Again, convention sees her fainting in the face of what were admittedly overwhelming challenges. Mary was 16 when she added Queen consort of France to her titles 17 when she became a widow 18 when she returned to take up the reins of her own turbulent land. But not Guy, who sees her instead as having received the benefits of a broad masculine education, and a sophisticated training in the arts of political deception at the hands of her Guise uncles. That Mary's cushy, alienating upbringing ruined her as queen regnant of a rough country is virtually the only thing on which her biographers have tended to agree. Queen of Scotland from the week of her birth, Mary was only five when she was sent across the sea to France, to be reared as a bride for the young Dauphin a ceremonial role for which her beauty and her frivolous talents seemed to fit her. In a surprisingly partisan new biography, there is scarcely a single aspect of her life to which he does not give a twist. On to this already crowded stage steps John Guy, with the aplomb of a magician about to pull several large, lively rabbits from the hat.
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