Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off is the best-known and most critically acclaimed of Liz Lochhead's plays. Dramatising the religious and political history of Scotland from a particularly female point of view, it remains popular with audiences and with the author herself, who sees the work as "a metaphor for the Scots today". Margery Palmer McCulloch's SCOTNOTE study guide provides a background to the history and to the dramatic presentation, as well as giving an overview of the modern context of Lochhead's play, for senior school pupils and students at all levels.