History of Mary, Queen of Scots

by Jacob Abbott

Abraham Lincoln raved that this series of historical biographies gave him "just that knowledge of past men and events which I need. I have read them with the greatest interest. To them I am indebted for about all the historical knowledge I have." Considered what we would now call "young adult" literature, this collection, first published between 1848 and 1871, was designed to present a clear, distinct, connected narrative of the lives of the great figures of world history, those people who have been most influential, at least as American author and educator JACOB ABBOTT (1803-1879) saw it from his 19th-century perspective. Wildly popular and republished many times under different collected names, this replica set mimics the 1904 reprint known as the "Makers of History" series. It will delight students of history as well as show the scholar how history telling has changed over the last few centuries. More than 30 other volumes in the series are also available from Cosimo Classics. This volume, dating from 1848, covers Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), from her childhood and education in France to her captivity at the hands of Queen Elizabeth I.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Scotland, Historical, Medieval, British Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1848

About the author

Abbott was born at Hallowell, Maine to Jacob and Betsey Abbott. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1820; studied at Andover Theological Seminary in 1821, 1822, and 1824; was tutor in 1824-1825, and from 1825 to 1829 was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst College; was licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association in 1826; founded the Mount Vernon School for Young Ladies in Boston in 1829, and was principal of it in 1829-1833; was pastor of Eliot Congregational Church (which he founded), at Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1834-1835; and was, with his brothers, a founder, and in 1843-1851 a principal of Abbott's Institute, and in 1845-1848 of the Mount Vernon School for Boys, in New York City.

He was a prolific author, writing juvenile fiction, brief histories, biographies, religious books for the general reader, and a few works in popular science. He died in Farmington, Maine, where he had spent part of his time after 1839, and where his brother, Samuel Phillips Abbott, founded the Abbott School.

His Rollo Books, such as Rollo at Work, Rollo at Play, Rollo in Europe, etc., are the best known of his writings, having as their chief characters a representative boy and his associates. In them Abbott did for one or two generations of young American readers a service not unlike that performed earlier, in England and America, by the authors of Evenings at Home, The History of Sandford and Merton, and the The Parent's Assistant.
Fewacres in 1906, Abbott's residence at Farmington, Maine

His brothers, John S.C. Abbott and Gorham Dummer Abbott, were also authors. His sons, Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Austin Abbott, both eminent lawyers, Lyman Abbott, and Edward Abbott, a clergyman, were also well-known authors.

Reviews

[alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the beginning of the book, the author said that Mary “had a sad and sorrowful life.” At first, having watched the TV show Reign, I found myself thinking that her life was unfortunate, but it couldn’t have been all be that bad. At the end of the book, I found myself saying what a sad and sorrowful life.”

I’m not usually into biographies, but I pleasantly enjoyed this short book.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding history of Mary Queen of Scots!

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because of the show Reign. It's an amazing show and I got really invested in the lives of all of these people in history. I wanted to know how the real life of Mary Queen of Scots played out. This is a really factual book, but I did tear up. I love Mary in Reign and because of that I felt for her. After her first husband died, she was imprisoned and lived a long, unhappy life until she was beheaded by warranty of Queen Elizabeth. Man, she had a shit life.

[Anya Blackhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't stop picturing Adelaide Kane (from Reign) as Mary... At the end I was almost sobbing.

Short and straight to the point.

[Nola Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book from Amazon's store as an ebook because it was free, and I certainly got what I paid for. Written in 1876, the book has an archaic tone and even takes care to teach a few moral lessons to its audience, such as how husbands and wives ought to treat one another in order to incite love. The writing was stilted, though the story was interesting.

I selected the volume as a reference book for my seventh grader's homeschool curriculum, and in this I feel it serves its purpose. Although she'll be less-than-pleased at the dry tone and lack of details, she will be able to pull a number of facts regarding the life of the monarch. There are no direct citations or quotes, leaving one to conjecture how much of the writing was factually based and how much was fictionalized - though details such as the insertion into the mind of the newly crowned infant queen provide hints that at least some portion of the book evolved from the writer's imagination.

In terms of a time line, the book was fairly linear, only once noticiably jumping backwards in time, and then with great apologies. It would have been nice to have more hard dates and/or ages of the queen; the last I recall came when she was widowed at seventeen. The range of years was stated at the start of the chapter but who wants to stop reading to calculate? Given the already frequent intrusions and bluntness of tone, it seems especially annoying that such details were omitted.

The brief overview of the queen's life left me wanting to know more. This book was adequate but not exceptional, probably worth a 2.5 more than a 2 but such as it is.

[Carrie Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Queen of Scots never had a chance to rule any country. The religious views of the time tore countries and loyalties apart. Catholic VS Protestant. She was caught up in the middle. Always considered a threat by the Protestants and the English throne. She didn't have any one to trust, not even her own people. I do not truly believe she was ad devious and plotting as those who made her out to be- maybe those around her. Again, she was a small pawn on a big board.

[Heather Domin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good example of the difference between simple and dumbed down - a nice streamlined, straightforward read. The history is biased, of course, but amusingly so - this guy was crushing on Mary for real.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now it is a special point of honor among all sovereign kings and queens, throughout this civilized world, that they can, technically, do no wrong.

Mary, Queen of Scots, had a rough life.

During her fifteenth through seventeenth years:
Mary Stuart married Francis, the Dauphin;
her father-in-law, King Henry of France died;
her husband, Francis, was crowned King;
her mother, the queen dowager of Scotland died;
and her husband, King Francis died.

Her life back in Scotland was tumultuous, primarily because her husband(s) were power-hungry men who tried to seize the throne, and won the enmity of most of the nobles of Scotland. Also, no small thing, she was Catholic in a Protestant country.

She gave birth to James, the sixth James to reign in Scotland and the first to rule over England. Sadly, mother and son were rival claimants to England's throne in the event of Elizabeth's death. They did not share a warm and caring relationship.

Mary spent a great swath of her life under house arrest at Fotheringay Castle until Queen Elizabeth had Mary beheaded.

Sigh...

One feature of this series that I especially enjoy is the explanation of word origins. How the French heir apparent came to be called Dauphin; how tournaments got their names; the difference between a dowager and a consort; the meaning of 'inch' in Scotland — all fun discoveries.

[Noella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Het verhaal van Mary, Queen of Scots, haar jeugd in Schotland, en hoe ze op 6-jarige leeftijd naar Frankrijk gebracht werd, als toekomstige bruid van Frans II, en ze na zijn vroegtijdige dood terugkeerde naar haar geboorteland. Daar kreeg ze ook te maken met veel tegenslagen en weerstand. Ze huwde met een knappe jongeman, Lord Darnley, en kreeg een zoontje. Later werd Darnley vermoord en Mary werd ervan beschuldigd mee in het complot te zitten. Deze beschuldiging bleef haar achtervolgen. Ze huwde daarna met Boswell, maar het blijft onduidelijk of hij haar dwong met hem te huwen, of dat ze hem werkelijk liefhad.
Uiteindelijk, na nog vele andere beschuldigingen, werd Mary onthoofd op bevel van haar nicht, koningin Elisabeth van Engeland. Maar jaren na haar dood werd Mary's hartewens toch werkelijkheid: haar zoon James werd de eerste koning van zowel Engeland als Schotland.

Dit is eigenlijk een boek voor jonge lezers, zodat alles heel duidelijk uitgelegd wordt. Ik heb toch weer wat bijgeleerd!

[Yelena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is written in a strangely formal English, using rather old fashion phrases.
That diminished the impact somewhat.

The subject matter was of great interest to me as I always sympathised with Mary's hapless fate.

But if you look at it from a historical point of view - she hasn't really done anything other than being an unfortunate victim to various circumstances quite beyond her control. Which eventually led to estrangement from her only son, imprisonment and subsequent beheading.

It is a really tragic story of a woman who was born at the wrong time and spent all her life being a pawn in the "games of thrones" at the time.

Her being beautiful, kind and generally liked by those around her only adds to the drama of her life.

[Melanie H · Rating 3 out of 5]

After watching Reign, I wanted to read more about the truth of Mary and how it compared to the show. I actually listened to the audiobook while I worked. The book is very straightforward and simple to read. Like others have stated, it would be a good book for a younger reader.

At times I felt the book droned on about frivolous details like her clothing and such, but overall it paints a genuine picture of what a tragic figure Mary was.

Her life was far more interesting and sad than what was portrayed in the show.

[Kenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this mainly because Mary Queen of Scots is my absolute favorite historical figure and watching Reign years ago had me constantly googling events in order to check how realistic they were.
Now years after the show ended I am still a long way from being over the story, even after watching the movies made for the same purpose, so this book gave me an insight into the actual events, or at least the closest ones to what really happened, and for that I am delighted.

[Sandra McIntier · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good book for a child to read, although the author does write with a very condescending tone. It's a little out of date, and could not be used as a text book to read for say, 11 plus exam, to get into grammar school.

[Shelley Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done overview of her life, I listened to a podcast about her that referenced this book stating it was a great resource and felt like a book written recently. The fact it was in fact written so long ago makes it possible to get a hold of for free through other resources so i made use of an audio book thats link i will attach. I honestly enjoyed the book and found myself learning some new details despite being well versed in history around that time period.

https://archive.org/details/mary_quee...

[Kathy Cielak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too basic

There should have been more details about events in Mary's life. The language was archaic and a but difficult to understand. The word wise dictionary did a poor job of explaining many of the words. I was disappointed

[may · Rating 4 out of 5]

short, sad and beautiful. just like how her life had been. i hope, if there's truly an after life like she had believed, she eventually found it and now rests in eternal peace

ps fuck elizabeth tudor

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good history

Brief but thorough. Gave me a better overview of her life after her first husband died. Wish the diagram or maps referenced were included, but they are not.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a decent history lesson, I guess. After all it was a free book. However, this sound quality was extremely poor and the multiple narrators were incredibly monotone & boring.

[Callum K · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[Freya Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is a little simplistic but it hits all the important points, has detailed and accurate descriptions of the locations, very clear language, acknowledges the romance and tragedy but doesn't wallow. Reads like it was written for children.

[Jennifer Ochoa · Rating 3 out of 5]

#2 of 22 in my personal (and rather random) challenge to read Abbot's Makers of History series. The series is most famously known for influencing Abraham Lincoln.

The first volume I read was Queen Elizabeth I, and as her life crossed over with Mary's, it made sense to choose this volume as the next one to read. One of the most interesting aspects of both volumes is how the women were perceived in Abbott's time. Before the rise of feminism, which has led to Elizabeth's popularity in recent decades, Mary was the more-admired historical figure. Abbott often describes her beauty and grace and usually gives her the benefit of the doubt when it comes to her motives. And when confronted with evidence that she may have not been wholly innocent of various charges, he is highly sympathetic and provides understandable reasons for why she would be involved. He delivers her from responsibility to preserve the popular notion that she was a victim. They loved their tragic heroines back then and she and her villainous, controlling husbands make for a great romantic tragedy.

In contrast to the fidelitous, graceful Mary, Elizabeth is duplicitous, jealous, and paranoid. Oh, and she's no great beauty we are told. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of Abbott's perspective of Elizabeth and the contemporary perspective that she was a great feminist role model. Both Abbott and feminists seem to view Mary as little more than a pawn, shuffled around from man to man, but Abbott is sympathetic to her plight, while we (I) just see a weak-willed woman who let herself be bullied into bad decisions. Again the truth really lies in the middle, for even I can admit the unfairness of judging a woman from a feminist perspective when she lived about four hundred years before feminist thought.

Abbott goes to some length to describe the architecture and layout of various Scottish buildings where events occur, something he did not do in the Queen Elizabeth I volume. He even describes how these places look today, some in ruins. Towards the end, he briefly describes a tour to one of the castles with such imagery and emotion that I almost felt like I was there. However, I did find the room layout descriptions to be tedious, especially as the diagram images were not part of the Kindle edition. I don't feel it was necessary to give that level of detail.

My perspective (bias) is different from Abbot's but I still enjoyed the book for the most part. It should definitely be read as a companion to the Queen Elizabeth I volume.

[Shahda Al Taie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good and brief account of Queen Mary Stuart's life that dictates the fact of the time but does not impress the author's opinions of the matters onto the reader. This book is part of a series titled "Makers of History" by the same author. Very informative and paints a good picture of the events of the time. I recommend it for all lovers of the TV show "Reign" as it sheds light on a lot of the events of the TV drama.

[Thom Swennes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple book, obviously written for youthful readers, Mary Queen of Scots by Jacob Abbott, explains well the ambiguous personal life of a great but extremely unfortunate woman. Of her three marriages, two only lasted two years but all three were very unhappy for her. The machinations, plotting, and intrigues of court life in the latter half of the 16th Century made her hold of the crown of Scotland very precarious. With family ties in both England and France, one would think that she would have allies to help her but because of jealousies she wasn’t only left to her own devices, eventually she was condemned and eventually beheaded by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I of England. The book went far to relate her personal life but didn’t really try to explain actions in a larger circle that eventually had much to do with her fate. As a monarch she couldn’t have been considered great or even good as internal and external enemies kept her from the task of ruling. I think this is a good introductory book to England and Scotland of this time.

[Cym · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was somewhat interesting, although, after the halfway point, it became difficult to remember all the Lords and servants names who would come into play for a moment or two, only to be killed or imprisoned and replaced by several more with the same design and the same end. Poor Mary is painted as both (a) a victim of intimidation and coercion on nearly every occasion of turmoil, and (b) a mystery concerning whom histories can't seem to decide is a schemer or an innocent.
A lot of the wording is repeated. (Count how many times the author write, "pomp and ceremony"!) Granted, enough detail is presented that allows me to follow the tale without questioning its accuracy and at the end of the day, I know a lot more about Mary, Queen of Scots than I did before, so, mission accomplished!

[Fr. Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary had a very interesting life. Hearing it was sad but somehow expected. Abbot's narrative seemed to be well researched, but one could tell he did not have a good grasp of Catholicism and misrepresented Catholic worship somewhat. Despite that, he seemed to try to tell the tale without bias. I listened to a Librivox recording of it. This was my first Librivox listen. It was not a solo reader so volumes were not together. Some of the narration was done very well, some not so well. Over all, I have a much greater grasp of Mary, Queen of Scots.

[Kimberly Dykes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable book. I was hesitant to read it, as I am not usually a fan of biographies, and I was concerned that the language might be more formal than I would like, since the book was written in 1848. However, Mr. Abbott's style of writing is informative as well as engaging. Mary's life is told more as a story instead of a list of facts. A few parts get bogged down in minute detail, i.e., "The room had seven windows", or something similar. But overall, held my interest for the entire book. Well worth reading.

[Mary Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty interesting text if you're looking for something unabbashedly pro-Mary, anti-Elizabeth, which I haven't read that many of, but it's nice to see someone confirm my suspicions that Elizabeth was largely a monster. It's old history, not written like a modern engaging history, but still readable. Some quibbles with the obvious bias of the author and on his victorian notions of gender that he imposes on everyone (Mary is the good guy because she is a good virtuous and beautiful victorian-ideal, Elizabeth evil because she is the opposite), but otherwise I'm plased.

[Liberté · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book hits all the major points of Mary's life, although the tone and style of the book are dramatically different from modern history texts. The author even takes care to include lessons on Protestantism vs. Catholicism, marriage advice, and the technical points of medieval tournaments. That said, there are some interesting asides in this book, and he does present the facts as they were known and allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. This text is best as a supplement to other more complete histories on Mary Stuart.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading this book I felt that the author was sympathetically biased towards Queen Mary and leaves mostly to the readers to arrive at their own conclusions ...abstaining from any negative remarks ...this book drives home the point thst A beautiful and amicable persona may sometimes be accompanied by weaknesses as in case of Queen Mary....remarkable differences of personality between Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth...

[Scott Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am typically a big fan of Jacob Abbott brief history books but this one did not seem to resonate the way that other volumes have. It is nonetheless a good summary of the story Mary and her trials and tumult in living her faith and seeking her claims for monarchy. Her life was destined in many ways for the tragedy it became.