Mary Queen of Scots Quotes

“Darnley, who, like Banquo's ghost, seemed to play a much more effective part in Scottish politics once he was dead than when he was alive.”
― Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots

“sunken to that of an old woman in the harsh disguise”
― Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots

“very last answer which Paulet and Buckhurst were prepared to”
― Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots

“The pattern of Scottish politics was forming once more into the same shapes of family alliances and feuds, in which the power of one noble could not be allowed to grow unchecked, and in which English help was like the joker in the pack of cards.”
― Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots

“It is often said that a secure childhood makes the best foundation for a happy life. In marked contrast to her cousin Elizabeth Tudor, Mary Stuart enjoyed an exceptionally cosseted youth. It is left to the judgement of history to decide whether it did, in fact, adequately prepare her for the extreme stresses with which the course of her later life confronted her.”
― Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots

“Prince James was duly christened according to the full Catholic rite, except that the queen refused to let the priest spit in his mouth as the custom then was, saying according to a later story, that she was not going to have ‘a pocky priest’ spitting in her child’s mouth.”
― Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots