Screamed at by religious bigots, plotted against by an unscrupulous
and corrupt gang of nobles (her own half- brother their fugleman), diplomatically undermined by Elizabeth of England, and with the haughty Guise blood surging hot within her, but kind withal to her inferiors and always loving pleasure, what wonder that Mary of Scotland's life did not run on normally respectable lines ? But was she a menace to her reahn ? Was she what the Edinburgh mob reviled her with being, murderess and whore ? Must we for ever base our judgments of this woman on evidence dyed deep with party colouring or on false evidence con- structed with the deliberate view of destroying her ? Mr. Grant Francis in his Mary of Scotland (Murray, 16s.) is in no doubt as to the answers to these questions and strongly urges the claims of Moray, the Queen's half-brother, to be the villain of the piece. By a close examination of the crucial years 1561-8, Mr. Francis sets out, not necessarily to whitewash Mary, but to secure bare justice " for the most maligned woman of modern history," and from the progress of his purpose a detailed picture of the time emerges. Now we await a reply to Mr. Francis, for seemingly the Marian controversy can never die.
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