Calliope articles from March 2004

Calliope archives from March 2004

The world of Mary, Queen of Scots.(Musings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Love and betrayal, intrigue and murder, war and peace, abdication and assassination--all can be found again and again in the pages of history. Yet, it is not often that all are involved in the life of one person. Mary, Queen of Scots, was one...

Escape from Loch Leven.
March 1, 2004... On a bright May day in 1568, Sir William Douglas, master of Loch Leven castle in Scotland, learned a hard lesson: When guarding a queen, never underestimate her teenage friends. The queen was Mary of Scotland (more commonly known today as Mary,...

The infant queen.
March 1, 2004... Adieu, farewell, it came with a lass, it will pass with a lass. So remarked King James V of Scotland in December 1542 upon learning that the child born to him and his French-born wife, Marie of Guise, was a girl. His comment referred to the...

A marriage fit for a queen.
March 1, 2004... King Henry VIII had plans for his grandniece, the infant Mary. He wanted her to marry his son, Edward, and sever the ancient ties between Scotland and France. On July 1, 1543, Scottish nobles who were allied with the English king signed a...

Mary returns home to rule.
March 1, 2004... A thick fog hugged the two galleys sailing into Leith Harbor on August 19, 1561. Blue flags with the royal arms of France hung limply from the masts. Eighteen-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, was returning home. She had been away for 13 years....

Public enemy number one.
March 1, 2004... Even before returning to Scotland, Mary knew that her worst foe would be John Knox. A Catholic priest who had converted to Protestantism, Knox was a fiery preacher and the author of many outspoken pamphlets. In 1559-60, he led the Scottish...

A clan and its tartan.
March 1, 2004... By the time of Mary, Queen of Scots, family clans and the concept of kinship had become powerful forces. Take, for example, the Clan of Stewart, which included numerous family lines. The use of Stewart as a surname began when Walter, 6th High...

Friend or opportunist?
March 1, 2004... What should a queen do when her new husband murders one of her closest friends? This was the dreadful problem faced by Mary, Queen of Scots, in March 1566. Only 23 years old, she had been married to her second husband (and cousin) Henry Stuart,...

A poor choice of husbands.
March 1, 2004... Of the many controversies surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots, the most disastrous perhaps, involved the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley, followed by her marriage just a few months later to James Hepburn, the 4th Earl of Bothwell....

Now clad in gold, our young Mary.
March 1, 2004... CHARACTERS (All are actual people, and all the details and events are based on actual historic occurrences and places.) Mary, Queen of Scots 19 years old, widow of the king of France (Mary could not inherit the French crown due to...

UZNLFH DLiWH *.(Activity)
March 1, 2004... Throughout history, people have often used secret codes to prevent others from reading intercepted messages. Mary, Queen of Scots, did so. (See pages 37-38.) Use the secret code explained below to read Queen Elizabeth's response to the news...

Word origins.(Fun With Words)
March 1, 2004... Needlework usually refers to sewing or any type of handwork that is done with a needle. While modern needles come in all shapes, sizes, and materials, they are still used much as they have been for thousands of years--for sewing or joining...

Word stories.(Fun With Words)
March 1, 2004... Escape While Mary's escape from Loch Leven was daring, it did not follow the action originally called for by the word itself. A combination of two Latin words, ex ("out of") and cappa ("cloak"), the Late Latin verb excappare probably referred...

Expressions--ideas named for Scotsmen.(Fun With Words)
March 1, 2004... Macadam By definition, macadam refers to the small, broken stones used in making roads, especially stones combined with a binder such as tar or asphalt. The term traces its roots to a Scotsman named John Loudon MacAdam, who immigrated to New...

Who wrote the casket letters?
March 1, 2004... Conspiracy and intrigue spurred Mary's enemies to produce documents in a silver-gilt casket as evidence of treason. According to a contemporary account, when George Dalgliesh, a servant of Lord Bothwell, was threatened with torture, he...

Two queens.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Elizabeth and Mary were queens of adjoining countries. They were also cousins. Yet, they never met face-to-face. Mary was a devout Catholic, while Elizabeth was a Protestant. Elizabeth knew that Mary wanted to seize her throne and advance the...

The Babington plot.
March 1, 2004... Anthony Babington was a young Englishman--Catholic, handsome, well-read, and rich, with a personality that attracted many friends. As a boy, he had been an attendant to Shrewsbury, Mary's jailer, and felt sympathetic toward her. As a young...

Messages in thread.(Activity)
March 1, 2004... As a young girl, Mary, Queen of Scots, learned to do embroidery and needlework. Years later, during her imprisonment in England, her needle skills helped her pass the hours. Mary often incorporated symbols and Latin phrases to convey hidden...

Mary--queen, wife, mother.
March 1, 2004... With the birth of a lovely little girl, the histories of Scotland, England, and France were forever altered. Mary Stewart, born December 8, 1542, succeeded her father as ruler of Scotland just six days after her birth. Her coronation took place...

Ask Calliope.
March 1, 2004... [?] What are remora? --Nancy, 13, Web post [!] Remora are sucking or clinging fish, and they really do exist. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23/24-79) claimed that a remora held fast the ship of the Roman general Mark Anthony...

The History of Nations: England.(Books)(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... The History of Nations: England edited by Clarice Swisher (Greenhaven Press and Thomson/Gale, 2003, www.gale.com) presents an excellent, well-organized history of the country from the tribes who fought Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. through to the...

The Queen's Progress.(Books)(The Queen's Progress: An Elizabethan Alphabet )(Children's Review)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
March 1, 2004... The Queen's Progress by Celeste Davidson Mannis (Viking, 2003, www.penguinputnam.com) uses a letter of the alphabet to introduce each chapter. The letter "N" is for nighttime and briefly tells of Elizabethan entertainments. "T" is for "treason"...

The Royal Diaries--Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country.(Books)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... The Royal Diaries--Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country by Kathryn Lasky (Scholastic, 2002, www.scholastic.com/dearamerica) uses a diary form with fictitious letters, written between December 9, 1553, and December 7, 1554, to detail...

On the net.(Off the Shelf)
March 1, 2004... Two Web sites, each with a wealth of information about Mary Stuart, are: http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/ http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page134.asp For an image and translation of the letter Mary wrote to Henry III of France just hours...

Resources.(Off the Shelf)
March 1, 2004... Elizabeth I (Jackdaws, 1968: www.jackdaw.com) includes an informative broadside about Mary, Queen of Scots, as well as facsimiles of letters written by Elizabeth, excerpts from an inventory of Elizabeth's jewels, and a report revealing details...

Cobblestone resources.(Off the Shelf)
March 1, 2004... Materials that complement this issue's theme, "Mary, Queen of Scots," and are available from Cobblestone Publishing include: Elizabeth I (CAL9805) The Magna Carta (CAL0004) Victoria, Queen of England (CAL0305)

Peace at last.
March 1, 2004... The chaos and turmoil of Mary's life colored the childhood of her son and heir, James. Mary was pregnant with James on March 9, 1566, when she and some friends were ambushed in her private quarters and her friend David Riccio was murdered....