Captive Queen

The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots

Jade Scott

An expert historian on Mary, Queen of Scots draws on her newly decoded, groundbreaking letters to paint a vivid portrait of one of history’s most compelling figures.

For almost two decades before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was a prisoner. From her chambers, she wrote countless letters, many of them encrypted with complex ciphers to prevent her communications from being intercepted. In this way, she used language to exert her will and her influence, even while incarcerated.

More than four hundred years after her death, fifty-seven of these encoded letters were unearthed in a French archive and decoded—a discovery described by experts as a "literary and historical sensation" and the most important new find on Mary for more than a century.

In Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots, Jade Scott draws on these ground-breaking letters to paint a vivid portrait of one of history’s most compelling figures. She interprets Mary’s complex relationships with friends and enemies throughout her imprisonment, illuminating Mary's strategic vision and bringing her captivity to life like never before.

Jade Scott, PhD, is a historian specializing in Mary, Queen of Scots and is an expert on her letters. She is a lecturer in historical linguistics at the University of Glasgow and an associate fellow of the Royal Historical Society, researching early modern Scottish women and their correspondence. Fascinated by Mary since she was a child, Jade was contacted by the DECRYPT Project to consult on the translations of Mary’s newly-decoded letters, which led to the writing of Captive Queen. Jade lives in Glasgow.

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