Mary Queen of Scots: Conspirator or victim?

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Patricia Andrew goes in search of the elusive monarch

This summer’s major exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland will tell you (almost) everything about that rather elusive figure, Mary, Queen of Scots. Not elusive because of any lack of information, but because of partial knowledge and historical emphasis on certain aspects of her life, and on her death. And for the non-historian, she is difficult to place within the complicated dynastic structure of royalty in northern Europe.  

The exhibition and the accompanying book-cum-catalogue are aimed at the general visitor and reader. They demystify the person of Mary and set her life in context. There is dazzling array of jewellery, costume, paintings, documents and other objects, which assist in telling the story while also illustrating the wider period of Scottish history.

This is the first exhibition for a long time to display so many items relating to Mary, and to provide an authoritative account of what is authentic – an important matter, since a great number of objects have been spuriously associated with her over the centuries. The author is an historian who specializes in this period. She has previously written a biography of Mary’s mother, and on Mary herself (including Mary, Queen of Scots: Truth or Lies, St Andrew Press, Edinburgh, 2010).  

Mary, Queen of Scots had one of the most extraordinary lives of any monarch anywhere, which is saying something. Quite appropriately we start not at her birth, but at her death, with the striking painting that depicts her on the scaffold, serenely facing execution as a martyr for her Catholic faith. Mary’s life was adventurous enough, but her death was both its political and spiritual climax. The artist of the painting is unknown, and it goes by the title of The Blairs Memorial Portrait (from its ownership), though it is most associated with the woman who commissioned it: Elizabeth Curle, one of Mary’s chamber-women who attended the execution.

Mary is possibly the most celebrated and controversial figure in Scottish history, but remains an enigma, and all the intrigue and romance have obscured the hard facts of her life and reign. ‘Turbulent’ is the term often used to describe her life (1542–87), though much of this turbulence was made up of plots and intrigue, conspiracy and murder.  She was at the mercy of dynastic events from the start, being crowned Queen of Scots at the age of nine months. Byage 18 she had been married, crowned Queen Consort of France, and widowed.Two superb portraits by François Clouet show the young adult Mary: in the first she wears a splendid carnation-coloured dress (1558), and in the other, a veil and gown of white mourning (1560–61), already looking much older and wiser. After 19 years as a prisoner of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, she was executed, and the stories about her life started to develop into the stuff of legend and even romance. Even today, the parts she played in some of the more violent episodes of her life remain controversial, for she is regarded by some as a conspirator and murderer, by others a victim of political circumstance.

The large number of personal objects which have been associated with Mary mean that any curator or historian treads warily. Mary’s cousin Queen Elizabeth not only ordered her execution, but also the destruction of all the objects with her on the scaffold. Much else was dispersed. Today, any object, however mundane, will be worth a great deal more in the auction room if a connection can be proved. Over 200 objects are shown here, drawn from the collections of the National Museums of Scotland, augmented with major loans from collections throughout Scotland, England and France. Yet despite all the objects on display, it is still the odd, quirky aspects of Mary’s history that can command attention. There are the affecting personal details, for example her dog, taken from the scene of her execution, which refused to eat and so died.

The exhibition is a model of elucidation, explaining the intermeshing of royal families, and the events of Mary’s life, with a large-scale timeline and family tree on the walls of the gallery. The publication is good too, though rather brief considering the amount of research that must have gone into the exhibition (which is only showing in Edinburgh). It is a pity that an opportunity has been missed to produce both a brief version for the general reader, and an in-depth scholarly study using all the research material.  

The catalogue Mary, Queen of Scots: ‘In the End is My Beginning’ by Rosalind K. Marshall is published by National Museums Scotland 2013.  112 pp. 145 colour illus. ISBN 978 1 905267 82 8