Fatal Majesty — Reay Tannahill

Returning from France to rule Scotland, young Mary faces a byzantine web of intrigue as friends conspire to grab the throne of England and enemies conspire to kill her.

Returning from the sophisticated French court to take up her throne in cold and backward Scotland, 18-year-old Mary finds herself trapped in a web of ambitions and intrigues: those of her self-righteous brother, James, who desires to rule in her place; of her brilliant Secretary of State, Lethington, dedicated to placing the Stuarts on the throne of England; and of Elizabeth I, dazzling and unscrupulous, who fears Mary as a threat to her crown and to her life.

Mingling a poet's passion with an historian's insight, Tannahill chronicles an era of easy violence, desperate actions, and the grand, often terrifying, designs of those who would dominate it.