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Mary, our contrary Queen, must stay put in Westminster Abbey

To find her you have to walk the whole length of Westminster Abbey, writes Michael Fry. Do not linger over the baroque memorials to dead English soldiers, sailors and statesmen, but carry on to the high altar and beyond. Hidden behind it is a chapel added to the far end of the nave by King Henry VII of England once all the rest of the church had been completed, about the turn of the 16th century. And just inside there, on the right-hand side, is the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Last week The Sunday Times revealed that nationalist MSP Christine Grahame was leading a campaign to have Mary dislodged from her final resting place and repatriated. In a motion to be put before the Scottish parliament, Grahame claims that the Catholic monarch’s remains should be buried in Scotland.

But why? She appears to me to be a singularly ill-chosen figure for the new Scotland to champion. During her life she was always a force for division and discord. When she arrived back in Scotland in 1561 after her exile in France there was genuine rejoicing in the streets of her capital. When she returned in 1567, a prisoner of rebellious nobles, the people called her a trollop and a whore.

Full story at the Sunday Times.