Heresy and Martyrdom in the Life and Tragic Death of Mary Stuart by Francisco de Sousa da Silva Alcoforado Rebelo (1737)

Abstract

Substantial interest in British queens on the part of Portuguese men of letters does not seem to have abounded in Portugal during the Early Modern Period, at least as far as printed sources are concerned. This article focuses on a book that stands in a category of its own, as presumably the only sustained biography of a British monarch – male or female, for that matter – penned by a Portuguese author for several centuries. My purpose is to make a short presentation of a work that has been neglected but deserves to be noticed in the context of British-Portuguese cultural exchanges.
The article accordingly offers information about the author, Francisco de Sousa da Silva Alcoforado Rebelo, and an analysis of the historiographic methods, style, and intentions underlying Vida e Morte Tragica de Maria Stuart, Rainha de França, e Escocia, e Pertendente da Coroa de Inglaterra, published in Lisbon in 1737. Rebelo’s biography of Mary Queen of Scots will be placed in the tradition of commending Mary as a Catholic martyr which underlines Mary’s Christian virtues as well as her innocence of the charges brought upon her and which led to her execution. Rebelo’s work will be read as a character study which sets Elizabeth I against Mary, the latter standing as the consummate example of constancy and piousness, well deserving of a crown of grace. Other aspects of the work deserving of mention are the effective dismissal of Protestants, and especially of Calvinists, as a perfidious religious and political group, and the depiction of Scotland as a kingdom rife with rivalry, strife and betrayal.