Mary Stuart

Author: [Austria] Stefan Zweig
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: She possessed great power but could never control her own fate. Six days after her birth, she was traded back and forth in political and financial deals. When her desires suddenly awakened, her tragic personality made her, like a firework, explode and then ultimately perish. Mary Stuart (1542–1587), Scottish ruler. She ascended to the throne of Scotland at the age of six. In 1558, she married Francis, Duke of France. In 1560, the Duke died, and the following year she returned to Scotland to rule personally. A Catholic, she was disliked by Scottish nobles and Calvinists. In 1567, she was deposed and fled to England the next year, where she was held captive by Queen Elizabeth, her cousin. She was eventually executed by Queen Elizabeth I on charges of treason.
She was once the radiant princess in the poems of French poets; she was also the queen of infinite talent in the eyes of the world. She sought power, yet in most of her time, she had the title but not the real authority. Her desire for love led her to lose her sanity and descend into the abyss. Mary Stuart, a queen condemned in history books, a remarkable heroine in legends. To protect the throne, she risked her life, yet willingly submitted to her lover as a slave. A queen in her early years, a captive in her later years. Some have remarked on this work: "Zweig allows us to see another side of Mary Stuart, and perhaps this is the true Mary Stuart. On Stendhal's tombstone, it is written, 'Lived, loved, wrote.' If someone were to write a tombstone for Mary Stuart, it would undoubtedly read, 'Lived, loved, gone mad.'"