In a weird bit of synchronicity I just saw Castle Eileen Doonan in the movie "Elizabeth: The Golden Age". It played the role of Fotheringhay Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded.
What a bit of artistic liberty. The actual Fotheringhay Castle was in Northamptonshire, not Scotland. So, the topography is wrong, not to mention that Queen Mary was imprisoned in England, not Scotland.
The castle was destroyed by James VI (James I of England), or so I was told. Anyway, this is an actual picture of Fotheringhay as it exists now.
Flat as a stinking pancake!
Somehow, it seems much more poignant that Mary was imprisoned in a place that was not Scottish than in the most stereotypical of Scottish Castles, Eilean Donan. In fact, Northamptonshire would be as far away from Scotland as possible.
Which reminds me of the Lyrics from the Sandy Denny song about Fotheringhay and Queen Mary:
How often she has gazed from castle windows o'er,
And watched the daylight passing within her captive wall,
With no-one to heed her call.
The evening hour is fading within the dwindling sun,
And in a lonely moment those embers will be gone
And the last of all the young birds flown.
Her days of precious freedom, forfeited long before,
To live such fruitless years behind a guarded door,
But those days will last no more.
Tomorrow at this hour she will be far away,
Much farther than these islands,
Or the lonely Fotheringay
By the way, nice painting of Eilean Donan. And I am sorry about my rant on Fotheringhay and the film Elizabeth-the Golden Age.
Last edited by Dukeof Kircaldy; 3rd June 08 at 01:30 PM.
Originally Posted by Yaish
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