Jade Scott
Author
Dr Jade Scott is a historian specialising in Mary Queen of Scots and an expert on her correspondence.
She is a consultant translator on the new project deciphering Mary's coded letters and a lecturer in historical linguistics at the University of Glasgow.
Fascinated by Mary her entire life, Jade Scott researches early modern Scottish women and is especially interested in women's correspondence.
She is an associate fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Jade Scott lives in Glasgow.
Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots will be published by Michael O’Mara in 2024.
Latest Release
Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots by Jade Scott
For almost two decades before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was a prisoner. From her chambers, she wrote countless letters, many encrypted using complex ciphers to prevent her communications from being intercepted. In this way, she used language to exert her will and her influence, even while incarcerated.
More than 400 years after her death, fifty-seven of these encoded letters were unearthed in a French archive and decoded, a discovery described by experts as a ‘literary and historical sensation’ and the most important new find on Mary for more than a century.
In Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots, Jade Scott, a historian and expert on Mary’s correspondence, draws on these ground-breaking letters to paint a vivid portrait of one of history’s most compelling figures. She interrogates Mary’s complex relationships with friends and enemies throughout her imprisonment, illuminating her strategic expertise and bringing Mary’s captivity to life like never before, in her own words.
