The Queen’s Consort

by Steven Veerapen

First published 2018

Amazon

4.0(365)

Beginning in 1563, The Queen’s Consort follows Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, as dynastic ambition and personal attraction draw him towards Mary, Queen of Scots. Their marriage places Darnley beside a reigning queen but rapidly exposes his insecurity, political expectations and resentment as factions at the Scottish court attempt to use the royal couple for their own purposes.

Mary, Darnley, James Stewart, David Rizzio and John Knox are historical figures, and the marriage’s political collapse is documented. Veerapen fictionalises private thought, dialogue and intimate encounters in order to tell the crisis partly through Darnley’s perspective. The novel is biographical and dynastic historical fiction rather than a literal biography.