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The Sixteenth Century
Mary Queen of Scots
Penelope Taberner Cameron lives with her parents and brother and sister In London. She is ill and her mother arranges for the three children to go to the country away from the London fogs. They are sent to stay with Great Aunt Tissie at Thackers farm in Derbyshire.
The children all enjoy helping on the farm and riding the pony but Alison has an extra experience. She finds she can pass back in time and meet the people who stayed at Thackers farm three hundred years ago. At that time Thackers was owned by Anthony Babbington. Penelope learns that he wants to free Mary Queen of Scots and help to put her on the throne. Penelope knows that this will result in failure and in the death of both Mary and of Babbington himself but she is unable to warn him.
This is not about the plot which led to the death of Mary and of Babbington himself. It is another plot two years before the final one.
A Traveller in Time was first published in 1939 and it is a modern children's classic. As well as a story about Mary Queen of Scots it also gives a delightful picture of rural life in the first half of this century with the milk being taken to the railway station in a cart pulled by a pony. Then, at harvest time, the hay is scythed and then forked into haystacks, while in the house there is no bathroom but only a basin and jug of water in the bedrooms.
12+
This was one of the Canongate Kelpies
which is now being published by Floris Books. It was first published
in 1981.
After the murder of Darnley and the subsequent marriage of Mary
Queen of Scots to Earl Bothwell, Mary was imprisoned in a castle
in the middle of Loch Leven by order of the Privy Council. Later
a page, young Will Douglas, helped to escape and join the nobles
who were still loyal to her.
That is the bare bones of what is a well known story. But here
Mollie Hunter has researched deeply and fleshed the story out
in this fictionalised account.
Here are all the details of how the Queen was kept in the castle,
her servants, the ways in which she spent her days -- and all
against a background of political intrigue.
Will Douglas comes to life as a rounded figure and not just a
heroic character. He likes gambling and has no compunction about
telling lies.
True young Will, like many older than himself, falls under Mary's
spell, but the question must be asked. Does this really absolve
him from responsibility to his own family? The Keeper of the castle
is Will's natural father, a man who has tried to treat him fairly.
Mary's escape could have serious consequences for the Keeper and
other members of the Douglas family but Will does not care about
that.
Told in the first person by Will many years afterwards when he
hears of Mary's execution.
Some deep questions are raised when a well known story is brought
to life.
11+
John Russell is the son of a sergeant
in the Garde Ecossaise. On his mother's side he is connected to
the minor nobility in France. John is chosen to be the whipping
boy to the Dauphin Francois. Nobody could strike the future king
of France and so, if the young prince misbehaved, then his whipping
boy was to be beaten instead. So John goes to the French court.
He is soon joined by his young sister, Lark. Her name is really
Alice but her father calls her Alouette, which is French for Lark.
She is well named because she has a beautiful voice. She is given
singing lessons and she soon joins the French court like her brother.
But the French court is a dangerous place. Offend a member of
the royal family and death could be the result. At first John
gets on quite well with the Dauphin and Francois begins to behave
better. Then disaster.
Francois is a sadist who likes to torment small animals, although
he always sends John away before he does this. John has one deadly
enemy at the court. This is Chicot, the leader of a band of dwarves
and jesters. One day Chicot tricks John and Lark into going to
the Dauphin's rooms when he is torturing some little puppies.
He is pushing their front paws into a burning brazier so that
they will walk on their hind legs.
This is too much for Lark. She slaps the Dauphin who draws his
dagger. John throws his arms around him to restrain him.
From then on the lives of both John and Lark are hanging by a
thread. If news of this got out then they could both be executed.
But John threatens to tell the Dauphin's fiancee, Marie -- the
future Mary Queen of Scots. The Dauphin in his turn tells Chicot
that if he ever breathes a word of the incident he will be hanged.
So John and Lark are safe for the time being. Lark joins Marie's
train. John is dismissed from the Dauphin's service but he holds
a series of different positions. An Archer, a bodyguard. He serves
Queen Catherine and eventually the Dauphin.
There is more danger for both of them. Lark becomes a Calvinist
and is caught trying to warn some other Calvinists who are taking
part in a rebellion. She is placed in the dungeons awaiting execution
but John manages to rescue her. Something else which would lead
to an instant death sentence if it ever came out.
King Henri dies and Marie marries the Dauphin. They are now King
and Queen of France. But not for long. The Dauphin, always sickly,
dies too. Now there is no reason for Chicot to remain quiet. To
make matters worse word has got out about the rescue of Lark.
But a warning is sent to both John and Lark that they are about
to be arrested. The warning comes in time and they flee to the
coast and join Marie who is preparing to leave France for Scotland.
This is primarily an adventure story about John and Lark. To a
certain extent Marie is kept in the background. But the book gives
an excellent of her life at the French court before she went to
Scotland. We are shown the almost obscene wealth of the nobility,
the cruelty and the utter depravity. Life is cheap. After the
Calvinist revolt, the rebels are put to death. But this is not
an ordinary series of executions. A mass execution is held as
an entertainment for the court. They all watch as the rebels are
tortured to death.
An exciting if grim story which fills in the early background
to the life of Mary Queen of Scots.
11+
This is another in Scholastic’s My Story series of fictional diaries. Twelve-year-old Kitty Lumsden lives in London with her parents, brothers and young sister. Her Uncle William is physician at the Tower of London and Kitty often visits her relatives there. She gets on very well with Edmund, her younger cousin, but finds his older sister Kathryn very tiresome.
Part of Kitty’s diary describes the kind of things one would expect a young girl of the time to write about. Practising her embroidery –– which she hates –– playing with her little dog and visiting her cousins. Descriptions of the menagerie at the Tower of London and, of course, the ravens. Also of secret visits to bear baiting and to the theatre. And also of a special occasion when she was allowed to go to a public execution.
But Kitty’s diary also has a more sinister element –– which is one reason why she is so desperate to keep it a deadly secret. Her older brother Richard is a secretary at the court. Kitty is not quite sure what her father does but he is away from home a lot. But Kitty is intelligent and observant. She is also an excellent eavesdropper. One frequent visitor is Francis Walsingham. Kitty manages to overhear enough from him and her parents to deduce that both Richard and her father are spies. She also learns about the plot to force Mary Queen of Scots to incriminate herself.
Richard has a twin, Joseph. He is kind and always believes the best of everybody. He becomes friendly with Anthony Babington. Kitty finds out that Babington is a Roman Catholic. She also finds out that Walsingham is watching Babington. Kitty is afraid that the innocent Joseph is going to find himself unwittingly implicated in the Babington Plot. Can she do anything to prevent this?
At the end Kitty is not allowed to go to the execution of Babington and the other conspirators but her cousins are and so the reader still gets a detailed description of all the brutalities.
An interesting story about the Babington plot.
10+
This is the third in the Tudor Terror series about the Marsden family.
Meg, the servant girl, is accused of theft and Sir James Marsden sentences her to death. There is one way in which Meg can save herself. She can take a job in the Black Bull Tavern and report to Sir James everything she hears about highway robberies, cutpurses and house-breakings. Or, if innocent as she says, she can find the real thief.
In other words, Meg can only stay alive by causing someone else to die. But Lady Marsden and her twelve year old son Will, are determined to find another way. This involves, among other things, Will disguising himself as a deaf and dumb beggar and spying in the Black Bull and, later, a village football match. We meet the incredible Moll Firth, a thief and cutpurse who claims to be a soothsayer. By means of her "magic" she returns the stolen goods to their owners for a reward. (Moll is not a fictitious character. She really lived and there is a short note about her at the back of the book).
Interspersed with this story is another about Mary Queen of Scots and the Babbington letters. When Lady Marsden was only a little older than Meg she was forced by Sir Francis Walsingham to spy on Mary.
Two stories involving a thought provoking moral dilemma.
10+
This is one of the Sparks series for children aged seven upwards. It is about 3,000 words long.
James and Meg Wallace live in Dumfries in the middle of the fifteenth century. They are the eldest of six children. Once times had been good for the Wallaces. When father had the horse and cart he had made enough money for the family. But the horse died and Pa could not afford another horse and now the family is struggling to survive.
One day Meg is full of excitement because she has heard that Queen Mary is coming to Dumfries. Mr Wallace does not like Mary but Ma says she is a good woman and that she has promised to help her people all she can. That night James lies awake. Pa needs a horse and Ma says that Mary has promised to help.
Next morning James and Meg get up early and go to see the Queen's procession. That night, once again, James cannot sleep. When his parents are asleep he slips out of the little cottage and makes his way to Caerlaverock Castle, the home of Lord Maxwell, with whom the Queen is staying. James tells one of the sentries that he must see the Queen but the sentry chases him away. Then James manages to cross the moat and climb the walls of the Castle. He finds a trapdoor and gets inside.
Does he manage to speak to the Queen? Does she keep her promise to help? And does James get a new horse for his father?
This simple little story is very deceptive. The story comes first but a remarkable amount of information is trickled into the narrative. We are shown the contrast between the poverty of the Wallace family and the style and wealth of Lord Maxwell. The Wallaces have to go to bed when it becomes dark because they cannot afford a candle but Caerlaverock Castle is ablaze with lights. James' mother has to wander over the fields gleaning what grain she can. Sometimes the family might just have bread for a meal, or, if they are lucky, a hare which their father has caught. In the Castle James sees maids and footmen with trays of food and wine.
Mention is also made of other events of importance, such as the raids of the border reivers.
I was particularly interested to see that part of the story is set in Caerlaverock Castle. Caerlaverock Castle is about six miles from Dumfries. It is now a ruin. It has a particularly interesting history -- right from the time it was besieged by Edward I. It is noted for its unique architectural style. (It is built in the shape of a triangle). Sir Walter Scott used it as a model for Ellangowan in Guy Mannering.
To get back to A Queen's Promise, Kirsty White has added some very useful notes on: Mary Queen of Scots, John Knox, life in the time of Queen Mary, and the Scots language.
A well researched little book with an authentic background.
An unusual story which shows Queen Mary in a good light.
Illustrated in black and white throughout.
This book is intended for children aged seven and upwards but I feel that children at the upper end of the primary school could learn a great deal from it. But the problem here is that older children are often all too ready to dismiss easy books as "babyish" -- little realising what they can get out of such material.
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