Firstly, I must admit to any in-depth knowledge of the politics & history of Reformation era Scotland generally, so much of this information was new to me. I would suspect, given that most published histories & history teaching in Scotland if not biased to, at least comes from Established Church sources, many readers would find themselves in the same position.
Mining a seam of alternative sources and detail this book provides a fresh perspective on these turbulent times. The Jesuits (mainly Scots-born) came to Scotland to treat with both Mary and James, as well as the nobility to push the cause for returning Scotland to the Catholic Church. Hence this deals with a great deal of the politics & religious leaning of those individuals in a position to influence events in Scotland, as well as the internal politics of the Society of Jesus and how that impacted on the support for these missions.
What is evident is how much personal and royal patronage was an element in this most personal of decisions. Many would switch allegiances from one side to the other based on personal alliances, and James himself was portrayed as a ruler, extremely adept as playing one side against the other (as well as maintaining relationships with England). It did open my eyes as to how widespread the Catholic Church remained (and regrew) for some generations after 1560, although the general populace were not the object of the Jesuit missions, their adherence to the faith was frequently reported back.
Michael Yellowlees tracks the lives of each of the dozen or so Jesuits prominent in the various missions, and tries to evaluate the impact of each. This is a dense, scholarly work, with over 30 pages of endnotes and bibliography for those wishing to explore further, There is an extremely interesting map of Scotland, compiled by William Chrichton in 1595 showing the religious leanings of the various nobles, which is however neither adequately explained nor explored. ( )