We imagine her dressed in martyr’s black, with a gold cross and a Catholic rosary around her doomed neck.
And when Mary, Queen of Scots, arrived in Scotland from France in 1561 she did indeed own more than 20 lavish black gowns, which were the height of French fashion.
But she wasn’t always dressed in black; she had gowns of gold and silver, carnation and crimson; a blue satin gown embroidered with silver palm trees. Indeed, it took 12 ships to carry all her clothes, furniture and gold and silver plate.
Mary was 18 and a beautiful widow. Queen of Scotland by birth – she had acceded the throne at just six days old on the death of her father James V of Scotland – she was also dowager Queen of France by marriage, since the death of her husband, Francis II, eight months previously.
And so began seven hectic years, during which Mary would experience betrayal, her second husband’s assassination, then civil war and culminating in imprisonment for 19 years and her execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, ordered by her cousin Elizabeth, the Protestant Queen of England.
Mary’s dramatic story still resonates and now a new film and TV series re-examine her life. Irish actress Saoirse Ronan is set to play her in Mary Queen Of Scots next year, while former Neighbours actress Adelaide Kane takes the role in TV drama Reign, premiering on US networks this autumn.
Meanwhile, a new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh tells Mary’s story through her intimate treasures.
There’s a letter from Mary, aged eight, there are family jewels; and a wardrobe where she may have stored those magnificent gowns.
No contemporary portrait survived from Mary’s turbulent years in Scotland, But facial anthropologist Professor Caroline Wilkinson – who reconstructed the face of Richard III recently – was commissioned to create a possible likeness of Mary for the exhibition, working from portraits of her painted before and after that time.
Her features, including her strong nose and chin, pale skin and red hair, were put into 3D modelling software which adjusted the image for her age – about 25 – and the ways in which a person’s skin and muscle tone are affected by stress.
The result shows a woman still young, but with signs of severe strain. "Mary is beset by troubles and you can see it in her features" explains curator George Dalgleish. "She looks older than she is".
She escaped to England in May 1568, hoping for sympathy from Elizabeth – who arrested her. Ahead lay 19 years in captivity. But already her suffering had begun to tell on her face.
The exhibition is at the National Museum of Scotland until 17 November, www.nms.ac.uk.
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