Captive Queen

<p><b>A fascinating and revealing new biography of Mary Queen of Scots, drawing on dozens of newly decoded letters.</b><br><br>For almost two decades before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was a prisoner. From her chambers, she wrote <b>countless letters</b>, many <b>encrypted using complex ciphers</b> to prevent her communications from being intercepted. In this way, she used language to exert her will and her influence, even while incarcerated.<br><br>More than 400 years after her death,<b> fifty-seven of these encoded letters </b>were unearthed in a French archive and decoded, a discovery described by experts as a ‘literary and historical sensation’ and <b>the most important new find</b> on Mary for more than a century.<br><br>In <i>Captive Queen: </i><i>The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots</i>, Jade Scott, a historian and expert on Mary’s correspondence, draws on these ground-breaking letters to paint <b>a vivid portrait of one of history’s most compelling figures</b>. She interrogates Mary’s complex relationships with friends and enemies throughout her imprisonment, illuminating her strategic expertise and <b>bringing Mary’s captivity to life like never before</b>, in her own words.</p>