This e book arose from a collaborative challenge begun in 2016 and led by Steven J. Reid (historical past professor on the College of Glasgow) and Anne Dulau Beveridge (curator on the Hunterian, College of Glasgow). This included an exhibition on the Hunterian (2022-23) and a large open on-line course hosted by the College of Glasgow, and culminates with this quantity of 15 essays in 4 elements—“Mary in Modern Objects”; “Mary in Literature and Historical past”; “Gathering and Displaying Mary”; and “Mary in Media”—with a protracted introduction by Reid (the quantity editor). All through, challenge contributors thought-about public responses to the queen as an integral a part of their analysis, which pursues novel angles on the methods wherein Mary has been remembered and represented in museums, galleries and collections in addition to by historians, writers, artists, dramatists and film-makers.
A lantern slide from the collection Mary Queen of Scots (York & Son, 1885) From the non-public assortment of Stephen McBurney
This isn’t a e book about Mary’s turbulent life—inheriting the Scottish crown in 1542 at six days outdated, her three marriages and the homicide of her second husband, her imprisonment in England for 18 years and execution in 1587 for plotting in opposition to her cousin Elizabeth Tudor—however her afterlife, and contributors discover quite a lot of points of this massive topic. Early profession researchers function alongside established students, and the potential of collaborative scholarship is demonstrated all through. David Taylor’s chapter is a spotlight, exploring why there are so comparatively few modern likenesses of Mary and offering a definitive survey. Taylor’s chapter works in dialogue with Caroline Rae’s contribution contemplating the importance of a newly found picture of Mary, overpainted in 1589 with a portrait of Sir John Maitland, brother of William Maitland, Mary’s secretary of state in Scotland. The picture was revealed by X-radiography and infrared reflectography, indicating a method wherein the sector of proof could proceed to broaden.
An inspiration to artists
Current visible tradition is addressed by Daniel Fountain and Alicia Hughes. Their chapter considers the inspiration that Mary’s story has supplied for artists together with Rachel Maclean in The Queen (2013) and the drag queen and efficiency artist Rosé in a collection of performances (2021). Helen Flockhart’s collection of 17 work, Linger Awhile (2018), represents key moments in Mary’s life, demonstrating how the queen’s story has continued to be retold with intense symbolism used to replicate on her sexuality and emotional experiences.
There’s a robust materials dimension to the chapters, arising from a survey of Scottish heritage collections, the British Library and the Royal Assortment Belief, figuring out almost 2,000 bodily objects. We examine Mary’s demise masks, of which three totally different variations survive, none of which gives a definitive likeness. Comparable doubts about authenticity are forged on the relics of Mary’s life and demise, together with a number of crucifixes throughout totally different collections, a surprisingly massive variety of keys reputed to be related to Mary’s escape from Lochleven Fort, and “issues she may need touched”. The that means of such objects is taken into account in thought-provoking phrases, with Anna Groundwater discussing the “emotional responses” they evoke for guests to galleries and museums and for collectors searching for to ascertain their very own connection to Mary. And the business significance reaffirms a remark made by the Scottish historian Gordon Donaldson, after publishing his personal biography of the queen in 1974, that “there’s cash in Mary”.
The survey of collections additionally revealed virtually 8,000 printed texts, an unlimited physique of fabric addressed right here in dialogue of Mary’s illustration in literary and dramatic kinds. Emily Wingfield considers Mary’s e book possession and the verses of dedication that she added to e book items, demonstrating her private piety and poetic ability. Mary’s letters are mentioned by Jade Scott and Alison Wiggins, who emphasise the persevering with evolution of this corpus of fabric and what it reveals of a “poised and clever queen”.
Assessments of Mary’s historians embody Antonia Fraser’s ground-breaking biography (1969), regarded by many readers as a definitive account. That is offered as a examine that modified each Mary’s and her biographer’s life tales. A constant thread all through the entire e book is an emphasis on the drama of Mary’s story being the important thing ingredient in her enduring fascination. That is captured in a chapter on Mary and early cinema and the commercial for Thomas Edison’s 1913 movie, Mary Stuart: “3000 ft. full of incident and pleasure. Not a uninteresting second. No padding”.
This e book gives a genuinely recent contribution to Marian research, not least within the innovation of the approaches taken in direction of the examine of literary and materials tradition and to Mary’s representations throughout historical past. It’s vital, scholarly and detailed, in addition to being persistently insightful, fulfilling the challenge’s underlying thesis that “her story is frequently repurposed to replicate the society telling it”. It’s encouraging to suppose that the varied and sophisticated Mary that emerges may replicate one thing of our personal world and the place that Mary and her Tudor counterparts occupy inside it. In June, the French vogue home Dior previewed its “Cruise 25” assortment, partly impressed by the needlepoints related to Mary and the assaults made on her by her detractors. It appears unlikely that the fascination with Mary and her life will disappear, and the approaches taken right here present new instructions for the methods wherein lecturers, curators, commentators and artists may proceed to consider and current her story.
Steven J. Reid (ed.), The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots, Edinburgh College Press, 400pp, 77 b/w illustrations, £95 (hb), printed 30 April
• Janet Dickinson researches the historical past of the courtroom and elites in early fashionable Europe. She teaches for the division for persevering with schooling on the College of Oxford and for New York College in London
