Historian Scott draws on letters by Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), including 57 newly decoded, to create a detailed portrait of the nearly 20 years she spent in captivity. Because her letters were intercepted and sometimes altered, Mary devised a system of ciphers, “a mix of graphical symbols and alphabetic letters drawn from Greek and Arabic,” codes that she kept changing depending on recipient and courier. She devised creative ways to smuggle letters out, sometimes, for example, folding them into tiny packets that could be secreted in her emissaries’ clothing. The contents of the letters reveal political intrigue, complaints about physical and emotional suffering, anger, and supplication. Scott puts them in the context of religious and political rebellions, international tensions, treachery, murder, spying, arrests, and executions that marked a tumultuous age. She also conveys the day-to-day reality of Mary’s life: Although her staff became diminished through the years, she was granted her own medical attendants, kitchen staff (a servant tasted her food for poison), and attendant ladies. Her meals were abundant, with a choice of 32 different dishes: ladies would have nine, secretaries, seven. Accused of adultery and conspiracy, during her captivity, as she was moved among manors and castles, she learned about, and tried to initiate, plots for her freedom. One bold plan attempted to muster “French troops, Spanish funds, and Scottish supporters to mount a triple attack on England” from Scotland, Ireland, and the continent. She was finally undone by a plot that involved the assassination of Queen Elizabeth. Found guilty of treason, she went to the scaffold. Scott begins each chapter with a fictionalized episode of the ongoing drama—unnecessary, since her history is dramatic and colorful enough in itself.
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English (US) ·