Loch Leven Castle & Mary Queen of Scots: by Theresa Breslin

Sometimes in our minds historical figures are inextricably linked to particular places. In the case of Mary, Queen of Scots, among the many castles connected with her name Loch Leven is remembered as the place of her first imprisonment and subsequent exciting escape. Not long after her third, final, and disastrous marriage, Mary surrendered at Carberry Hill in June 1567 to the Scots Lords who had risen in rebellion against her rule. Despite being promised safe conduct to visit her infant son, she was taken at night to be imprisoned within the castle on Loch Leven, near Kinross. Her jailors were the dastardly Douglas family, implacable enemies of Mary’s current husband, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell

Mary had associations with Loch Leven earlier in her short reign as Queen of Scotland. One of her favourite pastimes was hawking and Loch Leven is a perennial stopover for migrating species of birds. She stayed there on several occasions with her second husband, Lord Henry Darnley, to take advantage of the hunting opportunities.

Located in modern day Perthshire, Loch Leven is a designated National Nature Reserve, one of the major sites in Europe for migratory birds. As the year ends, thousands upon thousands of birds, travelling from the Arctic Circle and northern Europe, paused to feed from the waters of the loch and the surrounding wetlands and fields. It’s a wonderful experience to see these enormous flocks of birds coming in to land, outlined against the glorious glow of a winter-red setting sun. It’s a cycle older than recorded history and when visiting the castle to research Spy for the Queen of Scots it struck me that this was a happening unchanged with the passage of time. I felt that I could block out the faint burr of the ferry boat engine and the chatter of picnicking families to see almost exactly what Mary and her companions would have seen centuries ago.  I could write a genuine witness account in as told by the main character, Jenny:

Suddenly there was a noise like the rustle of a thousand silken petticoats at a fabulous ball. Swinging and soaring above us, borne on the evening air, we heard the chittering of wild fowl as birds in their thousands came sweeping in.

‘Oh!’ I gasped in wonder.

Duncan too was gazing skyward. ‘At my home in Knoydart,’ he said, ‘there is a similar sight worth seeing in spring and late autumn. It is a stopping place for the wild geese as they travel their migration routes.’

All about us the birds came in to land on the river banks as the sun set.

‘It is quite wonderful,’ I breathed. Fiery red rays of light were slanting through the mountains. It was as though some untutored painter had released his palette upon the sky, as if God himself had dispersed a rainbow among the snow-crowned hilltops.

Another, less well known visit to the island by Mary was arranged so that she could debate with the Protestant preacher, John Knox, on the subject of whether those of a different religious persuasion, particularly Roman Catholics, should be allowed any type of religious freedom or civil rights.

Paintings of this show a timid Mary cowering away from Knox, whereas accounts from the time say that she gave him sound and strong arguments for religious tolerance. They can’t have parted on such bad terms for immediately afterwards Mary sought his advice on the marital problems of her illegitimate half-sister, Jean, and asked him to try to effect peace between her and her estranged husband.

But for the many tourists who visit the island it’s Queen Mary’s daring escape after almost a year of imprisonment that attracts them. What adds to the romance of the situation is that although the rebel Lord of the Castle was her willing jailor, some of the other males in the extensive Douglas family were won over to Mary’s cause and (as they saw it) the plight of a beautiful woman being treated unjustly. The most notable sympathiser was the young lad, Willie Douglas. On a pre-arranged evening Willie, while serving his uncle his dinner, dropped a napkin onto the castle keys which lay discarded on a table. When leaving the room the boy took away the serving dishes, and also the keys concealed inside the napkin. Beckoning to the Queen who was awaiting his signal at her window in the round tower he hurried across the courtyard and unlocked the main gate. Mary crouched in the bottom of the one boat Willie had left unchained and he rowed her across the loch to where the rest of her rescue party waited with horses.

When I visited the castle I had with me a young woman, scarcely out of her teens. As we left the castle jetty I thought of Mary, not much older than this girl, separated from her baby boy, recently miscarried of twins, making the same journey, shivering and in terror of life. I shivered too as the reality of historical events came sweeping over me like the shadow of the geese passing overhead.  

 

More info: http://www.theresabreslin.co.uk/   http://www.facebook.com/Theresabreslinauthor

Twitter: @theresabreslin1 

Spy for the Queen of Scots is nominated for the Carnegie Medal and an Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales  illustrated by Kate Leiper is nominated for the Greenaway Medal.

In conjunction with the Citizens Theatre and South Lanarkshire schools the Divided City musical will be produced at Hamilton Town House Theatre in February 2013 and in the Millennium Theatre in the City of Derry-Londonderry in March 2013     

The Dark Art of……. Poison by Theresa Breslin

Being a country kid I was very much aware that not everything growing in garden, field or forest was good to eat. Great Aunt Mary had a fund of stories about foolish wilful children who didn’t listen to wise advice and went about stuffing glistening berries, tasty looking mushrooms and tantalising fruit into their mouths. She regaled myself, and my siblings and cousins with tales of disobedient greedy brats who died horrible deaths, shrieking and foaming at the mouth, or at the very least were left hideously deformed, sobbing in sorrow and regret. If her aim was to terrorise us into not touching anything without first checking with an adult that it was OK to handle and eat then she certainly succeeded. Obviously it also engendered in me a fascination for the subject. I spent hours making lists of forbidden items, with notes attached. For instance when the season arrived where we broke off sticks of rhubarb, running into the kitchen to raid the sugar bag, then pouring a handful into a twist of paper to use it like a sherbet lolly, I scribbled in my jotter: 

“RHUBARB - sticks taste good with sugar - Do NOT eat the leaves. Theresa you will DIE!!!!”

Beside this entry I drew a skull and crossbones

I was big on skulls and crossbones and also placed these beside entries for laburnum, foxglove, deadly mushrooms etc.  I made maps to show where I’d found suspect items, and in turn I terrified younger relatives by telling them that if they even wandered close to some plants they might succumb, and the rest of us would have to carry their corpses home to their weeping mothers.    

While researching The Nostradamus Prophecy I discovered that it’s Catherine de’ Medici whom France has to thank for ballet, bloomers, perfume and… poison. It is said that she brought from Italy the secrets of scent, thus founding the French perfume industry, but also carried with her the dark art of poison. This is in part linked to the reputation of the famous poison garden of the Medici family situated in Padua. I regret not visiting it when writing The Medici Seal but to my amazement, after that book was finished, I discovered that Britain has its very own poison garden… 

Alnwick Castle, home of the Percy family, of song and story and  famous as a location for filming Harry Potter. I couldn’t resist having my photograph taken in the courtyard where the Broomstick Flying Lesson was filmed!

And the Poison Garden? 

The first thing to say is that the custodians take their responsibilities very seriously indeed. The area is kept securely locked and guarded and entry is only via guided tours given by experts, who have a wide knowledge of plant history, their therapeutic use and modern medical developments. 

 

Vital research is conducted here and there’s a huge amount of information being garnered about effects on the human body - marijuana, magic mushrooms, aphrodisiacs, poppies, and plants so dangerous that they are kept in cages. 

The staff are charming, helpful, willing to share information and very interested in visitors’ anecdotes and tales of country lore.  

Go visit.  

Theresa’s latest book is Spy for the Queen of Scots

More info: http://www.theresabreslin.co.uk/ 

http://www.facebook.com/Theresabreslinauthor

Twitter: @theresabreslin1  

The Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference  debates are online with the Conference now moving to different venues around the world. In November Theresa will be with Melvin Burgess to debate themes in Krasnayarsk in Siberia. You might like to join in!

Theresa Breslin and Kate Leiper will discuss research for the Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales, at the National Library of Scotland in EDINBURGH on 22^nd and 24^th October.  

Divided City – in conjunction with the Citizens Theatre a schools production is now underway in South Lanarkshire with performances scheduled for February 2013.    

The Earl of Bothwell – mad, bad and dangerous to know? by Theresa Breslin

James Hepburn, the fourth Earl of Bothwell, 3^rd husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, was a strong minded man and a fiercesome fighter who had wardship of some of the Scottish Border country which made up the “debatable lands” that lay between Scotland and England. He was a useful ally of the Scottish monarchs in that not only did he patrol the Border lands trying to keep the peace between the families who lived there, he could also rally thousands of Border men to his standard. His castle, still present at Hermitage, gives an indication of the type of fortress needed to withstand constant attacks.  

                                                                                                   

When the Reformation began in Scotland Bothwell supported the Protestant cause, but also remained loyal to the crown and the legitimate heirs to the throne. This gave him massive problems because the reigning monarch, James V, had rejected the ways of England’s Henry VIII in breaking from Rome and closing monastic houses. When James V died his French wife, Marie of Guise, remained Catholic, as did their daughter, the child who was to become Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary’s return from France as a naive teenage Queen with no experience of ruling a country was an opportunity for any ambitious nobleman of intellect and cunning to exploit the opportunity to gain power.  

Mary’s illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, (later Earl of Moray) was a ruthless character who saw Scotland’s future as being tied closely to England. When Mary married Lord Darnley both Moray and Bothwell realised that their influence over the young Queen could be usurped by Darnley’s family. James Stewart sought the support of England’s Elizabeth I who was happy to provide money and arms to more than one of the Border families in order that they might make war with each other and reduce the chance of a Scottish army threatening England. Elizabeth also gave shelter to Moray and his fellow Scots Lords when they rebelled against Mary’s rule. In this Moray’s outlook was directly opposed to Bothwell’s and they clashed on many occasions.

Bothwell’s method of dealing with Border strife was brutal but effective. He personally led raids and on one occasion shot his enemy out of his saddle. Unfortunately Bothwell didn’t make sure the man was dead before approaching him and suffered almost fatal stab wounds. It was while Bothwell was recovering at Hermitage Castle that Mary, hearing he was dying, made a day-long perilous trip across rough terrain to visit him. It was this that convinced people she had more than a passing romantic interest in Bothwell. But he was a noted womaniser and it’s unlikely that she saw him as serious suitor to be the consort of a Queen.      

Down through the centuries historians have argued and novelists explored Mary’s relationships with the men in her life. Investigation and research has never conclusively proved that Mary definitely knew of the plot to assassinate her husband, who was now causing scandal enough to threaten the throne. Both Moray and Bothwell were implicated in the murder of Mary’s husband, Lord Darnley. Then Bothwell forced Mary to a marriage which she immediately regretted and both their fates became locked together, hurtling towards disaster.  

 

The Earl of Bothwell…. Definitely dangerous to know...  More than a little bad…   

And mad? Bothwell died insane after being chained to a post for years. His death mask makes disturbing viewing. Surely no one deserves to die in such a fashion?

Spy for the Queen of Scots

http://www.theresabreslin.co.uk/

The Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference  debates are online with the Conference now moving to different venues around the world. In November Theresa will be with Melvin Burgess to debate themes in Krasnayarsk in Siberia. You might like to join in!

Theresa Breslin and Kate Leiper will discuss research for the Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales, at events in EDINBURGH in October.  

Divided City – in conjunction with the Citizens Theatre. A schools production is now underway in South Lanarkshire with performances scheduled for 2013 in Hamilton Town House Theatre.     

Mary Queen of Scots - Escape from Borthwick Castle, by Theresa Breslin

She was a game girl was Mary Stuart, and escaped from ‘secure’ premises quite a few times. The most widely recorded, and certainly the one I remember being told in my childhood was when, disguised as servant, she escaped from Loch Leven aided by the young lad, Willie Douglas.   

While researching Spy for the Queen of Scots the escape that most impressed me took place at Borthwick Castle where, poignantly, she spent her last night with the Earl of Bothwell. It is a forbidding fortress with hugely thick walls. Lord Borthwick offered Mary shelter when rebel Lords threatened to kill Bothwell after Mary married him. Immediately the would-be assassins gathered an army, closely pursuing the newly weds, to besiege the castle. Once Mary was safely inside Bothwell daringly slipped out of the castle to gather his men to defend the Queen:

Spy for the Queen of Scots is told in the first person of the main character, Jenny, who is Mary’s companion. That night Mary and Jenny sit together, huddled under a blanket in the window embrasure of the Queen’s bedroom, praying that Bothwell will elude the surrounding rebel forces…

‘Do you love him?’ I asked Mary.

‘He is going out to risk his life for me. How can I not love him?’

We held onto each other until dawn, when we heard the blast of a hunting horn from the distant hills. Then we knew he’d won free, whereupon we both gave way to a fit of weeping. 

The rebels called on Mary to surrender, telling her they’d sent for heavy cannon to bring down the castle walls. She refused to betray Bothwell and donned disguise to make her own bid for freedom.

Borthwick Castle is now a private hotel http://www.borthwickcastle.com/  You can book dinner (delicious!) to eat in the great hall, or indeed hire the whole castle for a weekend for family and friends! Situated not far from Edinburgh in beautiful countryside, it has the most hospitable staff who will happily give you a free guided tour before your meal to tell you of the history of the wild Border Clans and the ghosts they have heard laughing and chatting in the corridors. You can see the window Mary climbed out during the night of her own escape. You can stand in the top towers and look at the hill beyond and imagine the campfires of the rebels. You can sit in the window alcove of her bedroom and look down into the forest as she did, hoping that her lover would not get caught by the vengeful Scottish rebel Lords. I thought of her, orphaned, scarce out of her teens, twice Queen, twice widowed, a mother with no access to her baby, betrayed by family and former friends and in dire danger of losing her throne and her life.  With Research comes Insight. With similar insight I hope that historians might judge her less harshly.    

Debates with leading authors will be streamed live world-wide from 17^th – 21^st August during the Edinburgh Book Festival at a special World Writers’ Conference. These will be interactive – you might like to join in!

Theresa Breslin events in EDINBURGH this August include discussing the Researching & Writing  Historical Novels with fellow novelist Berlie Doherty (author of  Treason)  on 27^th August plus an event about the Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales, illustrated by Kate Leiper on 28^th August – both at the Edinburgh Book Festival.  

Divided City - Conversation and Performance extract from the musical is on at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace Venue on 25^th  August with excerpts from the play at the closing ceremony on 26^th August    

Mary, Queen of Scots: Courageous Tragic Heroine… or Rash and Reckless Romantic? by Theresa Breslin

Growing up in Scotland I heard many tales of the adventures of our bewitching captured Queen. As her death mask shows, an ambassador’s description of her as “the most beautiful Queen in Europe” was not exaggerated. Mary’s striking good looks are apparent, even beyond the grave. 

Novels and stories give varying accounts of her youth in the glittering palaces of France, and then in the turbulent grandeur of Scottish castles. Mary’s life was crammed with incident. As her father died when she was born, while still a baby she was crowned Queen of Scotland. Henry VIII of England, with ideas of merging the two kingdoms under his rule, wanted her wed to his son, Edward, so he tried to abduct her, laying waste to vast tracts of Scotland in the attempt. Separated from her mother when a young child, she was sent to France as a bride for the French Dauphin. Mary was married at 15, became Queen of France at 16, and was widowed at 17 – great trauma to suffer in a short space of time. In Scotland, her mother, who was acting as Regent on Mary’s behalf, was overthrown by a rebellion of the Scots Lords and subsequently died. A sense of duty plus loyalty to her mother and her native land, combined with hostility in France, and a promise of support by her duplicitous half-brother led Mary back to Scotland, where she had already sent emissaries in the hope that the people would accept her. This they did with great joy. But, in addition to leaving her a troubled country in constant war with a larger neighbour, her father also bequeathed his daughter never-ending strife by siring nine illegitimate sons, who, with family / clan connections, constantly sought advancement and control of the throne by treachery and violence. 

Like her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, Mary was aware that mostly everyone: father, family, statesmen and subjects, would have preferred her to be male. Unlike Elizabeth she enjoyed a pampered early life, and was schooled in the role of Queen Consort. It was never anticipated that Mary would have sole governance of a country.

Early Queens needed a lot of grit and guile to survive. Although not so good with guile, Mary was strong on grit - even her implacable enemy, John Knox, admitted that. She stood up to Catherine de’ Medici, a seriously scary lady. She defied Queen Elizabeth, a most formidable foe.  Faced with an uprising by her Scottish nobles, Mary put on armour, stuck pistols in her belt, and rode out at the head of her army to chase the rebel Lords right over the Border. When seven months pregnant she was subjected to serious assault while her husband and co-conspirators murdered her secretary in front of her by stabbing him fifty-six times. During the next few days she managed to fool the plotters, plan her escape, and, during one night, rode many miles to safety. With the birth of her son she was aware that she was in even greater danger, as, if she was assassinated or imprisoned, the rebels could control the child, who was the undisputed legitimate heir.

While doing the research for my new book Spy for the Queen of Scots I began to realise why Mary was drawn to the rascally James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. He was the most notable of the few Lords who consistently supported the Scottish Crown. Unswervingly loyal, Bothwell mustered men and arms for Mary’s mother and the Queen herself when they were most in need. Crucially at that time Scotland had no standing army. For support in battle the monarch relied on the Clan chiefs, who fought privately with each other, and often changed allegiance to side with rebel factions.  

Mary tried to find solutions to the many problems that beset Scotland at that time, including religious strife. When she arrived Scotland was predominantly Catholic and although she personally held to this, she passed laws awarding grants to the Reformed Church and creating stipends for ministers. She travelled by horseback over rough roads to visit numerous remote places and meet as many people as possible, and was generous to her hosts and to the poor of the towns she visited. It’s a tribute to Mary that she kept peace in her realm for the number of years she did. 

   

In Spy for the Queen of Scots the character, Jenny (Ginette) is Mary’s closest friend, who shares her secrets, her triumphs and heartaches, and, at great risk, becomes a spy to try to protect the Queen against would-be assassins. As Jenny tries to find her own destiny and love, the reader experiences a Royal Court of passionate romances, magicians foretelling destiny and doom, ruthless murder and intrigue, battles, horrific revenge and plots by poisoners. Discovering fascinating facts and weaving them into a story made me realise that throughout her life, Mary, Queen of Scots was incredibly brave, with her kindness and personal loyalty inspiring admiration, even to this day.

Theresa Breslin is doing 3 events at the EDINBURGH BOOK FESTIVAL this year. She will speak about her latest novel Spy for the Queen of Scots and about writing historical novels with fellow novelists - Elizabeth Laird on 12^th August  &  Berlie Doherty on 27^th August. An event about An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales, illustrated by Kate Leiper is on 28^th August.