The Scottish National Portrait Gallery

This large, full-length picture of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-87) was not done from the life, but was presumably copied, possibly from a miniature painted during the long years of her captivity in England. Certainly, it is inscribed '1578', but the general style and a paint analysis dates it to about 1620.

Mary is seen in black with a small white cap on her head, her chosen attire during her imprisonment. The only jewellery she wears is a small gold cruficix and a rosary with an enamelled cross showing the Biblical scene, Susannah and the Elders. This was taken to symbolise the triumph of truth over false accusation.

After the death of her first husband, Francis II, Mary had returned to Scotland where she had married her cousin, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. He was assassinated at Kirk o'Field, Edinburgh and letters said to prove that she and James, 4th Earl of Bothwell had plotted his murder were alleged to have been found in the Lennoxlove Casket. Within months of the crime, Mary married Bothwell, setting in motion the disastrous events leading to her captivity.