Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley

Mary, Queen of Scots and the [...] of Lord Darnley is a book by historian Alison Weir, published in 2003. It is the biography of a popular historical figure, Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband Lord Darnley, the parents of King James I of England (VI of Scotland) who became king of both countries in 1603 and who fathered Charles I of England. Charles was beheaded at the end of the Second English Civil War in 1649.

This is a scholarly (un-romanticized) but eminently readable book that details the intrigue and scandal swirling around Mary and the struggle over whether the country that became Great Britain would be Roman Catholic or Protestant. It also provides a great deal of evidence AbOUT who murdered Lord Darnley, the husband forced on Mary by the English nobles. Raised in the court of France as a Roman Catholic and advised by the Scottish Catholic nobles, Mary was the center of a world of conspiracy that included the Vatican and France and that landed her, still scheming, imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth I of England until she was beheaded on February 8, 1587. This is a fascinating look into a world where even a Queen with considerable will and international backing could be dominated and used by the noblemen and clergy around her.