The Gay Galliard: The Great Love of Mary Queen of Scots

by Margaret Irwin

Queen of Scotland at six days old.

Queen of France at seventeen years old.

A widow at eighteen.



The young and trusting Mary, Queen of Scots, is sailing home to her kingdom after years in exile. The danger from her cousin, the English Queen, has not lessened since then. Religious divides threaten to tear the nation apart and, across the border, Elizabeth keenly watches this new threat to her throne.


Amid the furious turmoil and uncertainty in her Scottish kingdom, Mary finds she has one loyal servant – James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, a ‘glorious, rash and hazardous young man’ known to all as the Galliard. In Bothwell’s courage and love for her, Mary finds serenity, and though fate works against them, no force can conquer their spirit.


This stunning novel from the acclaimed author of Young Bess breathes new life into the little-known story of the great love of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Scotland, Romance, Tudor Period, 16th Century

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Born in 1899 and educated at Oxford, Irwin was recognized as a novelist of well-researched and occasionally heart-breaking historical fiction. She is best known for her trilogy about Elizabeth I: Young Bess, Elizabeth Captive Princess, and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain. Young Bess was made into a movie starring Jean Simmons.

Irwin also wrote passionately about the English Civil War, causing generations to fall in love with the ill-fated but charismatic Earl of Montrose.

Reviews

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book’s writing style is a little dated though less dated than the title.

It obviously written by someone enthralled and enchanted by both the Queen of Scots and her romance with Bothwell.
Mary is sweet, charming , beautiful and also a kind and caring ruler averse to violence and religious intolerance. Bothwell is strong and feisty, a skirt chaser with a dark brow valiantly defending his Queen even before he falls in love with her.

Although this all sounds a bit Mill&Boon for my taste the narrative is actually well written and an interesting read though after a while the constant political machinations become wearying and following whom is related to whom and allied or betraying whom else becomes more of a brain twister than keeping track of GRR’s houses of Westeros.

Finally we get to the romance and then you turn the page and it is over. The narrative ends and the many following years are summarized in an epilogue.

This wasn’t a bad book just not great. I found the ending unsatisfying and sudden but was not truly disappointed because it was quite a relief to be done with all the political wrangling and treachery. The nobles of both England and Scotland were a duplicitous lot.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves historical fiction.
Personally I think I would be better advised to read Antonia Fraser’s biography of Mary.

[Eugenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have owned this book since the 80s and have been meaning to dive in. It was a great favorite of my grandmother's and I wanted to give it a try. Irwin presupposes that the reader has some background knowledge of Scottish history which I do not, so it took me some time to catch up with some of the titles and relationships. I also think Irwin needed a good editor to cut down some of the wordier passages. Having said that, I did really enjoy the second half of the book and I learned a lot about Mary Queen of Scots and her tragic life.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too slow-moving for me. Also the language was too "fluffy" and "flowery" for my taste.

[Lisa Glanville · Rating 1 out of 5]

God, what a hard slog through this book.
I didn't think it was possible to make Mary Queen of Scots boring, but Irwin has done it!

[CynthiaA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had known, when I purchased this book, that the author had written it over 80 yrs ago. I might have made another choice. Anyhow, the book was fine, although a clearly biased take on the story surrounding Mary Queen of Scots, the death of her husband Henry Darnley, and her relationship with Lord Bothwell. I did enjoy the book, and I did learn things from it. I preferred the last half of the book, when Mary actually acted as Queen, to the front half, about Mary in France and the circumstances around her return to Scotland. I would have liked some footnotes throughout the book to see what quotes were from actual historical documents and which were fictional. The author had an odd way of using quotation marks, which made me think that some things in quotes were actual quotes from actual documentation, while other things in quotes were merely fictional speeches. I never did figure it out completely. As for a pure reading experience, it was good but not great.

[Undine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel (despite its--to our modern vocabulary--unfortunate title) is a fast-paced, entertaining, and often even funny account of the tumultuous life and times of that supreme swashbuckler, the Earl of Bothwell. "Galliard," which draws heavily on Robert Gore-Browne's biography, "Lord Bothwell," is worth reading for anyone with an interest in Mary Queen of Scots and her third husband, despite one scene between Mary and Bothwell towards the end which most present-day readers--particularly women--will likely find offensive. (Luckily, it is almost certainly not based on fact, but it is still a pity that it cannot now be omitted.)