Rival Queens which is subtitled The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots by Kate Williams was published in 2018. I borrowed this one from the library, and I swithered about taking it as I’ve read quite a few books about Mary, Q of S – what more could there be to say? Well it turned out that there’s quite a lot in this book that was new to me about Mary and Elizabeth. I had thought that Antonia Fraser’s Mary, Queen of Scots couldn’t be topped, but the author seems to have far more insights into both personalities, although it’s Mary and her predicaments which are to the fore in this book. The writing style is very relaxed somehow,  it flows so clearly and is never heavy going, and Kate Williams is just like her readers would be – enthralled and sometimes almost amazed by the fact that she has access to historic  letters and documents that she has been able to study during her research for the book. Other historians have been a bit reticent on the reasons that Mary ended up marrying Bothwell, but Williams seems in no doubt that she had been raped by Bothwell, and was pressured into marrying him.

I hadn’t quite realised how much Mary had been used by her various relatives, with them seeing her as just a way for  them to grab more power and kingdoms in the future. I don’t remember reading that the four wee Marys who sailed to France with Mary Stuart to be her playmates had been separated from her almost immediately. The Scottish side of Mary was going to be stamped out so that she would be a completely French queen when the time came.

Both queens suffered from a lack of the respect which would have been automatic for any young king, simply because they were male. With both women having so much in common it’s a tragedy that they never actually met, but Elizabeth couldn’t be persuaded.

I’ve always thought that Mary was at a disadvantage where men were concerned as her father died when she was just days old, it meant that she never had a man in her life that she could judge any possible husband against – for good or bad. I’m sure that’s a disadvantage.

As it happens I’ve visited almost all of the places that are mentioned in the book, some of which she escaped from.

Anyway I enjoyed this book so much that I’m going to track down anything else that Kate Williams has written, both non-fiction and fiction.