Boydell Press Elite Hunting Culture and Mary, Queen of Scots (St Andrews Studies in Scottish History)

John M. Gilbert reveals how Mary Queen of Scots was fully aware of the political significance of hunting and used it to demonstrate her royal authority and to try to hold together a fractious Scottish aristocracy. Little attention has been given to hunting's significance in court politics and royal governance in sixteenth-century Scotland. Here, finally, we have an examination of this key aspect of Scottish monarchy through hunting treatises and a wide variety of literary and visual sources, such as letters, administrative records and fieldwork evidence, which reveal the true importance of this popular form of elite entertainment.