Editing Andrew Lang (section)

=== Historian ===
[[File:Portrait of Andrew Lang.jpg|thumb|right|Andrew Lang at work]]
Lang's writings on Scottish history are characterised by a scholarly care for detail, a piquant literary style, and a gift for disentangling complicated questions. ''The Mystery of Mary Stuart'' (1901) was a consideration of the fresh light thrown on [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], by the Lennox manuscripts in the University Library, [[university of Cambridge|Cambridge]], approving of her and criticising her accusers.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He also wrote monographs on ''The Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart'' (1906) and ''[[James VI of Scotland|James VI]] and the Gowrie Mystery'' (1902). The somewhat unfavourable view of [[John Knox]] presented in his book ''John Knox and the Reformation'' (1905) aroused considerable controversy. He gave new information about the continental career of the [[Charles Edward Stuart|Young Pretender]] in ''Pickle the Spy'' (1897), an account of [[Alastair Ruadh MacDonnell]], whom he identified with Pickle, a notorious Hanoverian spy. This was followed by ''The Companions of Pickle'' (1898) and a monograph on Prince Charles Edward (1900). In 1900 he began a ''History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation'' (1900). ''The Valet's Tragedy'' (1903), which takes its title from an essay on [[Alexandre Dumas, père|Dumas]]'s ''[[The Vicomte de Bragelonne|Man in the Iron Mask]]'', collects twelve papers on historical mysteries, and ''A Monk of Fife'' (1896) is a fictitious narrative purporting to be written by a young Scot in France in 1429–1431.<ref name="EB1911"/>