We imagine her dressed in martyr’s black, with a gold cross and a Catholic rosary around her doomed neck. And when Mary, Queen of Scots arrived in Scotland from France in 1561 she did indeed own more ...

Making its ENO premiere, this critically acclaimed modern opera set 500 years ago tells the story that still resonates today. With hostile forces on every side, Mary I of Scotland attempts to secure a ...

Mary, Queen of Scots (1578, detail), painted by Peter Oudry - Mila Tomisch Lochleven Castle is today a ruin, visited by tourists, but in the 16th century, for 11 months, it was the prison of Mary, ...

Back in the 1970s, before neglect of women composers was recognised as an urgent issue (with resultant automatic entry to the Radio 3 playlist), there was at least one fine composer who bucked the ...

As a child Mary loved writing in code. As a captive queen, it became essential to her survival. Since childhood, Mary Stuart had enjoyed writing in cipher. Later in life, as Queen of Scots and a ...

There have been some scandalous monarchs in history, rulers whose volatile lives might as well be written in blood inside the history books. Yet none of them come close to Mary, Queen of Scots. From ...

Mary, Queen of Scots– ill, paranoid and desperate in her years of captivity under Elizabeth I – passed many of the long and dreary hours of her incarceration writing letters, many in code. Now, over ...

Robin Norton-Hale‘s revival of Liz Lochhead‘s renowned 1987 play for TheatreUpClose at the King’s Head is a lively affair, and the first full English production of a Scottish classic. Thanks partly to ...

Anna Groundwater, a curator at National Museums Scotland, talked about the particular appeal of pieces related to Mary, Queen of Scots. By Susanne Fowler The messages, written while she was imprisoned ...

Since childhood, Mary Stuart had enjoyed writing in cipher. Later in life, as Queen of Scots and a prisoner in England for nearly 19 years, the skill became essential to her survival. From an early ...