Very interesting, however I am not wholly convinced.

Southam says JA is inconsistant in her opinion of the Stuarts, and attributes this to the divided political loyalties of her family background.

Could not JA's sympathy with the Stuarts and Mary, Queen of Scots, simply have resulted from the simple "romance" and "tragedy" of their story and a natural empathy with the "injustice" of Mary, QOS's situation?

In her History, Jane says Mary was "abandoned by her son, confined by her cousin, abused, reproached and vilified by all...". Ths is JA clearly writing in terms of the personal human tragedy of Mary, QOS. I would have thought this engaged her more than the politics of it?