Читать книгу Tarnished Rose of the Court - Amanda McCabe - Страница 5

When I wrote my book The Winter Queen—the story of Anton Gustavson and Rosamund Ramsay—I was very intrigued by Anton’s cousin Celia Sutton. She seemed so unhappy, so haunted, and I wanted to know why! I wanted to know what had happened to her, and what it would take to make her believe in love again.

I so enjoyed spending time with her and her gorgeous hero in this story. I also enjoyed researching the story’s setting and learning more about Mary Queen of Scots. I knew quite a bit about her late life in English captivity, but not much about her early days back in Scotland after years in France. It was fascinating to read about this time in her very complex and tragic life, but very hard not to shout warnings at her not to marry Darnley!

Her life does indeed slide into disaster after her marriage, just as Queen Elizabeth predicts. For a detailed look at the events surrounding her marriage and its violent unraveling I like Alison Weir’s Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley.

Celia and John’s part in the tale is fiction, of course, but much of what happens to them and the people they meet is part of history. Mary and Darnley, Elizabeth and Burghley—and their disagreements over Mary’s marriage—Mary’s four Marys, the terrible weather on Darnley’s journey to Scotland, Mary’s efforts to recreate a French Court in the rougher environs of Scotland, her religious feud with John Knox, even her excursions out into the city dressed in men’s clothes, are all things I enjoyed incorporating into the story. It also seemed like the perfect backdrop for Celia and John’s tumultuous romance!

If you’d like to read more about this period, there are many, many sources on Mary Queen of Scots. Here are just a few I enjoyed:

—John Guy, The True Life of Mary Stewart, Queen of Scotland (2004) —GW Bernard, ed., Power and Politics in Tudor England (2000) —J. Keith Cheetham, On the Trail of Mary Queen of Scots (1999) —Roderick Graham, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots: An Accidental Tragedy (2009) —Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots (1969) —G. Donaldson, All the Queen’s Men: Power and Politics in Mary Stewart’s Scotland (1983) —M. Swain, The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots (1986) —Jane Dunn, Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens (2003) —Caroline Bingham, Darnley: A Life of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Consort of Mary Queen of Scots (1995) —James Mackay, In My End is My Beginning: A Life of Mary Queen of Scots (1999) —Alison Plowden, Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stewart: Two Queens in One Isle (1984) —S. Haynes, ed. State Papers of William Cecil, Lord Burghley —JS Richardson, The Abbey and Palace of Holyroodhouse (1978)

Plus the guidebook to Holyrood, now available at the palace—the photos were invaluable!