in her country's religion: Protestantism. Her mother passes on and Mary is left to rule a country alone that she knows nothing about.

Mary makes two foolhardy marriages and the only good to come of her second marriage is she produces an heir, James, who will go on to be named Queen Elizabeth's heir as well, and will be the first ruler of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

Mary eventually has to seek the help of her cousin Queen Elizabeth of England, however due to political turmoil, and Elizabeth's constant fear of her throne turning over to a "legitimate" heir, Elizabeth imprisons Mary for the rest of her life, fearful that English Catholics will sympathize with Mary and put her on the throne instead of Protestant Elizabeth.

Jean Plaidy writes a very detailed account, not only of the subject of the book, but also of the time period, in each of her novels, this one being no exception.

I always recommend historical fiction to someone who wants to learn a little bit about someone or a time period as it is usually fairly accurate to fact and is much easier and fun to read than a piece of non-fiction.

It took me a while to get through this one because i was so determined to get the dates and people committed to memory, but wow was Jean Plaidy thorough! This was so entertaining and eye opening and although "fiction", an excellent history lesson painted with vivid images and very intelligent writing. The research that must have gone into this books overwhelms me and I went out and bought several of her others to work my way through those as well.
Very interesting and hard to put down.

This is a wonderful, captivating work of historical fiction. Weaving a spellbinding tale out of a tapestry of actual events, the author recounts the tragic and dramatic tale of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

Born in Scotland, Mary, whose father, the King of Scotland, died when she was very young, was an only child. Her father's death left her mother, Marie De Guise of France, to rule as Regent in Scotland for their daughter. A wily woman, Marie saw only danger on the horizon for Mary, if Mary remained in Scotland. So, she had Mary betrothed to Francois, the Dauphin of France, and sent her at a very young age to live in the French Court.

A happy, pleasing, and bonnie child, Mary matured into a beautiful young woman and eventually married the Dauphin. After the unexpected death of the King, she and Francois went on to reign as King and Queen of France. Alas, her happiness was short lived, as Francois was sickly and in poor health. After his premature death, there was no place for Mary in the court of her brother-in-law, Charles, the succeeding French King, thanks to the machinations of her evil mother-in-law, Catherine D'Medici.

Mary then did the only thing left to do. She set sail for Scotland under the protection of border lord, James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, to reclaim her kingdom as its anointed Queen. Her mother, Marie De Guise, now dead, the Catholic Mary was faced with reclaiming a Protestant kingdom that she had not seen for many years, a kingdom over which her half brother, the illegitimate and Protestant James, meant to rule himself, irrespective of his illegitimate birth.

Little did Mary know of the travails that would await her. A quarrelsome group of lords and nobles, whose perfidy, deceit, and ruthless jockeying for power knew no bounds, would plague her brief reign. They would plot against her with her Protestant cousin in England, Elizabeth I, a Queen who ruled with her head and not with her heart. Mary's half brother, James, whose naked ambition was to wear the crown himself, was determined that Mary would be Queen in name only. He would stop at nothing to secure that which he felt was his by right, if not by birth. John Knox, a fire and brimstone religious fanatic, who held Scotland in his Calvinist thrall, denounced the Catholic Mary at every opportunity, proclaiming her a wanton and rebuffing her overtures and requests for religious tolerance. This is what awaited Mary in Scotland, a harsh and most inhospitable land.

This woman, who would be Queen, eventually decided to marry again and made the greatest mistake of all in electing to marry the young and dissolute Lord Henry Darnley, an English Catholic. Though royal by birth, he would eventually bring nothing but shame upon her, plotting against her and those loyal to her. Darnley was the catalyst for some of the greatest scandals in the history of Scotland. Notwithstanding Darnley's perfidy, Mary did her duty and, having been delivered of an infant son fathered by Darnley, provided Scotland with an heir to the throne. She eventually became nothing more than a pawn in the ambitions of men, pitting Mary's half brother, James, now the Earl of Moray, against James, the Earl of Bothwell, one of Darnley's alleged murderers and Mary's seducer. It would be a fight to the finish.

With Darnley having died under mysterious circumstances and her passions now aroused, Mary married the Earl of Bothwell, much to the outrage of all of Scotland, and together incurred the enmity of many of the lords and nobles. This would lead to Bothwell's exile and captivity in Denmark, while Mary would flee to England, hoping to meet with Elizabeth and obtain her help in securing her kingdom. Instead, she would remain her cousin Elizabeth's captive for twenty years, being moved from castle to castle, as Mary's Catholic supporters plotted over the years to restore her kingdom to her.

Finally, these plots included the throne of England, and Elizabeth could no longer close her eyes to the threat that her still living cousin, Mary, an anointed Catholic Queen with a claim to the throne of Protestant England, presented. For her alleged treason, Mary would be tried, and the castle at Fotheringay would be the end of the line for her in the land in which twenty years earlier she had unwisely sought succor.

This is a spellbinding story, told with an infusion of historical detail. Those interested in the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, will, undoubtedly, enjoy this work of historical fiction. It is a fascinating tale of a historical figure whose life remains an intriguing enigma even today.

Of all the books that I have read about Mary, Queen of Scots, this one seems to be nearer what I have read about her in history.

In truth Mary Queen of Scots was a woman who was "ruled by her emotions" . In the beginning I wondered Fotheringhay, why does that sound familiar? Fotheringhay was the end of the road for Mary and her execution took place there. I always wanted the whole story on her years before captivity in England. What was it that led Mary to be considered a martyr and what really happened in Scotland?

Mary's life was a complicated one from the beginning, she was proclaimed queen as a baby and her mother was regent. Scotland at this time was in conflict with the royals because Scotland's people were devout Protestants and the royals were stanch Catholics. With the conflict at a high point and Henry VIII nearly beating on Scotland's door for Mary she had to flee. There is not a more beautiful place you could escape to in the world other than France in this read the luxuries of France were bursting at the seams. Mary found herself in the center being constantly petted and loved for her profound beauty. She was brought up in the royal nursery with her would be husband the later François II, it was always known that François would not be too long for this world. How different things would have been if he had remained.

Sadly after François II passed the not so friendly dowager Queen Catherine De Medici said in not so many words for Mary to kick rocks on her own in Scotland. Mary was distraught to leave her powerful Guise family and the luxury that was France. Mary was not meant for Scotland she was as delicate flower among barbarians. She was more gullible then I ever thought possible, gullible to believe people including her own family's loyalty.

Plaidy covers it all from the glittering luxury of France with it's Casanova courtiers, to rough Scotland highlanders who wore they Protestant beliefs as a badge of honor, spies on all sides, murderous plots, blood turning on blood, and delicate Mary always found herself in the middle constantly taking the wrong steps that would only eventually lead to Fotheringhay. I own this book.

We all know of Mary, the Queen of Scots, the queen executed by Elizabeth I. We know how she fled from Scotland to enter into England for safety, and wound up being a prisoner for the rest of her life. But what about before? There had to have been a reason for it.

Plaidy breaks Mary's tale into two parts. This book details the beginning of her life as Queen of Scotland. At only 6 days old her father, James V, dies and thus Mary is queen. She is brought up by her mother who seeks to protect her in every way possible from the fueding by the Scottish lords. Her mother, from France, and seeks to make sure that her daughter is brought up in a manner consistent with French attitudes. She even does Mary one better and sends her to France to marry Henry II's son, Francois. She dutifully does this, and even grows to love him in her own way, becoming Queen of France in time. Then tradegy strikes, as well as the Dowager Queen, Catherine de Medici(who has her own set of scandals and books, some of them by Plaidy) who sends her back to Scotland. There she seeks to try to make sense of the Scottish political landscape, doing a poor job of it. What's more is that she does no better when it comes to religion, try as she might.

She lives for a while as a widow, which doesn't suit her. She makes a marriage to Henry, Lord Darnley, a cousin of her's. What was hoped to be a love match on her part is, sadly, not so. Her heart and mind are abused, and nothing she does can fix this problem, not even the birth of her son James. Can life get worse for her? Her nobility fighting, the church fighting her, she fighting herself over her decisions. It can and does.

Plaidy is a master of suspense. I never wanted to put this book down. Not only did I not want to because it was good, but because it was an introduction to a queen I didn't know much about, and definitely not a lot about her life before she was sentenced to a life of exile and prison in England. Though this isn't about England proper, her story is extremely important when it comes to the next set of books in the series. This is totally worth the read if you wanted to know about Mary's life pre-England. The next book, The Captive Queen of Scots: Mary, Queen of Scots, is just as good in my opinion and wraps her story up nicely. Both are worth the read.

This is the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, the luckless Queen of France and Scotland, who threw away her throne for passion. The story begins with the 5 year old Mary being whisked to the safety of the French Court, where she is betrothed to the Dauphin. As she grows older, the Dauphin grows weaker, but they marry and soon become the King and Queen of France. Unfortunately, Francois soon dies, and Mary is unceremoniously shipped back to Scotland. Here she is unwelcome as a Catholic, as well as lonely. Unlike her cousin and counterpart, Elizabeth, Mary lives her life through her emotions, which eventually becomes her downfall.

I usually really enjoy Jean Plaidy's novels because she paces the tales well, usually sticks to fact, and makes the characters "come to life," so to speak. Perhaps it was that I found the main character unattractive, but this novel disappointed me. Knowing the way all these tales end before you ever begin, historical fiction needs the reader to be caught up in the story in order to enjoy it. Mary is (as portrayed in this novel) not captivating at all. She's kind of whiny and weak. I found that I didn't really care that she was going to be executed. I'm sure it's as close (fairly) as the rest of her work to history, this novel is just missing that "enthralling" quality. If you're new to Plaidy's work, try Anne Boleyn's tale or Katherine Howard's tale instead.

I love Jean Plaidy! Because I'm a fan of history and especially during the 1500-1600's Plaidy puts in plenty of facts and also her imagination to give the book some umph. I think Plaidy is better than Philippa Gregory. Well, the only book I've read from Gregory was called "The other queen", which is also about Queen Mary of scots. But its such a confusing book to read. I'm all for Jean Plaidy!