The Pastimes of Mary, Queen of Scots
The unforgettable queen was a talented, clever person with many enthralling qualities. Throughout her life, she found joy in a number of activities. Mary played various games including cards, chess, backgammon, billiards and sports such as golf, croquet, archery, hunting, hawking and speed horse riding. She was a very skilled person in horsemanship and many times showed great endurance and continence while riding from Holyrood to Dunbar, Jedburgh to Hermitage etc.
Growing up in France, she was given a superb education from King Henri II, that fitted well for a Queen Consort. The four Mary’s and herself “learnt to make poetry, to play the harp, the lute, zithern and virginals, to knit in wools and silks, and what she loved most, was to embroider.” The queen was well-versed in a handful of languages that which included the Scots language, English, French, Latin, Greek, Spanish and Italian. Something very intriguing that we’ve found is that at the age of fourteen Mary wrote and presented a Latin discourse to the assembled French court, which included the King and Queen, she supported the idea “that women should receive a liberal education in the sciences and literature and that it was unjust and tyrannical to restrict them to elementary studies and accomplishments.”
Mary appreciated music and adored dancing; it’s said that she had a lovely singing voice and preferred for mass to include beautiful melodies. Having learned to play the lute and virginals, she did so at a mastered level. She “was not greatly tied by conventions; her manners were frank and friendly, and she greatly delighted in the accomplished art of dancing, for which she had a peculiar genius.” Mary loved reading various subjects including history, astronomy, medieval romances and poetry; she was considered “’the queen of poetry’, and she would’ve been quite content to wear no other crown than that of flowers, which Ronsard, Du Bellay, Maison-Fleur, and Brantôme daily places upon her fair young head.” Some other pastimes that she enjoyed included watching puppet plays and “play at cooking”. References: [x] [x] [x] [x]
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