Mary, Queen of Scots, has inspired artistic and cultural works for more than four centuries. The following lists cover various media, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. The entries represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalogue.
In the 1936, 1971 and 2018 film biographies of Mary, fictional meetings between Queens Mary and Elizabeth take place.
The Execution of Mary Stuart (1895), produced by Thomas Edison, the first appearance of Mary on film, depicts her beheading. It is one of the first films to utilize an intentional jump cut to create the illusion of a single shot beheading.
Das Herz der Königin (The Heart of a Queen, 1940) features Zarah Leander, the Swedish-German actress from the Nazi period as Mary. This UFA production, directed by Carl Froelich, makes use of the historical story for anti-British propaganda in the context of the then ongoing World War II.
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), starring Vanessa Redgrave as Mary, Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth, Patrick McGoohan as Moray, Trevor Howard as Cecil, Ian Holm as Rizzio, Timothy Dalton as Darnley, and Nigel Davenport as Bothwell. was written by John Hale, who also wrote a novelization of the film's screenplay. Two events were included that never historically took place: a private outdoor meeting between Elizabeth and Mary when Mary arrives in England and Elizabeth's visiting Mary in prison the night before Mary's execution.
The Mirror Crack'd (1980), a Miss Marple mystery, is metafiction (a film within a film centred around the making of a motion picture) about Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots; Elizabeth Taylor portrays the actress playing Mary.
Friedrich Schiller's novel Wallenstein and Mary Stuart and play Maria Stuart (1800) feature fictional meetings between Queens Mary and Elizabeth, added for dramatic effect.
The Abbot (1820) by Sir Walter Scott (1820) covers the period of Mary's confinement in Loch Leven castle.
A Traveller in Time (1939), by Alison Uttley, is a children's book about a young girl who finds herself in the time of and in the company of Anthony Babington, who is attempting to free Mary and overthrow Elizabeth.
The Gay Galliard: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots (1941) is a novel by Margaret Irwin (1941).
Child Royal (1951) by D. K. Broster is a novel about Mary's childhood.
Flawed Enchantress (1973) (in another edition, So Fair and Foul a Queen (1974)) is a novel by Maureen Peters.
In The Princeling (1981), volume 3 of The Morland Dynasty historical novels series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, the fictional Lettice Morland becomes embroiled in the dramatic events taking place at the court of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Mary, Queen of Scots (1987) is a young adult novel by Sally Stepanek.
Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles (1992) is a novel by Margaret George.
Shadow Queen (1992) is a supernatural novel by Tony Gibbs, featuring Mary.
Court of Shadows (1992), by Cynthia Morgan , is a suspense novel.
Fatal Majesty (2000), by Reay Tannahill (2000), is a novel featuring Mary's story.
Queen's Own Fool: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots (2001) by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris is a children's novel about Mary, Queen of Scots and her jester Nichola.
Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country, France, 1553 (2002), from the Royal Diaries by Kathryn Lasky, is a children's novel about Mary, Queen of Scots.
The Lady of Fire and Tears (2005) by Terry Deary, is a children's novel about Mary, Queen of Scots.
In Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky's 20 sonnets to Mary Stuart (in Russian) the poet addresses her as an interlocutor.
The Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote a poem Lament of Mary Queen of Scots, on the Approach of Spring upon Mary's feelings while in her captivity in England, towards her cousin Elizabeth I of England and foreboding of her approaching death.
The Spanish poet Lope de Vega wrote an epic poem upon Mary Stuart's life and death: Corona trágica (Tragic crown), published in 1628.
Shortly after Mary Stuart's execution in 1587, the English Jesuit poet Robert Southwell composed an emblem poem portraying Mary as a Catholic martyr.[4] The poem was never published in the early modern period; even owning a manuscript version of the poem was "inevitable flirtation with treason" in Elizabethan England.[5]
The 1596 edition of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene includes an allegorical representation of the trial of Mary Stuart (Book 5, Canto ix, stanzas 36–50). Mary Stuart is represented by Duessa and Elizabeth is figured by Mercilla. The allegory dwells on Elizabeth's reluctance to condemn Mary. Elizabeth's delay of three months before agreeing to have Mary executed is represented by a gap of three stanzas at the end of Canto ix.[6] Mercilla's judgment and Duessa's execution do not actually occur until the beginning of the next Canto (x.1–4).
Music
John Barry, composer of the soundtrack to the 1971 film, wrote two songs, "Wish Now Was Then" and "This Way Mary" with lyricist Don Black based on themes from the film. They were performed by Matt Monro, with the latter song covered by Scott Walker and Johnny Mathis amongst others.
The song "Fotheringay" by Fairport Convention (with lyrics by Sandy Denny) featured on the 1969 album What We Did on Our Holidays and is an interpretation of the story of Mary's last days in the prison of Fotheringhay Castle. After leaving Fairport Convention, Denny formed a folk rock band named Fotheringay, which released an eponymous debut album Fotheringay in 1970, the cover of which depicted an illustration of the band, including Sandy Denny dressed in Elizabethan costume.
The song "The Ballad of Mary (Queen of Scots)" by Grave Digger is about her time in prison.
The song "My Blood Will Live Forever" by Grave Digger is about her time before the execution.
Data Regina (2017), a multimedia suite by composer Olivia Louvel, featuring violinist Fiona Brice and mastered by Antye Greie, digs deep into the psychic warfare between two 16th century British Queens. Drawn to the life and writings of Mary Queen of Scots, a poet and essayist herself and one of the most read woman of her time, Data Regina is a body of work which gathers electronic songs, "The Antechamber", along with a series of instrumentals, "The Battles", a sonic landscape inspired by the 16th century battles on the Anglo-Scottish border.[7][8]
The song "Sad Song" by Lou Reed, featured in the 1973 album Berlin, references Mary in its initial verses. The song was also recorded as a demo by Reed's band The Velvet Underground with different lyrics (this version appears on the box set Peel Slowly and See and the "Fully Loaded Edition" of Loaded, but the Velvets' version still references Mary.
Robert Schumann composed a song cycle "Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart" (Op. 135) based on five poems from the collection "Rose und Distel" by Gisbert Vincke (1852). This cycle was among the final works that Schumann composed before he went insane.
Richard Wagner composed a song "Adieux de Marie Stuart" (WWV 61, 1840) based on a poem by Pierre Jean Béranger.[citation needed]
Mary Queen of Scotts (c. 1578), by Nicholas Hilliard, depicts Queen Mary in captivity. She was a regular topic of 19th century European opera.
The subject of Mary, Queen of Scots was a common one in 19th century opera. Usually, the operas dealt with the period of her life when she was being persecuted by Elizabeth I of England. Mary was considered a sympathetic character in southern Europe due to her Catholicism.
Mary's story proved popular among liberals and revolutionaries in 19th-century Italy. These were especially attracted by the various plots made to save her as well as her death as a political martyr, both of which they interpreted as comparable to their own struggle. The Carbonari took their name from a mythical ring of English coal-burners, supposedly dedicated to Mary's cause. For this reason, the subject of Mary Stuart came to be seen as a concern of radicals, and operas about her were banned on several occasions.[9]
Nineteenth-century operas about Mary include:
Luigi Carlini – Maria Stuarda, regina di Scozia (1818)
Pietro Casella – Maria Stuarda (1812)
Carlo Coccia – Maria Stuart, regina di Scozia (1827)
Episode 14 of the Australian radio series Famous Escapes is "Mary Queen of Scots Escapes from Prison" (1945); the actress who played Mary is not currently known.[citation needed]
Jeany Spark played Mary in Episode One, "It Came In with a Lass" (29 June 2013), of the first series of Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4's The Stuarts.[17]
On 8 December 2018, BBC Radio 4 broadcast as part of their Unmade Movies series Alexander MacKendrick's Mary Queen of Scots, adapted from the original screenplay by Alexander MacKendrick and Jay Presson Allen, with Ellie Bamber as Mary and Glenda Jackson as The Narrator.[18]
Television
In the Channel 4 television miniseries, Elizabeth I (2005), the first two-hour segment partly centres around the conflict between Elizabeth and Mary (portrayed by Barbara Flynn), whose execution is graphically shown in a manner that is reportedly true to history.
In the Channel 5 television docudrama series Elizabeth I (2017), Mary is portrayed by Audrey L'Ebrellec.
The BBC-TV mini-series Elizabeth R (1971), episode 4: "Horrible Conspiracies", written by Hugh Whitemore, is a generally historically accurate portrayal of Mary (played by Vivian Pickles) during her captivity in England, from her imprisonment at Chartley under the guardianship of Sir Amyas Paulet through to her trial and execution, using many of Mary's own reported words as dialogue. It includes an accurate portrayal of her execution including her use of a red petticoat (red being the colour of martyrdom in the Catholic religion), her positioning of her head with her hands on the block, and the two blows and sawing motion it took to remove her head. It also shows the executioner unwittingly grasping and pulling away her wig to reveal her grey hair.
The BBC television miniseries Gunpowder, Treason & Plot (2004) dramatizes the reigns of Scottish monarchs Mary, Queen of Scots (played by French actress Clémence Poésy) and her son King James VI of Scotland, who became King James I of England and foiled the Gunpowder Plot.
An episode of the British series Lovejoy ("The Colour of Mary", series 4) finds the main character seeking information and the whereabouts of Mary's pool table.
Monty Python's Flying Circus episode 22 (1970) features a skit involving the first two episodes of "a new radio drama series: The Death of Mary Queen of Scots".
Lesley Smith, the curator of Tutbury Castle, portrayed Mary Queen of Scots for Living's Most Haunted in 2002 for a dramatic monologue of her time imprisoned there. Smith continues these re-enactments in the castle.
Reign (2013 TV series) is a highly fictionalized period drama television show on The CW Television Network that follows the life of 15-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, at French court beginning in 1557, while she awaits her marriage to Francis II of France. At court, Mary has to contend with the changing politics and power plays. Francis' mother, Queen Catherine de' Medici, is secretly trying to prevent the marriage due to the advice of Nostradamus, who had a vision that the wedding will lead to Francis' death. The series also follows the affairs of Mary's four Scottish handmaidens Lola, Kenna, Greer and Aylee (based on the queen's Scottish ladies-in-waiting, the four Maries - Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming, Mary Livingston, and Mary Seton), who are searching for husbands of their own at court. Mary is portrayed by Australian actress Adelaide Kane.[19] The series began airing on 13 October 2013.
Grace McCabe portrays Mary in The Last Days of Mary, Queen of Scots, the first episode of 2015 BBC history series The Last Days of...
Beth Cooke portrays Mary in 2016 BBC documentary Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary
A 1957 episode of the Wonderful World of Disney titled, "The Truth About Mother Goose", discussed the origins of three nursery rhymes. Series host Walt Disney attributed the Mary Mary Quite Contrary rhyme to the life of Mary Stuart. This episode featured a brief animated short about Mary's life, done in the artistic style of Sleeping Beauty. The short touched on important moments in Mary's life, even ending with a scene of Mary being marched to her beheading.
In an episode of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Mary is referenced when two fictional knights were said to have served her and turned themselves in to Elizabeth I in exchange for Mary's life, only to learn moments before their deaths that Mary had already been executed.
On the thirteenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, contestant Rosé impersonated Mary Queen of Scots for the Snatch Game episode, where she received high praise for her impersonation and improvisational comedy.
Mary, Queen of Scots, captured the imagination of Italian radicals and their fellow travellers as a political symbol. The restless interest in this tormented figure resulted in multiple 18th and 19th century plays, such as:
Matilde ossia i Carbonari (1809) presented the unhappy queen with a fictitious daughter (who too would figure, later, in Rossini's Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra but shorn of any disloyal aspects)
The Scottish playwright Robert McLellan depicted the events of Mary's downfall, focussing on the months between March 1566 and June 1567, in his five-act play Mary Stewart (1951), first produced in Glasgow by the Citizens Theatre.
Martha Graham choreographed and directed the modern dance titled "Episodes" (1985) that premiered at Lincoln Center, New York, the dance featured Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I resolving their dynastic issues over a game of tennis.
^Aitken, William Russell (1982). Scottish Literature in English and Scots: A Guide to Information Sources. Gale Research Co. p. 146. ISBN9780810312494.
^Colin Younger, Border Crossings: Narration, Nation and Imagination in Scots and Irish Literature and Culture. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018. ISBN9781443854115 (pgs. 119-120)
^Joseph Wiesenfarth, History and Representation in Ford Madox Ford's Writings Amsterdam Rodopi, 2004 ISBN9789042016132 (p.112).
1Overlord of Britain. 2Also ruler of Ireland. 3Also ruler of Scotland and Ireland. 4Lord Protector. 5Also ruler of England and Ireland. Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics.
