Marginalised Monarch: Mary Stuart and the Cultural Supremacy of Gloriana as Manifested in Film and Television

Abstract

This article discusses portrayals of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and her cousin Elizabeth I of England, in film and TV dramatisations from the early 1970s onwards. It establishes how Mary and Elizabeth have both become icons of their respective country: Scotland, on one hand, and England, on the other. At the same time, Elizabeth’s image in popular representations is much more clearly invested in a notion of English national, cultural and historical superiority. As a result, there is a tendency in filmic dramatisations of the lives of both Mary and Elizabeth to uphold and glorify the power and success of the English Gloriana, as set against what many view as the failures of Mary’s reign. Thus, Mary’s story tends to be measured against and marginalised by that of Elizabeth I, which has the effect that Mary’s role, her political importance, her value and strengths as a monarch are denigrated and trivialised.  

Keywords: Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, film and TV, cultural supremacy, marginalisation