Mary Queen of Scots is a 1969

1969 in literature

The year 1969 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The first Booker Prize is awarded.* "Penelope Ashe", author of the bestselling novel Naked Came the Stranger, is found to be several people who each took a turn writing a chapter of what they described as "junk" in...

 biography of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Antonia Fraser

Antonia Fraser

Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...

. A 40th-anniversary edition of the book was published in 2009.

As she enumerates in her "Author's Note", Fraser aims (1) to test the truth or falsehood of the many legends surrounding the subject; and (2) to set Queen Mary in the context of the age in which she lived. Her portrait of her subject is largely sympathetic. Although Fraser stresses what she sees as Queen Mary's key virtues, she believes that Scotland at the time required an extraordinarily strong ruler to pull the nobles into line.

The book dismantles several myths and popular legends that have sprung up about Queen Mary during and after her lifetime. Fraser recounts the circumstances surrounding the plot to murder the Queen's second husband Darnley

Darnley

Darnley is an area in south-west Glasgow, Scotland located on the A727 just west of Arden. During the second half of the 20th Century Darnley has experienced total transformation from being a modest semi-rural community to becoming a significant part of Glasgow's response to a post-war housing...

 in detail. At the Conference of York, the Regent Moray produced the Casket Letters, presented as love letters from Queen Mary to her third husband, Bothwell

Bothwell

Bothwell is a small town in the South Lanarkshire council area of Scotland. It lies on the north bank of the River Clyde, adjacent to Uddingston and Hamilton, nine miles east-south-east of Glasgow city centre....

, with whom she had allegedly plotted to kill Darnley. After rigorous research, Fraser concludes that they were forgeries, most likely an amalgamation of real letters that Queen Mary wrote and love letters written to Bothwell by one of his mistresses.

For this book Antonia Fraser was awarded the 1969 James Tait Black Memorial Prize

James Tait Black Memorial Prize

Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...

.

Works cited

Fraser, Antonia

Antonia Fraser

Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...

. Mary Queen of Scots. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It is a division of the Orion Publishing Group.-History:...

, 1969. ISBN 038531129X. Reissued, Phoenix paperback, 2001. ISBN 1842124463 (10); ISBN 9781842124468 (13). 40th anniversary ed., reissued Phoenix (Orion Books) paperback, 2009. ISBN 9780753826546. Print.