The Bazaar Daily Home
Queen-zine Home Queen Elizabeth Mary Stuart
 

By Mary Stuart

After reflecting on my years as queen of Scotland and on the unfortunate events that have brought me to this sorrowful state, I offer these suggestions that others may avoid such foolish errors.

 

Avoid becoming a queen while still a child, which places rule in someone else's hands while you grow up.

Avoid spending too much time away from one’s country, which can alienate one’s people.

Avoid marrying a foreign prince, which can anger one’s subjects.

Maintain amiable relations with major religious leaders who hold the power to thwart one's attempt to rule.

Avoid marrying for love rather than diplomatic reasons, and without an understanding of the base nature of the man one has chosen.

Abandon intimate friendships with men after marriage, for they may anger one's husband and cause trouble for one's friends.

Avoid bestowing favors on ambitious men, who may then murder one's husband as a means of gaining the throne.

Avoid placing too much trust in sister queens, who may be driven more by motives of state than by womanly emotion.

Chief among all, avoid becoming implicated in plots to assassinate one’s captor, who is in a position to order one’s execution if the plot is discovered.