NO SMOME WITHOUT FIRE: The Tragedy of Mary Stuart's Brother James

by Allue Harwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Mary Stuart's personal tragedy has not exactly been neglected by the ranks paying literary homage to British history. Yet, her day never seems done. The excuse for prolonging it here is the equally tragic fate of James Stuart, Earl of Moray--illegitimate half-brother to the sorrow-ridden Queen of Scots. Like so many other worthies of the late sixteenth century, he, too, ""might have been the king."" But, like the others, he was compromised by circumstance and executed before his time. Queen Mary herself provided the circumstance by her complicity in the murder of her second husband, Darnley (father to the future Kind James I of England and Scotland) and her hasty, overwilling marriage to the murderer. The Queen, forced into abdication and exile, left an empty Scottish throne which the Earl of Moray filled dutifully as Regent until the Hamilton clan provided his executioners. Despite his love of country and disgust for his half-sister's betrayal, his thirteen-year Regency was a doomed one. The precursory events were as marked with scandal, intrigue, and crime as befitted the royal complexities of the time. With gossip like this, history can hardly miss. And if the reader can manage the bewildering genealogy of treacherous Scottish nobles without losing his way, or his interest--then here is an historical novel with plenty of Elizabethan body to it.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964

Categories: FICTION