Mary, Queen of Scots signs the paper by which she resigns her crown to her infant son (from "History of England")

Art Historical Context

This 1787 etching and stip engraving captures a pivotal moment in Scottish history: Mary, Queen of Scots reluctantly signing the document that would force her abdication in favor of her infant son, James VI, in 1567. The scene reflects the political turmoil surrounding Mary’s reign, marked by her controversial marriages, the murder of her secretary David Rizzio, and the suspicious death of her husband Lord Darnley. Created after a design by William Hamilton and published as part of Paul de Rapin de Thoyras’s “History of England,” the print dramatizes a queen’s personal sacrifice amid intense noble pressure. The work exemplifies late-eighteenth-century reproductive printmaking, where etching provided fine linear detail and stipple engraving added soft tonal gradations to mimic paintings. Techniques like these allowed wider audiences to engage with grand historical narratives that were once limited to oil canvases in private collections. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, the sheet preserves a vivid record of how Georgian Britain reimagined and romanticized earlier British monarchs for a growing middle-class public.