Members’ Spotlight: Mary, Queen of Scots – Myth, Fiction and Reality

Join us to explore how Mary, Queen of Scots’ story has been told over the last 450 years, and why it remains so current in popular imagination.
 
Mary, Queen of Scots was a controversial figure in her own lifetime, and she remains famously so today. Dr Anna Groundwater, Principal Curator of Renaissance & Early Modern History, and Dr Steven Reid, Senior Lecturer in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow, will discuss how Mary has been romanticised in film and fiction, vilified by her detractors, and had her real legacy obscured over the centuries. Following the presentations there will be a live Q&A session.
 
Drama surrounded Mary’s life. She became Queen of Scotland in 1542 at just six days old, married the French Dauphin to briefly become Queen of France, returned to Scotland in 1561 for five impressive years as Queen, and disastrously abdicated only to be imprisoned and executed in England. It’s no surprise her story still fascinates and captivates us even today.