The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots
Edited by Steven J. Reid
Shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year 2024
Presents a new way of examining the historical significance and endurance of Mary, Queen of Scots
Introduction: The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots: Themes and Paradigms - Steven J. ReidPart 1: Mary in Contemporary Objects
Chapter 1. Damnatio Memoriae: Mary, Queen of Scots’ Iconography and the Ham House Portrait of Sir John Maitland of Thirlestane - David A.H.B. Taylor
Chapter 2. New Perspectives on the Sheffield Portraits of Mary, Queen of Scots including the Discovery of a New Related Contemporary Portrait - Caroline Rae
Chapter 3. Memorializing (in) Mary, Queen of Scots’ Books of Hours - Emily Wingfield
Chapter 4. The Afterlives of Mary’s letters - Jade Scott and Alison Wiggins
Part 2: Mary in Literature and History
Chapter 5. Editing and Collecting Mary Queen of Scots in the Eighteenth Century: James Anderson (1662-1728) and Dr William Hunter (1718-1783) - Michelle H. Craig
Chapter 6. The Battle for Memory: the Reception of Mary, Queen of Scots in the Eighteenth-century Periodical Press - Rhona Brown
Chapter 7. ‘Deeply impressed upon the imagination’: the Return of Mary in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries - Gerard Carruthers
Chapter 8. ‘A tracked and hunted creature’: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Histories of David Hay Fleming, Andrew Lang, Gordon Donaldson and Antonia Fraser - Catriona M. M. Macdonald
Chapter 9. Re-imagining Mary, Queen of Scots in Contemporary Scottish Women’s Writing - Nia Clark
Part 3: Collecting and Displaying Mary
Chapter 10. Collecting and Exhibiting Marian Objects in Nineteenth-Century Britain - Julie Holder
Chapter 11. ‘The most interesting apartment in Scotland’: the History and Presentation of Mary, Queen of Scots’ Chambers at the Palace of Holyroodhouse - Deborah Clarke
Chapter 12. Materialising Mary in a Museum: Marian Objects and Authenticity - Anna Groundwater
Part 4: Mary in Media
Chapter 13. Minstrels of Maelstroms: Mary’s Musical Afterlives - Tim Duguid
Chapter 14. The Transformations of Mary, Queen of Scots in Early Cinema, 1895-1923 - Ian Goode and Stephen McBurney
Chapter 15. Long Live The Queen: The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots in Contemporary Visual Culture - Daniel Fountain and Alicia Hughes
This is the most significant contribution to the study of Mary, Queen of Scots in a generation. Nineteen sparkling chapters, from an array of disciplinary angles, carry us on an enthralling journey through the contested cultural afterlives of Mary via material survivals, visual, literary and cinematic representations.
This fascinating collection of essays forensically uncovers the biases of texts and the myths surrounding material objects that are part of the afterlife of Mary Queen of Scots and have contributed to her memorialisation over time. This is a wide-ranging and ‘must-read' book, for historians, curators and Marian enthusiasts.
This book provides a genuinely fresh contribution to Marian studies, not least in the innovation of the approaches taken towards the study of literary and material culture and to Mary’s representations across history. It is critical, scholarly and detailed, as well as being consistently insightful, fulfilling the project’s underlying thesis that “her story is continually repurposed to reflect the society telling it”.
