Did Mary Queen of Scots live during the Renaissance period?

Answer 1

Short Answer:

Mary, Queen of Scots did live during the renaissance period. The general renaissance spanned from roughly the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century and the specifically Scottish renaissance was from the fifteenth century to the seventeenth century. Mary was born 8 December 1542 and died 8 February 1587, so she perhaps only just scraped the dawning of the renaissance period in Scotland.

More Detailed Answer:

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though availability of paper and the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later fifteenth century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe.

The Renaissance in Scotland was a cultural, intellectual and artistic movement from the fifteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late fourteenth century and reaching northern Europe as a Northern Renaissance in the fifteenth century. It involved an attempt to revive the principles of the classical era, including Humanism, a spirit of scholarly enquiry, scepticism, and concepts of balance and proportion. Since the twentieth century the uniqueness and unity of the Renaissance has been challenged by historians, but significant changes in Scotland can be seen to have taken place in education, intellectual life, literature, art, architecture, music and politics.

Both Mary's son(James VI of Scotland and I of England) and father (James V of Scotland) gave patronage to some Scottish renaissance writers. As the generation before and after her were in contact with renaissance writers, it can be deduced that Mary, Queen of Scots did - in fact - live during the renaissance period.