Mary Queen of Scots As a Symbol of Contemporary
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AS A SYMBOL OF CONTEMPORARY NATIONALISM MARY STUART’S IMAGE IN THE HISTORICAL NOVELS MARY QUEEN OF SCOTLAND AND THE ISLES, FATAL MAJESTY AND THE OTHER QUEEN. Word count: 19,279 Lotte Ruysschaert Student number: 01610491 Supervisor(s): Prof. Dr. Guido Latré A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Comparative Modern Literature. Academic year: 2019 – 2020 PREFACE My interest in the elusive person of Mary Stuart has grown gradually over the years. I started reading about her every now and then and two years ago I had the opportunity to visit Stirling Castle and Holyrood Palace in Scotland, the places where she was born and where she spent the six most tumultuous years of her life. Exploring Mary’s dwellings gave me more inspiration to write this dissertation, and I am grateful for the opportunity to combine this small part of history with literature, two of my main interests. Of course, I could not have written this dissertation without the help of some others. First and foremost, I want to thank my supervisor Professor Dr. Guido Latré, without whom writing this thesis would not have been half as pleasurable. His enthusiasm and knowledge about the topic and his confidence in my dissertation kept me motivated to continue the writing process. In the non-academic field, I would like to thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to study literature and for their support and confidence in my ability to finish my studies. I am also grateful to my friends, who heightened my spirits during the four years of my university studies and who waited patiently for me every time I was late for a meeting because I was finishing an assignment or reading and writing for my dissertation. Without all these people it would have been much harder to be able to finish my studies. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 2. Nationalism and the Scots as a rough people ........................................................................... 10 2.1. Definitions of nationalism ............................................................................................................. 10 2.2. The Scots’ initial reaction to Mary ................................................................................................ 11 2.3. The unpolished Scots .................................................................................................................... 15 2.4. A traditional Scottish banquet ....................................................................................................... 18 3. Mary as a metaphor for Scotland .............................................................................................. 22 3.1. Mary in The Other Queen: enemies and admirers......................................................................... 22 3.2. Mary in Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles: an unfortunate queen in history books .............. 27 3.3. Mary in Fatal Majesty: Maitland and loyalty to the nation ........................................................... 30 4. Mary as a Catholic martyr ........................................................................................................ 35 4.1. Catholicism versus Protestantism .................................................................................................. 35 4.2. A divine and haughty queen .......................................................................................................... 36 4.3. A truly divine queen ...................................................................................................................... 37 4.4. Mythologization of the Catholic Mary .......................................................................................... 40 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 42 6. Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 45 6.1. Primary sources ............................................................................................................................. 45 6.2. Secondary sources ......................................................................................................................... 45 Word count: 19,279 2 1. INTRODUCTION Mary Stuart, also known as Mary, Queen of Scots, is best known for her tragic life as both a ruler and a prisoner in the sixteenth century. She was crowned queen only six days after she was born and spent most of her youth in France. After the death of her first husband Francis II, she returned to Scotland to reign and find a new husband. After four years, she married her cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and not even two years later, he was killed in an explosion. Until today, the biggest question concerning Mary Stuart is whether or not she was involved in the plot to murder her husband. She married one of the suspects, the 4th Earl of Bothwell, only one month after he had been acquitted. This made her very unpopular with the Scottish people, and the Scottish lords raised an army against her. Eventually she was forced to abscond. She sought refuge in England, only to be beheaded nineteen years later. Many books have been inspired by her and many documentaries, movies and series have been made. Examples of historical novels are Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles (1992) by Margaret George, Fatal Majesty (1998) by Reay Tannahill and The Other Queen (2008) by Philippa Gregory. On the big screen there is the recent movie Mary Queen of Scots (2018) and on television there was the loosely adapted period drama Reign (2013-2017). Centuries after her execution, the Catholic martyr and mysterious queen still intrigues many historians and scholars. Her tragic life and death appear to be as relevant as ever as the Scottish cry for independence is becoming stronger with the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Even though Mary Stuart was driven away by her own people more than four hundred years ago, it seems some of them now want her to come back, in a manner of speaking. The historical novels mentioned above almost never speak directly against her and show the different events that led to her choices and downfall. All three of them were published in a period of sixteen years in which the Scots actively fought for more independence. In the late 1980s and 1990s the general concern about how Scotland was governed was the setting for devolution debates (Arnott 2019: 54). The Scottish national identity was progressively politicized as well in that period (Arnott 2019: 54). In 1979, a first referendum was held under a Labour government to devolve an agreed list of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom: the Scottish Assembly. Although most of the people voted in favour of the Assembly, not enough members of the electorate had done so. As a result the Scottish Assembly 3 did not go through. Less than twenty years later, in 1997, a new referendum was held, again with support of the Labour Party. The Scots now voted whether or not there should be a Scottish Parliament with devolved powers. The majority of the population voted in favour of devolution and in 1999 the Scottish Parliament was reinstated. The term ‘reinstated’ is used here, since the Parliament of Scotland was brought into being in the early thirteenth century already with the independent Kingdom of Scotland. However, under the Acts of Union in 1707 the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England merged into the Parliament of Great Britain. Scotland had lost its independence, but with devolution in 1999, the Scottish people finally got the chance to speak for themselves again. Devolution allowed the Scots to govern at a subnational level. There was a decentralization of the Parliament of Great Britain, which gave Scotland more autonomy. Nevertheless, a nation did not gain full autonomy by devolution. The new devolved powers still ultimately reside with the central government. Great Britain thus remains the highest authority. However, the reinstitution of the Scottish Parliament shows that the shared feeling of a Scottish history, identity and nationality had once again become stronger than or at least as strong as their identity as a member of the United Kingdom. According to Sutherland, Goodall, Little and Davidson “the creation of the Scottish Parliament under the Scotland Act 1998 was without doubt a momentous political, constitutional and social happening in Scotland” (2011: 3). It may also have strengthened the feeling of a Scottish identity and nationality even more after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. Daniel Mulhall, however, does not link Scottish devolution to a strong sense of nationalism. He called Scottish devolution a “fortunate coincidence” (1999: 3). He claims devolution “has become a reality at a time of hope and opportunity in the evolution of the peace process” (1999: 3). Thus not everyone agrees with the rise of Scottish nationalism. Former Prime Minister James Cameron and the Palace of Westminster underestimated the extent of Scottish nationalism when they agreed to have