This was a really well-told, engaging biography. ( )

For a biography, this book was shockingly easy to read. Generally speaking, biographies are a mute collection of facts thrown together in a cold, clinical way. Fraser, however, did an excellent job of stringing the facts together like a story, and made this biography and pleasure to read. ( )

1044 Mary Queen of Scots, by Antonia Fraser (read 7 Mar 1970) This is an excellent biography. I in 1960 read a biography of Mary by Maurice Baring, but it was undocumented and I did not particularly like it. But this book reads so easily, is pleasingly pro-Mary, and really was a joy to read. Mary was born Dec 8, 1542, at Linlithgow in Scotland, daughter of James V of Scotland and his wife Mary of Guise. On Dec 14, 1542, James V died and Mary became sovereign queen of Scotland. On April 24, 1558, Mary was married to the dauphin of France. On July 10, 1559, King Henry II of France died and Mary's husband, Francis II, became king of France. On Dec 5, 1560, Francis II died. On Aug 19, 1561, Mary returned to Scotland, after an absence of 13 years. On July 29, 1565, she married Henry Darnley (grandson of Margaret Tudor, who was a sister of Henry VIII). He was murdered at Kirk's Field on Feb 10, 1567. Before that, on June 19, 1566, the future James I had been born of her marriage. On May 15, 1567.Mary married Bothwell. On May 16, 1568, she entered England, where she was imprisoned till Feb 8, 1587, when she was executed. At a funeral service on Mar 12, 1588, in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Renaud de Beaune, archbishop of Bourges, gave an oration which so impressed me so much I copied part of it in my post-reading note. ( )

it was okay but I would not put in my favs ( )

A successful popular biography. Perhaps more synmpathetic to Mary than I am. ( )