Elizabeth and Mary: Strong Wills, Sharp Quills

Mary, Queen of Scots: She acceded to the throne when just six days old, spent her childhood in France, was married three times and was forced to abdicate by an uprising. She fled south seeking the protection of her cousin Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen of England. But the Catholic Mary had once claimed the crown of the Protestant Elizabeth, and she spent nearly two decades in custody, never actually coming face-to-face with her cousin, before she was eventually executed for plotting against Elizabeth.

What a story. Dynastic ambition, power politics, religious strife, sex and quite a lot of violence. Gorgeous costumes too. No wonder it's had such a hold on the imaginations of dramatists and musicians down the centuries. Schiller's play, Donizetti's opera, films starring the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson. 

Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens at the British Library in London captures some of the drama and spectacle of the events. There are moving moments and spectacular artefacts. But at points in this history, we found ourselves getting rather bogged down in the detail -- such as on specifics of the various plots against Elizabeth by Mary and her supporters -- as the wall texts bombarded us with a succession of names of people and places, twists and turns that made our heads spin and our eyes glaze over. The order in which artefacts are presented isn't always chronological, so you find yourself thinking that you're skipping about a lot. It's more than a trifle confusing at times.

 

We really like exhibitions about history. We've seen some fantastic shows about the Tudor and Stuart periods at the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of London and the National Maritime Museum, for example. However, exhibitions at the British Library, perhaps inevitably, do tend to be rather dominated by manuscripts and other documents, and unfortunately that frequently makes them a bit too academic. We often feel a bit of judicious editing could cut down the number of items on display without detracting from the story. 

While much of this show is rather dry, what is amazing is the fact that you are reading words physically written by two monarchs well over four centuries ago, and in many cases they're absolutely legible. To be fair, that's more the case for Elizabeth than for Mary, whose handwriting (not surprisingly) looks to have had a tendency to deteriorate into a bit of a scrawl at times of stress.

Here, having escaped from Scotland across the Solway Firth in a fishing boat in May 1568, she writes (in French) to Elizabeth from Workington, pleading for assistance, and signing herself "Your very faithful and affectionate good sister and cousin and escaped prisoner, Marie R".

Nearby, another letter from Mary, written at Bolton Castle in Yorkshire, to which she had been moved, and addressed to her keeper, Sir Francis Knollys, pleads for a meeting with Elizabeth. We can see her writing tumbling down the page, and she asks "ser franseis" in English to "excus my ivel writin for I nevver used it afor."

Elizabeth's missives, by contrast, have the appearance of being calmly and deliberately transcribed, with even-sized letters and spacing. Here's her signature on a letter to Mary, with its familiar flourishes.   

There are some paintings and the like scattered through this show, but what you really long for to provide some light relief amongst all these black-and-white documents are more objects like this wall-hanging embroidered by Mary during her long years of imprisonment. 

Dozens of panels depict plants and animals: Here you can see a unicorne and a pellican, among others, and there's even a rhinocerote, just out of shot. We're not actually given a huge amount of information in this show about the hanging, unfortunately, because a bit more elucidation might have added some colour to the exhibition. 

Later, we did a little research and discovered on the National Trust's website that it had quite a story to tell; Mary's choice of animals and birds probably had hidden meanings, and the embroidery itself contributed to the execution of the Duke of Norfolk for plotting to replace Elizabeth on the throne with Mary. 

The relative bookishness of this show is tempered somewhat by some high-tech elements and a bit of video. Near the start there's a computerised animation recreating 16th-century Edinburgh, flying you along the High Street from Holyrood to the Castle. And a nice short film teaches you how to make your own Elizabethan-era letter complete with tamper-proof wax seal so your secret messages can't be opened and deciphered en route. 

It's as we approach the climax of the exhibition that the drama really takes hold, with a much more interesting presentation. We get to see the proclamation of the sentence of death against Mary after her trial for treason and learn of Elizabeth's qualms about carrying it out. Mary's final hours on earth are illustrated by a sonnet she wrote on the night before her execution, which we hear recited. Also on view are a necklace, locket and reliquary given to her gentlewomen before she was beheaded. In its simplicity it's very moving. 

There's a drawing too illustrating the execution at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. It was made by Robert Beale, Clerk of the Privy Council, and it shows Mary three times: entering the hall, disrobing and placing her head on the block. She was 44. 

Elizabeth, by contrast, would live for another 16 years. When she died, Mary's son James would unite the crowns of Scotland and England. 

Elizabeth's funeral would draw huge crowds, and in another bit of high-techery, we were able to watch the funeral procession and the 3,000 mourners, as recorded for posterity at the time, go past on a screen, Sir Walter Ralegh bringing up the rear. 

It's a captivating watch, with the poor of Westminster and the French ambassador each having their place. But here's a note to the British Library: A seat to perch on to see it all go past would have been nice, after two hours on our weary feet. 

The exhibition closes with a bit of a coup de théâtre: Replicas of the tombs of Elizabeth and Mary from Westminster Abbey, dramatically lit and displayed with a hint of Gothic architecture, bringing things to a fine climax. 

A fitting ending to a very comprehensive show that has memorable highlights but is not really the smash hit we hoped for. 

Practicalities

Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens is on at the British Library until February 20. Hours are a bit complicated: The exhibition opens at 0930 Monday to Saturday and 1100 on Sundays and closes at 1700 at the weekend, 2000 on Tuesdays and 1800 the other days. Read all the wall texts in full and you'll be spending two hours in there; most visitors didn't have quite that level of stamina. Full price-tickets are £16 and can be bought online here; there's a £2 surcharge for tickets bought at the door, if available. The library is on Euston Road and is close to King's Cross, St Pancras, Euston and Euston Square rail and Underground stations.

Images

After William Scrots, Princess Elizabeth, 16th century, private collection

François Clouet, Mary, Queen of Scots, c. 1560-61, lent by Her Majesty the Queen

Detail from letter from Mary, Queen of Scots to Elizabeth I, Workington, May 17, 1568, British Library

Detail from letter from Elizabeth I to Mary, Queen of Scots, Hampton Court, December 21, 1568, British Library

Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick, embroidery (detail), 1570-85, Victoria and Albert Museum

Ink and pencil drawing of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay Castle, February 8, 1587. © British Library

Detail from scrolling display of funeral-roll of Elizabeth I, early 17th century, British Library

Replica of Mary, Queen of Scots's effigy in Westminster Abbey, originally sculpted by Cornelius and William Cure, 1607-13