This whole thing on Mary is taking a bit longer than I anticipated, but if I had made this up in a novel NO ONE would have BELIEVED it could happen and would have told me so again and again

Ok Mary comes back to a Scotland she probably doesn’t remember much about and for which she must have been poorly prepared for in comparison to the luxuries and more refined pleasures of the French…course they ate snails and the Scotch haggis (don’t ask) so I think they both had their problems—but I’m sure the French presentation was better—I am not sure that I ever saw anything quite as unappetizing than a sheep’s stomach filled with what ever the hell is in there even the French might have trouble presenting that.  She did however have beauty, grace and nice body–at 6 foot a real stand out and don’t forget a very generous dowry to assure the former Queen of France (widowed) and current Queen of Scotland wouldn’t have a issue finding an appropriate groom.

Scotland too had issues with her–she didn’t fit in, she was Catholic–and while a great many of her people (especially in the Highlands) remained faithful to Rome, her nobles were mostly Protestant and she had the overly pious reformer John Knox making her life miserable—if she’s been 13 like at least one of his wives he might have liked her better. (the fact that Mary’s final resting place is in one of the grandest tombs in Westminster Abbey and Knox’s is estimated to be under parking place 23 along the Royal Mile and next to Scotland’s main churches seems like so poetic justice to me)

Oh and then there was Lord James–First Earl of Morey and bastard son of James V (one of nine), he was an able and would have made a good king, but while the old Celtic laws did not rule out children born out of wedlock, the current laws, the ones brought about by the Christian Catholics (and Roman Based), would not allow it, so while Mary had been gone he had taken over much of the administration of the country and would remain the power behind the throne—he still could never rule, while his half sister, a French speaking,  Catholic (he being Protestant) woman could.

 Once in Edinburgh she took up residence in Holyrood Palace at the base of the Royal Mile and at who’s opposite end and many feet elevated above was Edinburgh Castle a 10 acre fortress which stand above the city defying opposition.  Both Castles remain today and Holyrood is still the royal residence where the reigning monarch has apartments and it is only a short distance from the unfortunate building of the Scottish Parliament—and it’s not just me who thinks they could have done better.

The Lords of the Congregation was made up of the nobility who were stern in their Calvinist convictions and who along with Lord James, a very moral and intelligent, if somewhat on the greedy side at his sister’s expense, were the powers that be In Scotland.    At first things seem to work out and Mary did not push her religious convictions and in fact it is questionable if she was more than a front for the Congregation and her half brother.  A bit over a year from her arrival (August 1562)  though did find her leading a campaign (which she called a Highland Progress) against one of her Lairds .  Later when one of the lairds’ (one dropped dead of no physically apparent cause on the battlefield–his embalmed corpse was later tried and condemned for treason before Parliament in 1563 ) execution was bungled she screamed and fainted.

Life went on with Mary still unmarried and Elizabeth scheming so that in 1563 she proposed, Robert, Lord Dudley who was a widower by the sudden (and many believed un-accidental) death of wife and whom most believe had been carrying on  a rather public affair with the queen (Elizabeth)—anyway she proposed that Mary marry a candidate of her choice and even went to far as to promise that she might make her heir if the English Queen had no children.  Oh while she was proposing this new husband she never actually told Mary whom it was that she actually intended her to mary, probably because  he was so far below her in rank and well know as a consort of the English Monarch.

They could even become Druids, who wrote laws that safeguarded all of Celtic society, including the elderly, disabled, and children. What’s really interesting about the latter is that children were protected under Celtic law because of their innocence. This is quite a contrast to the Roman world, in which unwanted children were abandoned and left to die in rubbish dumps. Turns out the Celts weren’t as bad as the Romans wanted us to believe after all.

The very phrase ‘Celtic women evokes all kinds of images – fearsome warriors, romantic heroines and tragic, wronged queens – goddesses by the score, from old hags to screaming harpies, to beautiful wise women and learned Druidesses, to the great female saints of the early Celtic church. The women of the Celtic myths are a reflection of the historical women of early Celtic society with all their problems, loves, heartaches and triumphs. They display a range of characters and positions in society being powerful weak, serious, capricious, vengeful and ambitious – there are no empty-headed beauties. As Moyra Caldicott says in ‘Women in Celtic Myth’ . . . “one of the things I find so refreshing in the Celtic myths is that the women are honoured as much for their minds as for their bodies. The dumb blond would not stand much of a chance in ancient Celtic society”.  Women of the Celts in Myth,Legend and StoryFrom SkyeViews Issue 8 June 1996

SkyeViews is a magazine devoted to The Island of Skye.