Mary, Queen of Scots: The political career of a queen determined to rule
LE3 .A278 2010
2010
MacDonald, Jennifer
Acadia University
Bachelor of Arts
Honours
History
History & Classics
Mary, Queen of Scots, has been portrayed as an ineffective ruler who had no interest in Scottish politics. In reality, she was not a reluctant monarch. Despite having a short and relatively uneventful political career, Mary demonstrated her resolve to rule through three distinct phases of involvement in Scottish politics. Her time as queen began with a period of determination, lasting from 1561 to 1565. During this time, Mary nominated her Privy Council, developed a policy of religious acceptance and held an extremely successful Parliament. She also established positive foreign relations with England while maintaining those established through her first marriage with France. Mary attempted to use her second marriage as a political bargaining chip to solidify her alliances, marrying Lord Darnley and improving her position in the English succession, in 1565. However, with this marriage began her phase of domestic distraction. Her decision to focus on her queenly duty to maintain the royal line by producing an heir distracted her from the legislative process. This was the only period of Mary’s political career during which she was reluctant to take an active role in governing, as she became focused on handling her husband and the scandalous events he brought into her life, rather than on maintaining the level of involvement she had previously had in her government. Two tumultuous years later, Mary abdicated as queen in favour of her infant son. At this time, she realized how deeply she cared about leading her kingdom and entered a period of desperation, spent imprisoned in England. This phase was characterized by frantic pleas to be released, followed by plots to escape and reinstate herself in Scotland. Mary did not give up on her desire to regain her position as Queen of Scotland until the day of her execution. This thesis will conclusively illustrate that Mary Stewart was not politically indifferent through an extensive examination of each of these phases of her political career.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:735