Mary Stewart

The Mary Stewart novels place a royal woman at the centre of fifteenth-century Scottish politics. Mary, eldest sister of James III, is first caught in the Boyd family’s seizure of power and compelled into a marriage designed to strengthen their hold on the crown. Her intelligence and diplomatic ability, however, allow her to influence the Danish marriage negotiations that bring Orkney and Shetland under Scottish rule.

The continuing story broadens to the troubled kingship of James III. Through Mary and John, Lord of Douglas, the novels examine the damage caused by a monarch who mistrusts established nobles and relies on favourites such as William Sheves. Clan rivalry, the threat of English intervention and the consequences of the Boyd collapse turn marriage and kinship into political liabilities. The sequence emphasises the difficult choices facing those who possess royal blood but not royal power.