A review by alexisdpatt
Mary Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart by John Guy

challenging funny informative medium-paced

4.0

“My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary. Queen of Scots” by John Guy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“My Heart is My Own” chronicles the life of MQS from cradle to execution—starting with her execution. 

I always thought it was interesting that Guy began his book on MQS with a very detailed prologue of her death (I read the prologue years ago but never finished the book) but now that I have finished, it makes perfect sense. Be prepared for some HOT TAKES. 

Guy, like all historians, tries to be objective when writing about Mary. He gives her praise and he criticizes her. The issue is the whiplash that the reader can get from him being for and against her in the same sentence. But I think this goes hand in hand with the complexities that was this woman. He’s sympathetic when she’s young but in credibly critical when she’s older. He blames others for using her as a pawn but agrees that her naïveté and entitlement are the reasons why she makes the decisions she does. Guy seems to land in the middle, and so do I. 

Like Guy, I’m sympathetic to her when she’s young and I really want to root for her when she comes into her own. Her early reign shows her greatest potential, but her choices and her refusal to admit when she’s wrong is her downfall and she needs to be held accountable for her actions. My sympathy can only go so far and I strongly disagree with most MQS revisionists.  

As for the book, it’s brilliantly written (whiplash aside) as if “all the world’s a stage” because to Mary, it was. She spend so much of her life trying to act the part of a sovereign queen that her delusion of reality and her disregard for political astuteness is what ultimately landed her head on the block. To frame her life like this is really ingenious. I don’t agree on everything with Guy, but this was a very good place to start with my deep dive into MQS.