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History

First statue of Mary Queen of Scots in Scotland to go on show at Linlithgow Palace

The first ever statue in Scotland of the infamous Mary, Queen of Scots has been commissioned; it will be revealed later this spring.

Despite the huge public interest in her life across the globe, only now – 400 years after her death, will a public statue be erected at Linlithgow Palace, where Mary was born in 1542.

Mary's reign was short-lived.

Mary’s reign was short-lived.

The 7ft statue is being built at Powderhall foundry in Edinburgh by sculpture, David Annand.

Speaking of the statue, Mr Annand said: “A wax cast is made of the clay from moulds and then we’ll cover this in a fireproof material and put this into a furnace and burn out the wax.”

“There will be a void left where the wax was and then that will be filled with molten bronze.”

Many people have been campaigning in recent times making their voices heard calling for a monument to be built dedicated to Mary.

Margaret Lumsdaine is the president of the Marie Stuart Society who began a campaign a couple of years ago to have a statue. She said: “I think it was a gross mistake for generations not to have recognised her. She was our last sovereign queen.”

The decision to erect the statue where she was born is “entirely appropriate” according to Historic Scotland’s director of conservation, Dr David Mitchell:

“What’s particularly interesting about this proposition – and we considered it very carefully- is it’s a very traditional statue and we insisted that it was undertaken using traditional construction techniques. Our apprentices have been involved.

“But it’s also been cast in the same way that statues have been cast for literally thousands of years.”

Mary became Queen of Scotland when she was just six days old, however, she spent most of her childhood  living abroad in France.

When she returned, her reign was short-lived and resulted only in disastrous marriages, murder and war.

She abdicated at the age of 24 and was a prisoner in England for the next 20 years until she was executed on the orders of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

You can read all about Mary, Queen of Scots’ life by clicking here to read a post in Royal Central’s History Rewind series.

Photo credit: lisby1 via photopin cc