Read Mary Queen of Scots Online
Authors: Retha Warnicke
Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Scotland, #Royalty, #England/Great Britain, #France, #16th Century, #Nonfiction
Elizabethan England
Works on Elizabethan England are also too numerous for a comprehensive listing. The standard biography of the queen is Wallace MacCaffrey,
Elizabeth I
(London: Arnold, 1993), but it should be supplemented with works that examine gender issues, such as Carole Levin,
“
The Heart and Stomach of a King:
”
Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and
Power
(Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Amanda Shepherd,
Gender and Authority in Sixteenth Century England
(Keele: Keele University Press, 1994); Susan Doran,
Monarchy and Matrimony:
The Courtships of Elizabeth I
(London: Routledge, 1996); A.N. McLaren,
Political Culture in the Reign of Elizabeth I: Queen and Commonwealth,
1558–1585
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); and Mary Hill Cole,
The Portable Queen: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Ceremony
(Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, 1999). Stephen Alford,
The
Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British Succession Crisis,
1558–1569
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) should be read in association with Jane Dawson,
The Politics of Religion in the Age
of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and
Ireland
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Conspiracies against Elizabeth
For studies of the conspiracies against Elizabeth that exonerate Mary see, for example, John H. Pollen,
Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington Plot
(Edinburgh: Constable, 1922
)
; and for the many condemnations of her, see A.G. Smith,
The Babington Plot
(London: Macmillan, 1936), which prints some of the documents; Conyers Read,
Mr. Secretary Walsingham
and the Policy of Queen Elizabeth
, 3 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1925),
Mr Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth
(New York: Knopf, 1955); and
Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth
(New York: Knopf, 1960).
The following offer invaluable insights into the operations of spy networks: Alan Haynes,
Invisible Power: The Elizabethan Secret Services,
1570–1603
(Stroud: Sutton, 1992)
;
John Archer,
Sovereignty and
Intelligence: Spying and Court Culture in the Renaissance
(Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993); and John Bossy,
Giordano Bruno and
the Embassy Affair
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991) and
Under the Molehill
:
An Elizabethan Spy Story
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001). See also, David Kahn,
The Codebreakers
:
The
Story of Secret Writing
(London: Macmillan, 1967); Peter Way,
Codes and
Ciphers
(London: Aldus Books, 1977); and Mark Jones (ed.) with Paul Craddock and Nicholas Barker,
Fake? The Art of Deception
(London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1990).
French histories
Only a few, relevant books on French history can be listed here: Julia Cartwright,
Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan and Lorraine
(New York: Dutton, 1913); Henry Evennett,
The Cardinal of Lorraine and the
Council of Trent: A Study in the Counter-Reformation
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930); N.M. Sutherland,
The French
Secretaries of State in the Age of Catherine de Medici
(London: London University, 1962); De Lamar Jensen,
Diplomacy and Dogmatism:
Bernardino de Mendoza and the French Catholic League
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964); Frederic Baumgartner,
Henry II, King
of France, 1547–1559
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1988); Keith Cameron (ed.),
From Valois to Bourbon
(Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1989); Mack Holt,
The French Wars of Religion
, 1562–1629
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); David Potter,
A
History of France, 1460–1560
:
The Emergence of a Nation State
(London: Macmillan, 1995); R.J. Knecht,
French Renaissance Monarchy: Francis I
and Henry II
(Harlow: Longman, 1996); and Stuart Carroll,
Noble Power
During the French Wars of Religion: The Guise Affinity and the Catholic
Cause in Normandy
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Women’s history
A knowledge of women’s history is essential to an understanding of sixteenth-century culture and the writing of women’s biography. See, for example, R.A. Houston, “Women in the Economy and Society of Scotland,” in Houston and I.D. Whyte (eds),
Scottish Society,
1500–1800
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); Joy Hendry, “‘Lying in the Asylum of Taciturnity:’ Women’s History in Scotland,” in Ian Donnachie and Christopher Whatley (eds),
The
Manufacture of Scottish History
(Edinburgh: Polygon, 1991); John Parsons (ed.),
Medieval Queenship
(New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993); Maureen M. Meikle, “Victims, Viragoes, and Vamps: Women of the Sixteenth-Century Anglo-Scottish Frontier,” in John Appleby and Paul Dalton (eds),
Government, Religion and Society in Northern England,
1000–1700
(Stroud: Sutton, 1997); Sara Mendelson and Pauline Crawford,
Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1998); Megan Matchinske,
Writing, Gender, and State in
Early Modern England: Identity Formation and the Female Subject
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998); Terry Brotherstone, Deborah Simonton, and Oonagh Walsh (eds),
Gendering Scottish History
(Glasgow: Cruithne Press, 1999); and Laurence Normand and Gareth Roberts,
Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James VI’s Demonology and
the North Berwick Witches
(Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000).
Family and gender studies
Ralph Houlbrooke,
The English Family, 1450–1700
(Harlow: Longman, 1984); Mervyn James,
Society, Politics and Culture in Early
Modern England
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); M.
Lindsay Kaplan,
The Culture of Slander in Early Modern England
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); and Elizabeth Foyster,
Manhood in Early Modern England; Honor, Sex, and Marriage
(Harlow: Longman, 1999) explore how definitions of honor affected familial and gender relationships. For widows, see Sue Walker (ed.),
Wife and Widow
in Medieval England
(Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1993); and Sandra Covallo and Lydan Warner (eds),
Widowhood in Medieval and
Early Modern Europe
(Harlow: Longman, 1999). For reproduction see, Angus McLaren,
Reproductive Rituals: The Perception of Fertility in
England from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century
(London: Methuen, 1984).
History of sexuality and rape
James Brundage,
Law, Sex and Christian Society in Medieval Europe
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987) is required reading for insights into the history of sexuality in Europe. Rosalind Mitchison and Leah Leneman,
Sexuality and Social Control: Scotland 1680–1780
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1989); and Laura Gowring,
Domestic Dangers:
Women, Words and Sex in Early Modern London
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1996) are important for an understanding of the British context. Of the numerous publications on rape and abduction, the following are useful: Sylvana Tomaselli and Roy Porter (eds),
Rape
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1986); Beverly Brown, Michele Burman and Lynn Jamieson,
Sex Crimes
on Trial: The Use of Sexual Evidence in Scottish Courts
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993); Jocelyn Catty,
Writing Rape,
Writing Women in Early Modern England: Unbridled Speech
(London: Macmillan, 1999); Georges Vigarello,
A History of Rape: Sexual Violence
from the 16th to the 20th Century
, ed. Jean Birrell (Cambridge: Polity, 2001).
Rituals and symbols in an historical setting
Victor Turner,
From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play
(New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1982), studies the drama of human relationships. Peter Burke,
The Historical Anthropology
of Early Modern Italy: Essays on Perception and Communication
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); and Mary Hazard,
Elizabethan Silent Language
(Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2000) examine the use of body language. William Coster,
Baptism and
Spiritual Kinship in Early Modern England
(Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2000) explores godparents’ roles. For questions about preparation for death and for martyrdom, see K. Jankofsy, “Public Executions in England and in the Late Middle Ages: The Indignity and Dignity of Death,”
Omega: The Journal of Death and Dying
, 10, 1979; and Anne Dillon,
The Construction of Martyrdom in the English Catholic Community,
1535–1603
(Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002).
Governmental and legal structures of early modern Europe
Ernest Satow,
Satow’s Guide to Diplomatic Practice
, 5th edn (Harlow: Longman, 1979); J.H. Elliot, “A Europe of Composite Monarchies,”
Past and Present
, 137, 1992; Richard Mackenny,
Sixteenth Century
Europe: Expansion and Conflict
(London: Macmillan 1993
);
and Hendrik Spruyt,
The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems
Change
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994) reveal the complexity of early modern diplomacy and monarchical structures.
Jenny Kermode and Garthine Walker (eds),
Women, Crime, and the
Courts in Early Modern England
(London: UCL Press, 1994); and Malcolm Gaskill,
Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), investigate trial procedures and cases.
Medical studies
For evidence of acute intermittent porphyria, see Norman Moore,
History of the Study of Medicine in the British Isles
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908); Ida Macalpine and Richard Hunter,
George III and the
Mad-Business
(London: Lane, 1969); and Sara Jayne Steen, “‘How Subject to Interpretation:’ Lady Arbella Stuart and the Reading of Illness,” in James Daybell (ed.),
Early Modern Women’s Letter Writing,
1450–1700
(New York: Palgrave, 2001). F.F. Cartwright,
A Social
History of Medicine
(Harlow: Longman, 1977) offers a good survey. See also, Georges Vigarello,
Concepts of Cleanliness: Changing Attitudes in
France
, trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
Retha M. Warnicke
is Professor of History at Arizona State University.
She has published widely on Tudor and Stuart history, women’s history and cultural history and is the author of
The Marrying of Anne of
Cleves: Royal Protocol in Tudor England
(2000) and
The Rise and Fall of
Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII
(1991).
SERIES EDITOR: ROBERT PEARCE
Routledge Historical Biographies
provide engaging, readable and academically credible biographies written from an explicitly historical perspective. These concise and accessible accounts will bring important historical figures to life for students and general readers alike.
After deciding to write this biography of Mary Stewart, I read widely in the field of Scottish history before turning to studies of her and then to the primary sources. I discovered that I knew more Scottish history than I had originally thought, but not nearly enough to complete this book. In the last few decades, many historians have provided significant revisionist approaches to the Scottish Renaissance and Reformation by exploring new research topics, especially on gender issues but also on other social and cultural topics. Scotland’s political, religious and cultural importance on the British Isles has also received attention even from historians who have traditionally focused on England.
In completing my research I had the assistance of Dr Deborah Simonton and Dr Karen Miller in the United Kingdom, Katia Scio in France, and my Ph.D. student, Tara Wood. My thanks are due also to Dr Philip Soergel, University of Maryland at College Park, Dr Mack Holt, George Mason University, and Dr Robert Mueller, Utah State University, Utah Basin Campus, for their helpful suggestions. I am grateful for the financial assistance of Arizona State University’s Center for Religion and Conflict and History Department, which made possible my trips to various libraries and archives. The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies here has also long supported my scholarly endeavors.
The Hayden Library Inter-library Loan Department at Arizona State University has diligently obtained numerous books from around the world for me. The cooperation of the staffs of several other libraries and archives was important to the completion of this book: the British Library, the Institute of Historical Research, the Public Record Office, the National Library of Scotland, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Huntington Library, and the Bibliothèque Nationale.