The Love Affairs of Mary Queen of Scots

Whether you’ve seen the recent movie starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie or the classic 1970’s film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson, this vibrant work of history will give you new insight into the life of Mary, Queen of Scots and her rivalry with  Elizabeth I of England.

Mary Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart, was one of the most well-known and controversial monarchs of the sixteenth century. She ascended to the throne of Scotland at only six days old and would eventually become ruler of four countries at once—Scotland, England, Ireland, and France. She was intelligent, compassionate, and tolerant, despite the popularity of that time for religious persecution. Despite her popularity, Mary’s reign was a tumultuous one: she was married three times, was forced to abdicate her throne, and was eventually imprisoned and beheaded by her cousin, Elizabeth I of England.
 
What caused Mary’s rapid descent from royalty? Historian and scholar Martin Hume analyzes Mary Queen of Scots’s fall from power based on her love affairs. Though many previous historians had assumed that her downfall was caused by her lack of virtue, Hume posits that Mary’s ruin was not based on her “goodness or badness as a woman, but from a certain weakness of character.”
 
Fans of the royal families of Scotland and England, professional and amateur historians, and anyone looking to discover one of history’s most famous and controversial women, the ups and downs of Mary Stuart’s life and reign in The Love Affairs of Mary Queen of Scots will be educational and entertaining.
 

Martin Hume was an author, historian, and editor of the Spanish Calendar of State Papers. He also had been lecturer in Spanish history and literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge; examiner in Spanish and lecturer at the University of London; and examiner at the University of Birmingham. The Calendar volumes published by Hume were volume 1 (Elizabeth, 1558–1567), volume 2 (Elizabeth, 1568–1579), volume 3 (Elizabeth, 1580–1586), and volume 4 (Elizabeth, 1587–1603). Born Martin Andrew Sharp in London on December 8, 1847, he later assumed the name Martin Andrew Sharp Hume as a condition of receiving a legacy from a Spanish-English relative who was a Hume. He was educated in and a resident of Madrid; he was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy and the Royal Spanish Academy of History as well as a Knight Grand Cross of the Spanish Order of Isabel the Catholic. He received a master of arts degree at Cambridge. He died in London on July 1, 1910.

Anna Groundwater is a cultural and social historian of early modern Britain and Scotland, with research interests in material culture, the Scottish Borders, mapping and the digital humanities. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in History, gained a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2007 and taught there until 2019. She is now a curator at National Museums Scotland, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She has acted as a consultant on various historical TV programs, and appeared in the Scottish Clans series, on the Armstrongs and the Scotts of Buccleuch on BBC1 Scotland. Recently Dr. Groundwater has appeared on a South American Spanish news website talking about the historical background to the Referendum in 2014, on BBC Scotland TV's Night in the Museum, and on Japanese TV and BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time talking about Mary Queen of Scots.