Classics Corner: Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles by Margaret George;Grand and Definitive Historical Fiction of Scotland's Most Famous Queen

Classics Corner: Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles by Margaret George; Grand and Definitive Historical Fiction of Scotland's Most Famous Queen

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with a map



Spoilers: John Lennon was right. Life is what happens when you are busy making plans to finish reviewing the final book in a series for your blog but the Coronavirus pandemic causes the library to close, so instead of reviewing that book, you instead review another book about the same subject. (At least I think that's what he said or something like it. Anyway, it was pretty close.)


I was supposed to wrap up my Philippa Gregory series with the final Plantegenet and Tudor Court Series, The Other Queen about Mary Queen of Scots. But since I don't have a copy and the library is closed for now (though is supposed to reopen soon), that review will have to wait. Instead I decided to review another book about Mary Queen of Scots, Margaret George's Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles.


Actually, right now I am reviewing the better of the two. While Gregory did a brilliant job capturing the Cousin's War, the six wives of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots belongs to Margaret George. Gregory's version was short and anemic which only covered a small fraction of this famous Queen's history, but George covers the whole scope of this fascinating woman's vibrant passionate colorful life.


From the moment she was born and her father James V died, Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587) is held under scrutiny and criticism. Her dying father expresses displeasure that she isn't a son to replace the legitimate sons that died. She is separated from her mother, Marie de Guise, to be raised in France while her mother acts as regent. Her French relatives judge her for being Scottish. Her Scottish subjects are suspicious of her gender, French upbringing, and Catholic religion. Her illegitimate half-siblings, particularly her brother James are jealous of her becoming the heir. Calvinist religious leader, John Knox considers Mary, the Whore of Babylon because of her religion and her status as a female assuming the Scottish throne. Her cousin, Elizabeth feels threatened by her status as the second heir to the throne. It's already not an easy life and it gets harder.


Mary's childhood establishes much of the character that she carries throughout the book. She has a fondness for pretty things because of her upbringing in France surrounded by beautiful clothes, delicate dishes, and poetry some of which is dedicated to her. She also shows a strong will. When she first encounters the formidable, Catherine de Medici, acting Queen of France she is able to stare her down and stand up to her. Her independent streak also carries over into her wedding to Francois II, future King of France, when she insists on wearing white, even though it's the French color of mourning. She later rues that decision after Francois dies and she finds herself wearing white again, this time at her husband's funeral.


The book also is rich in capturing the people around her. Both Marie de Guise and Catherine de Medici are both strong willed leaders, inspiring Mary with their leadership skills and ability to survive in a man's world. James Stewart, Mary's half brother hovers between being close to Mary because she is his sister and being competitive and resenting everything she stands for.

Mary's four ladies in waiting, who are also named Mary, form a loyal sisterhood to their beloved queen and are individuals in their own right-Mary "Flamina" Fleming is the boldest and most outspoken, Mary "Lusty" Livingston is the robust tomboy, Mary Beaton is the quiet daydreamer, and Mary Seton is the most serious and spiritual.


Francois is also well written as an embodiment of youthful innocence. They marry when he is 10 and Mary 14, so unsure of what to do, they spend their wedding night...falling asleep. Instead of a husband, Francois is more like a kid brother with whom Mary plays games, tells stories, and create elaborate ideas for their future kingdom. Francois is an eternal child who would have a hard time reaching adulthood, which unfortunately he does not. Mary is barely crowned Queen of France upon her father in law's death before she loses her husband less than a year later.


When Mary returns to Scotland after her mother's death, she gets a frosty welcome, literally. The weather is cold and misty so that she can't see anything. If ever there was a sign that her reign would not be a peaceful one, that would be it. The peasant and working class love her, considering her a return to civility. However, the Kirk, the noblemen who act as her council, are mistrustful of her, suspicious of her Catholic religion, dislike her de Guise relatives, and mock her French ways. Even though France and Scotland are allies as part of the Auld Alliance, against England, that's far from saying the Scots actually like the French especially after they convert to Protestantism. Many of the Kirk favor Knox's conservative dour approach and fear the queen simply because he tells them to.


Her antagonists include her brother, James, who more and more sees better advantages siding with Knox and his crew over her, The Hamiltons, a family that often looks out for their own interests, and Lord Ruthven, who is rumored to be a warlock and is certainly creepy enough if he isn't. Queen Elizabeth also has her reasons to fear her second cousin. Since Mary is the closest heir to the throne and a staunch Catholic, the Protestant Elizabeth is fearful that her Catholic subjects would favor Mary over her.

Standing at the center of her antagonists is Knox who puts fear into his followers' hearts that Mary will start another Inquisition. In actuality, she will do nothing of the kind. She respects her subjects' Protestant religion. She only asks that they respect hers. She is very passionate and fair minded, but is willing to compromise to make other's happy. But for some unyielding stubborn individuals, that's not enough.


Partly because of her lonely widowhood and the general dislike of her, Mary throws herself into a second marriage to Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley a relation of hers and Elizabeth's. At first, it seems pleasant enough. Darnley is handsome and charismatic, but he very quickly reveals his true nature. He is a big drinker and a philanderer. He is also intensely jealous of Mary's power and demands that she make him King. George doesn't sugarcoat Darnley's chatacter. He is a spiteful abusive weak willed bully who goes along with whatever scheme benefits him the most. The Reader is rooting for his comeuppance long before he receives it.


Mary has several loyal friends to her defense. Besides the Marys, another is David Riccio, her secretary who also acts as confidant, psychologist, public defender, stand up comedian, minstrel, and best friend. He is a very witty character who isn't afraid to tell Mary the truth whether she wants to hear it or not. He also isn't afraid to call out Darnley or his allies, which he does one too many times. In one of the most heart wrenching moments in the book, Darnley leads a group to come in and stab Riccio to death right in front of Mary.


Another loyal supporter is the man who becomes her third husband, James Hepburn, The Earl of Bothwell. Bothwell is everything that Darnley isn't brave, decisive, strong willed, even if he is a bit of a womanizer to begin with. To her credit, George does not make his and Mary's marriage an abrupt thing. They meet in France when he is part of the party that escorts Mary to Scotland. He then appears periodically in Mary's life, sometimes as an outspoken critic but mostly as a staunch ally and a good friend even before they become romantically involved. One of the best moments is when Mary apologizes that she couldn't make Bothwell king and he tells her that is fine. He is satisfied with his lands of Shetland and the Orkney Islands. Mary muses that Bothwell, a man who is better suited for the role of king doesn't want the title, while Darnley whines about wanting the title but exhibits behavior that could not be considered kingly or leader-like.


There are three mysteries that surround Mary's life and George gives interesting theories to answer them. The first is who killed Lord Darnley. What is known is that Darnley died in an explosion and was involved in the death of David Riccio. Most believe that the most likely suspects were either Mary herself or Bothwell. George's version stops short of actually accusing Mary of her second husband's murder, she certainly doesn't miss him.


The second mystery concerns her marriage to Bothwell. Publicly, Bothwell abducted Mary and she married him while in captivity. However, what muddies the waters of this claim is that there were love letters exchanged between Mary and Bothwell dated before Darnley's death and were found in a silver casket in Bothwell's home. The so-called "Casket Letters" were considered evidence that Mary was complicit in her second husband's death and became evidence for her forced abdication in favor of her son James VI (Later James I of England)

Again George gives her own interpretation to these events that the love between Mary and Bothwell was genuine and the abduction was staged so the blame would fall entirely on him and not her for running off with him. Mary and Bothwell's romance is one that is loving but made from bad timing (She chose not to make Bothwell her second husband because he was already married to a woman whom he would later divorce) and short lived. They end up separated when she escapes to England and he sails to Sweden where he is imprisoned and later dies. Their marriage was short, but it was one of love and loyalty in this book.


The final third of the book where Mary seeks refuge in England is probably the most boring part but it leads to the third mystery in her life. How involved was Mary in plots to bring down Queen Elizabeth. While she is under house arrest and moved about, she makes friends with many noblemen like George Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury. Many of these allies want to see a Catholic ascend the throne and promise to aid in Mary's escape. Mary knows that she is playing a dangerous game with these men but she writes letters in code requesting their aid and support. Just as she does with Mary's involvement with Darnley's death, George doesn't outright accuse her, but Mary knew that her release could only come from Elizabeth's death so she turns a blind eye to the consequences and what the end result would be.

Even though Mary is the main character, George also makes Elizabeth believable as well. She is somewhat jealous of Mary's appearance. During his first meeting with the Scottish Queen, Elizabeth pesters her ambassadors with comparisons about her height and her appearance asking if she's more attractive. When Mary gives birth to James, Elizabeth complains that she "is of barren stock." She also gets upset when Mary's family uses the English crest on their china (something Mary doesn't agree with either).

However despite her pettiness, Elizabeth relates to Mary as another female ruler in a man's world. Even though, they never meet face to face they write often calling each other "Sister," and giving tokens of friendship. When Mary finally is arrested for conspiring against Elizabeth, the English queen suffers remorse about having to put her cousin to death and wavers for a long time before she finally signs her death warrant.

Margaret George captured Mary Queen of Scots and made her passionate, headstrong, emotional, reckless, strong willed, and a very vibrant,, colorful, unforgettable woman. Some Royal characters like Elizabeth Woodville, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleve's, and Queen Elizabeth belonged to Philippa Gregory. But in this case, Mary Queen of Scots belongs to Margaret George.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Last Tudor (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIV) by Philippa Gregory; The Tudor Family Line Ends on an Average Note

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Last Tudor (The Plantangenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIV) by Philippa Gregory; The Tudor Family Line Ends on An Average Note




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: It's fitting that The Last Tudor is the final book written and the penultimate chronologically in The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series. It presents the best and worst qualities that the previous books had in one book. This book alone is a checklist of what Phillippa Gregory did right and wrong in the entire series.




This time the book focuses on Jane Grey and her sisters, Katherine and Mary. Jane was the cousin of King Edward VI whom he declared his heir after his death instead of his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. After, Edward's death, his guardian Lord Dudley connived to have Jane and her husband, his son, Guildford, put on the throne. Jane was queen for only nine days when supporters of Mary Tudor intervened, dethroned Jane, and declared Mary queen. Jane was eventually executed along with her husband and both of their fathers.



Jane Grey probably gets a minor footnote in history if that, but her sisters get barely any mention at all. Katherine Grey married Ned Seymour, a courtier and distant cousin by marriage, despite refusal from Queen Elizabeth. She eventually got arrested and gave birth to one son while in prison. She was released, but ended up giving birth to a daughter and spending the rest of her life separated from her husband and son while under house arrest.

Mary Grey's story was even more interesting. She was a Little Person, under 4" tall. She too married without the Queen's permission to Elizabeth's sergeant porter, Thomas Keyes who stood at 6"7. Mary served as lady in waiting under Elizabeth, but eventually she too fell out of favor and both she and her husband were arrested. Keyes was reportedly confined to a cell much too small for his large body. While Mary was under house arrest, Elizabeth eventually had her released.


The Last Tudor covers many of the themes that make the Gregory novels so great. Among them is the strength and rivalry of sisterhood. Unlike the previous sisters, the Boleyns, the Nevilles, and the Tudors, the Greys don't bare any animosity towards each other. Oh, they have differences of opinion, but those are mostly confined to just conflicting personalities rather than any real attempt to steal the throne or a position from each other. It's nice to see at least one Gregory sorority act like real sisters instead of sworn enemies.


Part of the way that Gregory does this is contrasting the sisters' personalities so they bounce off each other. Jane is much more bookish and studious. She is the most spiritual as she looks upon her ascendency as a calling from God to lead the English into Protestantism. Katherine is the most easy-going and dizziest. She is also an animal lover and is usually seen with different cats, dogs, birds, and a monkey that she names Mr. Nozzle. She is swept up in her love for Ned and when they are separated longs to be a family with him. Mary is the boldest and most outspoken. She constantly cracks jokes about her height or other things. She also has a steadfast determination to survive and she does everything she can, even deny her marriage, to ensure that survival.



We also see the theme of seeing historical characters through different eyes. Just like Katherine of Aragon and the players during the War of the Roses, Elizabeth is looked on differently here than she is in the previous books. The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover were aware of her flaws, but also recognized her strengths as a cunning leader, a master strategist, a learned scholar, and a courageous fighter and survivor. The Grey Sisters see her as at best a frivolous egoist who values her own happiness (such as her relationship with Robert Dudley) over anything else. At worst, they see her as a cruel and capricious tyrant who turns on people for a whim and then just as quickly pardons them.

The reasonings behind Katherine and Mary's arrests are not fully explained, as they are meant to be arbitrary. Though they more have to do with being the last in the line of Protestant Tudor heirs. (Most of the others such Mary Stuart and Margaret Douglas are Catholic). While the book goes out of it's way to show that The Grey Sisters themselves are innocent of any plots against the queen, Elizabeth's haters aren't above using them as pawns in their means to dethrone her (like Jane was).

However the Gray Sisters themselves have another theory on why Elizabeth is so hateful towards thrm. Both believe that it is because Elizabeth envies their chances for happy marriages and she feels that if she has to be miserable then so do they. They think that she doesn't want the spotlight on anyone but herself. Their views are a bit childish, but they do come from fear and uncertainty. Sometimes, you don't know the specific reason why you fell out of someone's favor, so you simplify it in your head. Gregory does a good job of translating that uncertainty.

Gregory's gift for narration also falls into play here. She wisely separates the sisters' stories into three individual parts, allowing each sister to tell her story with the appropriate beginning, middle, and end. She also does some interesting framing devices that tie the three parts together. Each husband is introduced as a minor character in the previous story, only to take center stage in the next story as the intended of his Grey sister.

Some situations play out in all three stories. For example, Katherine's monkey companion, Mr. Nozzle is a source of irritation to Jane and she constantly wants to have him removed from her sight. For Katherine, he is an exotic pet to love, spoil, and let him be admired as a pet of the lady's chamber. By the time he gets around to Mary after she is under house arrest, Mr. Nozzle becomes her last link to her sisters so she keeps him into old age. One of the more delightful images in the book is the final scene in which an older Mary, still small, is dressed in black with a red petticoat underneath and walks a now gray Mr. Nozzle wearing Tudor green.


The biggest framing devices are the letters each sister writes to the next one while she is in prison. They reveal a lot about who they are as people. Jane's letter to Katherine is very clinical and impersonal. Instead of appealing to Katherine as a family member, Jane regards her just as someone that she thinks will carry on her legacy. The words that echo throughout are "learn you to die." Jane is someone who lives her life in her own head and according to her Protestant values. She goes along with her father and the Dudley family because she feels that becoming queen is God's plan. However, when it falls apart and her supporters turn against her (most heartbreaking of all is the moment when Jane's own father turns his coat and pleads for Mary), she realizes that it was brought upon by pride and ambition, things that she thought that she was against. She realizes that she too was ambitious in her own way and that she went along with the plot not for God's glory but her own. The only thing that she can do now is die for her faith as a martyr.

By contrast, Katherine's final letters to Mary are warm and filled with emotion and love, the kind of person that she was. Rather than learning to die, Katherine is more interested in learning to live or more specifically learning to love. She is someone who has a deep love for people and animals. While she is often the central

figure in plots against Elizabeth, she is never really involved in them. In fact there are several times when she states that she would rather have a happy marriage to Ned and lots of children than the throne.

Mary of course has no letter to write and no sister to receive it. But that makes sense to her character. Unlike Jane who is acted upon by the ambitions of others and her religious views and Katherine who is acted upon by her emotions, Mary is only acted upon by herself. She is the most active of the trio. When Katherine dithers whether marrying Ned is the right decision, Mary marries Thomas. Katherine languishes in prison brokenhearted, Mary remains outside still serving under Elizabeth but secretly plotting her escape. Even in prison, she manages to make the most of her survival by reuniting with the few family members that remain such as Katherine's children and trying to send letters to Thomas.


As I mentioned before, Gregory did so much right with this book, but she also did so much wrong too. One of the biggest problems with this book is that the longest story, Katherine's, is the most boring. While the early passages of Katherine and Ned's courtship is sweet, her imprisonment is less interesting and that covers most of that part. It might have been salvageable if Katherine was able to do anything while in there, perhaps but she spends most of the time in tears unable to do anything about her situation. Yes, I know prison is tough but that's no excuse to waste over 200 pages talking about it.

Jane and Mary's stories are far more interesting, but way too short.Jane's story is the most well known and Mary's not so much. But either one could have been expanded upon. For example, we get some tell of Jane's education, but we aren't shown it particularly her friendship with Kateryn Parr. Okay, she was queen for nine days but she barely sits on the throne before getting forced off. A few more chapters, even short ones, to describe her plans for ruling could have been added. And what about Mary? We are given very little of her and Thomas together. Shouldn't we get to know them as a couple before fate and Elizabeth drive them apart from each other?

Another problem in this book calls back to Lady of the Rivers, forgoing a more interesting protagonist for a lesser interesting one who only hears about the interesting one's adventures. This time Mary and Katherine get told about Mary Queen of Scot's marriages to the Dauphin of France, Lord Darnley, and the Earl of Bothwell. We are particularly given great details about Darnley's death and hints about Mary's possible involvement in it. This Reader read that section and thought, "Why aren't we reading about that?"

I know, I know. Mary Queen of Scots has been done to death but come on this is Philippa Gregory. The Cousin's War and the Six Wives of Henry VIII aren't exactly big historical secrets. Plus, there are ways that Gregory could have told that story from a fresh perspective, perhaps from Darnley himself, or Bothwell, or even Mary's ladies in waiting (who were all named Mary incidentally). She could dip into historical mystery with "Who Killed Lord Darnley?" just as easily as she did with the mysteries of the Princes in the Tower and Amy Dudley. Instead this is a missed opportunity. (That missed opportunity continues into the next book, the chronological final volume in the series, The Other Queen. More on that later.)


Above all, this book carries a sense of lethargy throughout. I compare The Last Tudor to the last time we saw the end of a family, The King's Curse. The latter carried a sense of darkness and tragedy as though an era really was dying out. It's felt through the characters as one by one they are either executed or survive by getting with the program. In the case of The Last Tudor, that despair isn't near as emotional. Instead it is muted by several pages of inaction and dullness. At least Margaret Pole tried to fight her fate by screaming and running from the executioner. The only one who really shows any spunk to challenge her situation is Mary and at least she lives.

Instead the intrigue is more stale. The characters are more predictable. The conflicts are less interesting.

It is clear that Gregory wanted to end the series and was pretty much running on autopilot throughout. She was probably looking forward to writing the words, "The End" as much as Jane Grey was looking forward to being martyred.




The Last Tudor is not the worst way to nearly end a series, but it could be better. At most it's average. However, for a series, that is so superb that makes the average worse.