The illuminated Book of Hours is one of only 14 surviving manuscripts belonging to the Catholic queen before she was executed by order of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
An illuminated prayer book that once belonged to the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots will be put on the auction block, and is expected to fetch almost a half a million dollars according to a statement released by Christie’s.
Queen Mary became the ruler of Scotland as an infant when her father, King James V,was killed in a battle against the English in 1542. The prayer book was a given to Mary Stuart sometime between 1558 and 1561 by her great-auntLouise de Bourbon during the time Mary served as queen consort of France alongside her husband Francis II.