Book:Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots
The Men Who Kept the Stuart Queen
Author: Mickey Mayhew
Overall Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 184 Pages
Publisher: Pen and Sword

This is a fascinating read and show what people dealt with and went through with the men and women who cared for for Mary Queen of Scots. This was while she was imprisoned by her own cousin Queen Elizabeth. Of course everyone has there own opinion. As a person who has been to to Edinburgh abd Linlithgow Scotland and I visited Holyrood palace and where Mary Queen of Scots was born. Plus i went to her chapal.

My father’s favorite book was the biography of Mary Queen Of Scots where my father also had six different copies. So I was very interested in this book and story which I found fascinating and Mary Queen of Scots is one of my favorite Scottish heroines. Being of Scottish heritage I always found her life very sad. She was made a Queen so early in life and I felt her arms were always pulled in different directions with forced marriage to build alliances. Then she has an heir and the English Queen is very jealous not only of her beauty but her fertility too.

I cant even imagine how she felt being a prisoner of a cousin she never even saw. Same goes to her son who ended up being the ruler of England and Scotland and a bit of a monster! I wonder if his mother raised him would he have been a better man.

I highly recommend this book it was very informative, If you love Scotland and fascinating by mary Queen of Scot’s you definitely dont want to miss this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Pen and Sword for a wonderful opportunity to read this phenomenal book. A book I highly recommend

Very insightful - downloaded this whilst my friend was writing her dissertation on Mary Queen of Scots to get a better understanding. Would recommend (but i’m no expert in the field!)

I was Looking forward to reading this book, not knowing too much about MQoS imprisonment period. This is a very detailed account (too detailed for me) of places she stayed and people who ‘looked after her’. I felt it was a little repetitive at times that I skim read some of the chapters, but I did learn a lot about the people who were involved in her time. There wasn’t too much detail around the ‘plot’ that she was found guilty of, but interesting none the less. I’d look out for another of Mickey Mayhew’s books, but this was a little too detailed and long for me personally. Thank you for accepting my request for this book.

Funny thing about British genealogy: if you’re among the ordinary people – even if you’re from Britain – it can be tough getting back much further than 1800. You can, however, be from the USA and be able to trace your ancestors back another couple of centuries. I say this because that’s how I came to this book. A couple of years ago, while working on our family history, I discovered my American husband is descended from Sir Amyas Paulet. The last of Mary Queen of Scots jailers is my 12th great-grandfather-in-law.

I’m not sure what I expected from Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots. Perhaps I thought I’d get individual portraits of the gentlemen (and women). Separate sections on each maybe, starting with their lives before the Scottish queen entered them and then continuing after her death until they too succumbed to that great equalizer. Instead, this is a book focusing on Mary’s life and how they impacted it. This is very much a chronological look at her imprisonment, with various people coming and going from it. A dramatis personae would’ve been useful to have as a guide at the start. The overall impression is that being one of the queen’s jailers was to receive a poisoned chalice: it was an honor that came at great personal cost. The Earl of Shrewsbury held the position far longer than any others and so he receives the most coverage in this book. Previously, I’d thought his wife, known as Bess of Hardwick, as a hard woman. The narrative here has made me rethink.

Mayhew’s writing is easy to read. He’s casual, understandable, and uses modern day cultural comparisons to help the reader comprehend. And, while he uses several quotes from the players involved as well as more modern researchers and historians, he’s also not afraid of sharing his own opinions. These include his thoughts on certain conspiracy theories about the queen, and on her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I – he doesn’t appear to be a fan.

As for my husband’s ancestor, Sir Amyas, Mayhew doesn’t seem to be a fan of his either. Paulet is introduced as a bigot, and it doesn’t get any better. Later, he’s described as being “almost comically belligerent,” but apparently, he wasn’t “a total tyrant.” When Mayhew describes the supposed interaction between him and psychic Derek Acora in the Most Haunted episode, the author disagrees with Acora’s description of Paulet; not “a good kindred soul.” Mayhew reminds his readers that Paulet declined to be part of a plan to murder Mary prior to her execution. My husband likes to repeat his great-grandfather’s refusal to “make so great a shipwreck of my conscience.” So maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

Disclaimer: Although I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher, the opinions above are my own.

Having recently read Mayhew's House of Tudor: A Grisly History, I was looking forward to reading more of Mayhew's work.

Most know the story of Mary Queen of Scots, that she was imprisoned until her eventual execution, but what about those entrusted to keep her secure and away from the many plots to free her?

Mayhew gives a detailed insight into the men chosen for this task, their personalities and their lives. Keeping Mary secure can't have been an easy task and as Mayhew explains the impact keeping Mary secure on her jailers including the financial implications which they paid from their own funds in the hopes they would be reimbursed.

Readers are given fascinating details of the castles and manors where Mary was held along with her trips to Buxton waters.
Reading the stories of these men and their families really made me understand how difficult their task was and how little recognition they received for not only maintaining Mary and her household but also fending off plots whilst trying to continue with their own lives and occupations.
Being chosen for this task really was a double edged sword, it showed Elizabeth I had faith in them and trusted them implicitly but it cost them a fortune and sometimes more than just money.

Mayhew goes on to give an overview of how each jailer has been portrayed on TV as well as what happened to them following the death of Mary.

For me, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury was the most intriguing as we learn how his marriage to the infamous Bess of Hardwick was affected by holding Mary prisoner. Whilst not the sole cause, it certainly formed part of the destruction of their marriage and the fall out that followed.

For anyone interested in an alternative view of Mary Queen of Scots I would highly recommend this and I'm looking forward to reading more of Mayhew's work in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Sword for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so well researched!!!
I had no idea that so many people were there with Mary Queen of Scots while she was imprisoned.

This was so fascinating to join and learn all about those historical figures throughout Scotland and England proper.

So well done.

The heroes of this book are usually only supporting characters in books concentrating on Mary, Queen of Scots & Co.

The book is well-structured. With a short introduction to why Mary is imprisoned, then follows her story in the plenty of prisons from her jailors' point of view.

I can see only one drawback in this book concerning the dates. The author predominantly says - this event happened in the year YYYY without mentioning the month. It would help the narration to imagine the part of a year about which we are speaking.

I'm super excited with the last chapter that describes the movies about the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, in which the characters from this book appeared.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Swords History for a free digital review copy. This is my honest review.

Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots by Mickey Mayhew is an informative and detailed book which is principally focused on those who were given the unenviable task of acting as Mary’s goalers.

Being forced to spend almost half her life as a prisoner Mary had been in the custody of a variety of keepers whose lives were directly affected, often negatively, by her detention. It was interesting to read of the personal and financial costs incurred by her custodians and the fascinating tour of the locations of her imprisonment with many evocative household descriptions.

Having a particular interest in Ralph Sadler I was pleased to read the background details of his life, the irony of his encounters with Mary, first as a baby and later as her goaler. The descriptions of the conditions under which Mary was housed while under Ralph’s charge at Tutbury Castle were repugnant.
I enjoyed Mayhew’s book and found it an engaging and thoroughly researched read which covers a lot of ground in examining the political machinations and drama of the Tudor court and of the conflict between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I.

I would recommend it to others.

Thank you NetGalley and Pen & Sword for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was so excited for this book because I love love love all things Mary Queen of Scots! But I’m super sad and disappointed in the way that this was written. No joke, I fell asleep over 10 times while trying to read it. The run-on sentences that entirely filled this book made it so hard to keep reading. I honestly couldn’t take it anymore! I kid you not, sometimes an entire page was one damn sentence.

What was intriguing about this book is that it’s about her captor’s lives more that it is about Mary, which I thought was a new take and interesting. There were many known names in this book and I found it very informative nonetheless.

Sad to have to give this 2.5 stars (which is solely for the good points I listed) because I had really high hopes for it, but the grammar just threw me overboard.

Thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fascinating look at a subject that isn't really talked about a lot. We all know how Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in England after fleeing her own country, but it really isn't talked about who or how she was jailed. I really felt bad for everyone involved, the men and women sacrificing their own lives because they could not say no to Queen Elizabeth! Mayhew does a good job chronicaling Mary's time in confinement, her desperation, "friendships", and the feelings and acts that the aristocrats put in charge of confining her had to go through. Poor Bess of Hardwick and her husband, this whole "job" became a life work and utterly thankless!
This was a good book to read if you are like me and fascinated with the Tudor time and don't know much beyond the Tudor kings and queens. I'd recommend reading, or having this on audiobook!

Mary Queen of Scots has been an enigma in history. As a monarch was sentenced to death by another monarch, the relationship between the two women has long been debated and studied.

This book was fascinating in the many details shared and the depth in which this knowledge was laid out. From the start to the end, this book kept me engaged and interested. I felt sorry for the men who were tasked in keeping her, the financial burdens, and the sometimes pull of not sure who to trust.

For those interested in Elizabeth and Mary's relationship, the factors that led to Mary's death, those who kept her imprisoned, and the tidbits in between, this is the perfect book for you!

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Fashinating read! Highly recommend for history nuts out there that enough this time period.

Throughout history, there have been a select number of cases of monarchs becoming prisoners either in war or in times of peace. One of the most famous cases of a monarch’s imprisonment during the 16th century was the case of Mary Queen of Scots. While there have been many tales of her infamous imprisonment and execution, there has not been much attention to the men and woman who acted as Mary Queen of Scots’ jailers. Who were the men and woman Elizabeth I put in charge of guarding the Scottish queen while she was in England? What were the conditions of her imprisonment, and what were the castles and manors like when the queen arrived? Mickey Mayhew explores these questions in his book, “Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots: The Men Who Kept the Stuart Queen.”

I want to thank Pen and Sword Books and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book. I have heard good things about Mickey Mayhew’s previous books that Pen and Sword Books have published, so when I saw this title, I wanted to read it. I have not read many books about Mary Queen of Scots’ imprisonment in England, so I was looking forward to learning something new.

Mayhew begins his nonfiction book by exploring Mary Queen of Scots’ origins and how she ended up being a prisoner in England. Next, he looks at the jailers in charge of Mary’s well-being while she was in England. Mayhew focuses on jailers in this book: Sir William Douglas, Henry 9th Lord Scrope, Sir Francis Knollys, Thomas Howard 4th Duke of Norfolk, Bess of Hardwick, Ralph Sadler, Sir Amyas Paulet, and Sir Drue Drury. Remarkably, we as readers get background information about every jailer and how their time with the prisoner queen affected them differently. For example, the imprisonment was so much of a strain that it tore the marriage between Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, and Bess of Hardwick apart. We also see how the conditions of the castles and manors that Mary was housed in affected her mentally and physically. Some places that Mary was housed in included Carlisle Castle, Bolton Castle, Tutbury Castle, Sheffield Manor Lodge, and the infamous Fotheringhay Castle.

Like any prisoner, there are always escape attempts and plots afoot, and Mary Queen of Scots was no exception. Mayhew explores the famous schemes like Ridolfi and Babington and more minor attempts by Mary and those loyal to her. He also explores how jailers lived their lives after Mary Queen of Scots died. He concludes by examining how each jailer has been portrayed in literature and film/TV shows.

The one thing I wish Mayhew had not done in this book would have been to call Mary I “Bloody Mary” and Elizabeth I “Elizabeth Tudor.” Elizabeth I and Mary I were queens like Mary Queen of Scots, and their nicknames, especially Mary I, should not define who they were as rulers.

Overall, I think Mayhew did an excellent job making the topic of Mary Queen of Scots’ jailers exciting for his audience. It was a well-researched book that allows you to view Mary’s imprisonment and jailers differently. If you want to learn more about Mary Queen of Scots and her jailers, I recommend reading “Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots: The Men Who Kept the Stuart Queen” by Mickey Mayhew.

Mary, Queen of Scots has fascinated people from the days of her youth. That fascination only increased over the last 400+ years. I have read many books on her life, including a previous one by this author. I can say with confidence that this book is a worthy addition to the vast library about her life. Mayhew focuses solely on the various people that served as jailers of Mary, giving in depth details about their everyday circumstances 'guarding' Mary. He also discusses the political climate of the time, particularly the various plots that were hatched to free Mary. We all know how those turned out, but reading about the machinations of her life and those responsible for 'guarding' her never gets old. Definitely a worthwhile read, especially if you're a history buff like me.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pen & Sword for this advanced copy, which I voluntarily read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Highly insightful. Really fascinating. As a big fan of Tudor history I really enjoyed reading this book.

This book mainly covers Mary’s imprisonment in England and her troubled relationship with her cousin Queen Elizabeth. Have no fear though it covers much much more with great pictures, and index on the novels movies in place about queen Mary the actors that played the queen and her supporters and the tractors. It is all together A great reference and not just a very entertaining read. I think Mickey Mayhew went above and beyond in writing this book. I have read many books about queen Mary’s imprisonment And I can honestly say none were as detailed when it comes to the people she spoke to day today in those who talked about her behind her back. This is a great book and I highly recommend it. If you love royal history like I do you’ll love this book. I learned so much I didn’t know already and I have read a lot on queen Mary. Please forgive any errors as I am blind and dictate my review. All opinions are definitely my own I was given this book by Nick Galli NM leaving this review voluntarily.

224 pages

5 stars

This book is a comprehensive study of Queen Mary of Scotland’s life and death. It begins at her birth with the death of her father only days later. When her life became threatened by the religious situation in Scotland, her mother, Mary of Guise, sent her to France for her safety. At that time, France was an ally of Scotland.

While in France, she was married to the Dauphin. He was sickly and died soon after taking the throne. Her husband’s mother was a controlling woman and left no doubt that Mary was no longer welcome. While she was a surviving Queen, she had no influence or power.

Mary headed back to Scotland, which was by now a very Protestant country. She was held in suspicion since she was a Catholic. Mary, as Queen, was ahead of her time in declaring that she would not interfere with Protestantism as long as she could worship her own faith.

Mary went on to make some very bad decisions as far as men were concerned. Unfaithful husbands, their betrayals, even murderous behavior was the norm for these men. (I had to shake my head and wonder how she concluded that she was in “love” with these rascals.)

When she fled Scotland for England, she was imprisoned for nineteen years. Mary firmly believed that she had a right to the British throne, more so than Elizabeth I. Thus she was a threat to Elizabeth’s reign. She wasn’t, however, thrown into the Tower of London, she was held by various noble families. This was a great burden on the families and often impoverished them. She was a demanding prisoner who expected to be kept in the style to which she was accustomed.

She was implicated in several plots against the English crown.

This book is well written and very interesting. I especially liked the parts about the families with which Mary stayed. I did not know this and was fascinated by their tales.

The book also contains a lengthy bibliography for those who would like to further explore Mary’s life.

I want to thank NetGalley and Pen & Sword/Pen & Sword History for forwarding to me a copy of this wonderful book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

I have read the author's "The Little Book of Mary Queen of Scots" before and thoroughly enjoyed the accessibility, simplicity and organisation of it. This book was to prove no less of a disappointment.

The men who were placed in charge of Queen Mary are often sidelined in books due to the magnetic charm that Mary brings, however Mayhew successfully manages to pull these men (and woman) to the forefront in a refreshing angle on a well-known piece of history.

Along with breathing life into the stories of these individuals, I found the background on the residences that Mary was kept in was fascinating and added to the flow of information.

This is an incredibly readable book and one that I think will be essential for all those interested in the Stuart or Tudor Era.

Thank you so much to @penswordbooks for letting me read an advanced copy of this fascinating book on @netgalley

Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots: The Men Who Kept the Stuart Queen by Mickey Mayhew is an excellent nonfiction/history that delves into the fascinating and intricate lives of the many that took on the task of keeping watch over the infamous Mary Queen of Scots during her many years of imprisonment in England.

This is such an amazing book that tells the background, history, and story of each of the individuals that housed Mary, their families, and even a little about the residences themselves. The author does an amazing job fitting it all in within Mary’s life and timeframe, and the reader even gets a better understanding and glimpse into her life as well.

Well-researched, paced moderately, and felt effortless and more like fiction than nonfiction.

Excellent.
5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Pen & Sword for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 8/30/22.

Another great nonfiction book by Pen&Sword! It’s great to learn more about the people and personalities surrounding Mary Stuart during her captivities. So many books care more about Mary and the people around her tend to become background or villains.