Mary, Queen of Scots

2 Jul, 2020 940 History of Europe

In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, who had potential to be one of the most powerful rulers in Europe, yet she was also one of the most vulnerable. In France, when she was the teenage bride to their future king, she was seen as rightful heir to the thrones of England and Ireland, as well as Queen of Scotland and one day of France, which would have been an extraordinary union. She was widowed too young, though and, a Catholic returning to Protestant Scotland, she struggled to overcome rivalries in her own country. She fled to Protestant England, where she was implicated in plots to overthrow Elizabeth, and it was Elizabeth herself who signed Mary’s death warrant.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

  • David Forsyth No other episodes
    Principal Curator, Scottish Medieval-Early Modern Collections at National Museums Scotland
  • Anna Groundwater No other episodes
    Teaching Fellow in Historical Skills and Methods at the University of Edinburgh
  • John Guy 6 episodes
    Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge

Reading list

  • David Forsyth
    Principal Curator, Scottish Medieval-Early Modern Collections at National Museums Scotland
  • Anna Groundwater
    Teaching Fellow in Historical Skills and Methods at the University of Edinburgh
  • John Guy
    Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge
  • Mary, Queen of Scots
    Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Mary, Queen of Scots
    Wikipedia
  • The Enigma of Mary Stuart
    Ian B. Cowan (Sphere, 1972) Google Books →
  • Scotland Re-formed: 1488-1587
    Jane E. A. Dawson (Edinburgh University Press, 2007) Google Books →
  • All the Queen's Men: Power and Politics in Mary Stewart's Scotland
    Gordon Donaldson (Batsford Press, 1983) Google Books →
  • Mary Queen of Scots: An Illustrated Life
    Susan Doran (British Library Publishing Division, 2007) Google Books →
  • Mary, Queen of Scots
    Antonia Fraser (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009) Google Books →
  • My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots
    John Guy (Harper Perennial, 2004) Google Books →
  • Queen of Scots
    Rosalind K. Marshall (Mercat Press, 2000) Google Books →
  • Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley
    Alison Weir (Vintage, 2008) Google Books →
  • Mary Queen of Scots: A Study in Failure with a new foreword and afterward by Anna Groundwater
    Jenny Wormald (Birlinn, forthcoming June 2017) Google Books →
  • Mary, Queen of Scots: Politics, Passion and a Kingdom Lost
    Jenny Wormald (Tauris Parke, 2001)

Related episodes

Programme ID: b088fs7z

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088fs7z

Auto-category: 940.2 (Europe - History)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello. Mary, Queen of Scots had potential to be one of the most powerful rulers in Europe, yet she was also one of the most vulnerable.