Hi!
My name is Saffron and I’m from a small town near Newcastle in England so yes I’m a long way from home at the moment during this lockdown! For my dissertation, I would really love to a study on Mary, Queen of Scots. Either on how Mary is perceived in popular culture so looking at 20th/21st century representations or looking at gender and reputation around the time that Mary was alive. It would be interesting to look at how gender or reputation affected Mary’s life. Distance learning has been an experience, to begin with it was a lot to take in but I’ve been getting into the swing of it and I think it will be better this semester!
Jayne Lewis monograph on Mary’s reputation. Antonia Fraser’s classic biography + lates bios by Gordon Donaldson and John Guy? M. Sanderson’s The Queen’s Women; Michael Bath and E. Swain books on needlework; histories of golf, hunting and tennis in Scotland. Otherwise main financial records for Scottish crown – Exchequer Rolls and Treasurer’s Accounts will tell you a lot re past-times otherwise not often mentioned? Her harp is in National Museum of Scotland – other instruments; her poetry – see Mary Stuart Society; Her library and religious objects – some of which might survive in listings for James VI? Ambassadors Accounts? her letters? Her pets other than horses?