Jenny Wormald (1942–2015)
Teoksen Scotland: A History tekijä
Tietoja tekijästä
Jenny Wormald was Honorary Fellow in Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh. Her publications include Lords and Men in Scotland: Bonds of Manrent, 1442-1603 (1985) and Scotland: A History (2005, co-editor) and she was series editor of The New History of Scotland with Edinburgh University näytä lisää Press. näytä vähemmän
Tekijän teokset
Taming the Magnates 2 kappaletta
Associated Works
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society - Sixth Series, Volume 02 (1992) — Avustaja, eräät painokset — 5 kappaletta
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Virallinen nimi
- Wormald, Jennifer Mary
- Syntymäaika
- 1942-01-18
- Kuolinaika
- 2015-12-09
- Sukupuoli
- female
- Kansalaisuus
- Scotland
- Syntymäpaikka
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Kuolinpaikka
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Koulutus
- Glasgow high school for girls
Glasgow University (1959-1963) - Ammatit
- historian
university lecturer - Suhteet
- Brown, Alfred L. (husband|1964-)
Wormald, Patrick (second husband|1974-2001) - Organisaatiot
- Glasgow University (teacher|1968-1986)
Oxford University (St Hilda's|fellow|1986-2005)
Edinburgh University (hon. fellow)
Scottish Medievalists (chair|2011)
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
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Associated Authors
Tilastot
- Teokset
- 7
- Also by
- 3
- Jäseniä
- 397
- Suosituimmuussija
- #61,078
- Arvio (tähdet)
- 3.4
- Kirja-arvosteluja
- 2
- ISBN:t
- 28
- Kielet
- 2
This book, when it came out, was intended as something of a corrective to a view of history that made Mary Stewart mostly an innocent victim of circumstance. But Wormald's answer -- that Mary never took any actions, even when action was required, except that she worked actively to make the religious situation worse -- is no better answer.
Making it worse is Wormald's rhetorical style -- the constant disdain for her subject. She considers Mary lazy and stupid, and never allows for the complex situation the Queen found herself in. There is the sneering air of "of course she knew what was happening" -- e.g. Mary of course must have known that there was a conspiracy to murder Lord Darnley, even though Wormald offers no actual evidence. Nor does Wormald give Mary any credit for not trying to stoke the religious wars. Wormald gives the impression that Scotland was meant to be Protestant, and Mary should have just gotten aboard and helped it along. This is quite absurd -- while Mary's half-brother James Earl of Moray, one of the supports of her government but also one of the main leaders of the revolt against her, was Protestant, as was her third husband the Earl of Bothwell, and an illegal parliament of 1560 had officially made the nation Protestant and barred Catholic worship, there were still many Catholics (including quite a few earls and barons) in Scotland as well. Mary mostly offered toleration -- not considered a virtue at the time, but it at least offered Scotland a chance to work out its own troubles.
It is certainly true that Mary made bad decisions -- mostly when she let her emotions get away with her, as when she married Lord Darnley, then (when he was dead), she married Earl Bothwell, then finally when she fled to England rather than continue to fight on her own behalf. The first produced an insoluble crisis (there was a reason Darnley was murdered; he was simply impossible), the second cost her her throne, the last cost her her freedom and her life. The way I would put it is that Mary was dealt a poor hand which she played very badly. She was clearly emotionally disordered somehow, and she often let her emotions do her thinking for her, and she lived at a time when any mistakes she made were almost sure to prove costly.
And yet, people liked her; she was clearly very charming (although the claim that she was beautiful seems to be disproved by her portraits). She had genuine skills, if not the skills we really expect of a monarch. She did, in fact, like to work, as well as to go out and ride and hunt and exercise. She had a devoted following, if not a very effective following. In the right context, she might have done reasonably well as a Queen.
A good biography of Mary should certainly show the dark side of her reign -- the strife, the lack of governance, the instability that cost Mary her throne, as well as Mary's own inability to work out the best course of action. But by making Mary such a passive failure, Wormald makes it impossible to truly understand what happened. If all of Mary's decisions are stupid and harmful, how can one tell which ones were disastrous and which ones were not particularly important? Ultimately, this is a hatchet job, and it feels like it, and it damages its own case by being one.… (lisätietoja)