Captive Queen by Jade Scott
'Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots' by Jade Scott
Mary Queen of Scots is legendary as the woman who lost the game of thrones. Imprisoned for 18 years by her cousin, England’s Queen Elizabeth I, she was the center of plots within and beyond the British Isles. Her correspondence was closely monitored. Sometimes servants smuggled letters to the outside world but most of her messages were opened and read by Elizabeth’s spies. Mary resorted to writing in code.
Although Mary’s captivity wasn’t harsh by the standards of her time (or ours), historian Jade Scott looks at the psychological hardships. Her son James was taken from her an infant and encouraged to despise his mother. Not every servant could be trusted, old friends let her down and she was moved from castle to castle before she was executed in 1587. The author frames the familiar narrative through the 57 letters recently decoded by a team of scholars aided by computerized cryptanalysis.
Get Captive Queen at Amazon here.
Paid link
