Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley

The prolific Scottish historian Alison Weir, in her new book Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley, grapples painstakingly with a mystery that has dogged history for centuries.

At midnight on February 9 1567, a violent explosion ripped apart Kirk o'Field, the Edinburgh residence of Lord Darnley, the 20-year-old King and second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. His unmarked body was found lying under a tree, together with that of his valet. The cause of his death and its perpetrators have remained obscured since that night, though Mary was a prime suspect in her husband's murder. Her apparent apathy regarding the murder investigation was regarded with deep suspicion but more incriminating were the infamous "Casket" letters, said to have been written by her to her lover Lord Bothwell, the supposed architect of Darnley's assassination. Yet if Mary had good reasons for wanting her (Catholic) husband dead, then so had much of Scottish nobility.

Using contemporary evidence Weir argues exhaustively that the letters could have been the work of forgers employed by Protestant lords "laying snares for the queen". Sympathetic to Elizabeth I, intent on justifying Mary's subsequent imprisonment and forcing her abdication, the prospect of a young foreign Catholic queen, unversed in diplomacy, refusing a Protestant alliance through marriage was anathema to the Scottish lords. Weir's book claims that Mary's fate was sealed as much by the country of which she was monarch as by Elizabethan England.

Alison Weir's carefully researched addition to the wealth of material on the myth and reality of Mary Queen of Scots is too long, at 600 pages, but nevertheless makes for a thoughtful, scholarly and compelling read. --Catherine Taylor

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The trials of a queen - Rated
Anyone still defending hereditary monarchy as a valid political concept should spend a few days [weeks?] plowing through this soporific account. In Weir's long trail of redeeming the "maligned" monarchs of British history she has stumbled before. In this case her pratfall is staggering. Claiming Mary as "the most wronged woman in history" is false on so many counts they don't bear extensive listing here. Weir has given us less a history than a legal brief. The evidence is either forgeries, polemics, or simply missing. Weir interleaves the text with close examination of a multitude of documents in attempting to clear Mary's name of the charge of accessory to Darnley's demise. By focussing on whether Mary, Queen of Scots, was instrumental in her husband's murder misses the point entirely. Mary was queen of the Scots in name only - a legal contrivance for someone who never really ruled her native land.

Weir takes us over the events leading to the explosion in Edinburgh examining the lives and motives of the principals. Cabals form and disband - the issues involved; land, religion and power, are only superficially covered. Weir notes, for example the "Auld Alliance" of Scotland with France against England while avoiding the fear Scots Protestants had of liaison with Catholic France even against an old enemy. She lists who's Catholic or Protestant, pro- or anti-Mary, active participant or dissembler, without providing any background to the individual's outlook. To Weir, Mary stands as the pivot around which these forces swirl and engage. Mary's fitness to rule is carefully avoided. Only a dedicated monarchist could focus so narrowly in the face of the immense international and religious turmoil of the time.

Mary has been the subject of much hostile attention, nearly all of it deserved. Married three times, with each match proving a disaster, the queen's life was permeated by one goal, to rule Scotland, and then Britain, by whatever means possible. Her fourth effort at a match was so blatantly political it ultimately cost yet another life. Her attempts to combine romance and politics provide Weir merely the opportunity to view Mary from a modern perspective, ignoring the impact of her actions. Mary's "cause" embroiled several nations in a generation of conflict, but Weir is too concerned with clearing her name to notice. She fails to note, for example, how Mary's co-regent, Elizabeth, kept her rule secure - by constantly referring to her people and how she loved them. Mary, in Weir's view, scorned the Scottish population as crude and ignorant. Hardly a strategy to earn support from someone who needed it so desperately.

Weir's advocacy may raise some further serious study of what resources remain. Certainly this book fails in its avowed attempt to exonerate this "wronged woman". Even Weir accepts the disaffection Darnley engendered among the Lords of Scotland, while failing to note the parallel between Mary and Henry II. Henry, like Mary, cried out to be rid of one who "affronted" the monarch. Neither Henry nor Mary needed to be active participants in a murder to eliminate Thomas Becket or Lord Darnley. They both knew there were loyal subjects willing and able to perform the feat. That's what being a monarch can accomplish. Weir's superficial account can be overlooked without regret. It's a waste of time and trees. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

mawkish and offensive - Rated
I opened this book expecting to find new information but Weir has once again shown she is no historian. Her book is mawkish and offensive to readers, full of inaccuracies and totally lacking in source references. A dire read.

A bit of a slog - Rated
I have read all of Alison Weir's books to date, and some of them (The Six Wives of Henry V111, Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Wars of the Roses) several times, but this one is a real marathon. The wealth of detail with regard to the murder of Darnley makes for some very hard going, and in the end I found I really didn't care exactly who had killed him! Page after page of speculation eventually made me lose interest. This is the first time I have given Ms Weir less than a 5-star rating. Hopefully this is a one-off and we will soon see a return to her readable, much more approachable style. If you're a student of this period, looking for some answers, then perhaps this is the book for you. It's not for me - too much speculation makes for a boring read.

Fairly exciting account - Rated
Datailed, fairly detailed account and rumours of the death of Lord Darnley. Highly readable and fast-paced, but I get the same feeling with any of Ms. Weir's books: something has been omitted or sacrificed to keep the momentum of the writing.

Good but not the best - Rated
Whilst this is a very well written and interesting book, in my opinion it is not as interesting or as enjoyable as John Guy's recent book, and it appears to lack the benefit of being based on painstaking research into original sources.