Minority of Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary became Queen of Scots in December 1542 when she was only days old. Government initially passed to James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, while Cardinal David Beaton, Mary of Guise and other factions competed over the kingdom’s political and religious direction.

Henry VIII sought to bind Scotland to England through a projected marriage between Mary and Prince Edward, and the collapse of that diplomacy helped produce the Rough Wooing. French influence increased, Mary was eventually sent to France, and Mary of Guise later became regent.

The political instability of Mary’s minority forms the setting for Steven Veerapen’s The Royal Burgh and The Cradle Queen. Historical rulers, regents and clerics appear under their own identities, while Simon Danforth and the novels’ crime plots are fictional.