History's Mary Stuart

Mary Stuart
Biographical Information
Title:	Mary, Queen of Scots Mary I of Scotland
Reign:	14 December 1542 – 24 July 1567
Coronation:	9 September 1543
Predecessor:	King James V
Successor:	James VI
Born:	7/8 December 1542
Burial:	Peterborough Cathedral; Westminster Abbey
Religion:	Roman Catholic
House:	House of Stuart
Relationship Information
TV Character Information
Signature:
Portrays:	Mary Stuart
Portrayed by:	Adelaide Kane

Mary Stuart who was most famously know as Mary, Queen of Scots became Queen when she was a week old after her father's death. She was raised in France and Scotland back and forth until she was finally married to the heir to the crown of France, Prince Francis II, who soon became king.

Childhood

Mary was born on December 8 1542 at Linlithgow. On December 14, six days after her birth, she became Queen of Scots when her father died, following The Battle of Solway Moss

As Mary was an infant when she inherited the throne, Scotland was ruled by three regents until she became of age. First by Catholic Cardinal Beaton, followed by Protestant Earl of Arran until 1554 when Mary's mother, Marie of Guise, took over.

King Henry VIII of England propose marriage between Mary and his son, Prince Edward, hoping for a union of Scotland and England. On 1 July 1543, when Mary was six months old, the Treaty of Greenwich was signed, promising at 10, mary would wed his son and move to England, where Henry could oversee her upbringing. The treaty provided that the two countries would remain legally separate and if the couple failed to have children, the temporary union would dissolve.

However, Cardinal Beaton pushed a pro-Catholic pro-French agenda, something that angered Henry, who wanted to break the Scottish alliance with France. Beaton wanted to move Mary away to Stirling Castle. The Earl of Lennox escorted Mary and her mother to Stirling on 27 July 1543 with 3,500 armed men. Mary was crowned in the castle chapel on 9 September 1543.

Soon, The Treaty of Greenwich was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland. Not long after, English forces mounted a series of raids on Scottish and French territory. On May 1544, the English Earl of Hertford raided Edinburgh, and the Scots took Mary to Dunkeld for safety.

After a crushing blow during the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh with the English, and King Henry II's death, Mary was sent to Inchmahome Priory for no more than three weeks, and Scotland turned to the French for help.

king, Henry II of France, proposed to unite France and Scotland by marrying Mary, to 3 year old, Prince Francis, the Dauphin Francis, and promised French military help. On February 1548, Mary was moved, again for her safety, to Dumbarton Castle. The English left a trail of devastation behind them and seized the strategic town of Haddington. The French arrived in June to help, and on 7 July 1548, the French marriage treaty was signed.

Time in France

Five-year-old Mary was sent to France to spend the next thirteen years at the French court. The French fleet sent by Henry II, sailed with Mary from Dumbarton on August 1548 and arrived a little over a week later at Roscoff in Brittany

Mary was accompanied by her own court including two illegitimate half-brothers, and the "four Marys", four girls her own age, all named Mary, who were the daughters of some of the noblest families in Scotland: Beaton, Seton, Fleming, and Livingston.

At the French court, she was a favourite with everyone, except Henry II's wife Catherine de' Medici. Mary learned to play lute and virginals, was competent in prose, poetry, horsemanship, falconry, needlework, and was learned French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Greek. Her future sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Valois, became a very close friend of Marys.

On 4 April 1558, Mary signed a secret agreement bequeathing Scotland and her claim to England to the French crown if she died without heirs. Twenty days later, she married the Dauphin at Notre Dame de Paris, and Francis became king consort of Scotland.

Later in life

• Upon Francis' death, Mary was overwhelmed by grief. Having recently lost her mother, Mary was distraught, The duration of Francis' illness and the pain of watching him suffer had made her ill and exhausted. She wrote an ode to her first love, which goes something like this (translated from French):
  • In my sad, quiet song,

A melancholy air, I shall look deep and long At loss beyond compare, And with bitter tears,  I'll pass my best years.

Have the harsh fates ere now Let such a grief be felt, Has a more cruel blow Been by Dame Fortune dealt Than, O my heart and eyes! I see where his bier lies?

In my springtime's gladness And flower of my young heart,  I feel the deepest sadness  Of the most grievous hurt. Nothing now my heart can fire But regret and desire.

He who was my dearest  Already is my plight The day that shone the clearest For me is darkest night There's nothing now so fine That I need make it mine.

Deep in my eyes and heart A portrait has its place Which shows the world my hurt In the pallor of my face. Pale as when violets fade True love's becoming shade.

In my unwonted pain I can no more be still, Rising time and again To drive away my ill. All things good and bad Have lost the taste they had.

And thus I always stay Whether in wood or meadow,  Whether at dawn of day Or at the evening shadow. My heart feels ceaselessly Grief for his loss to me.

Sometimes in such a place His image comes to me. The sweet smile on his face Up in a cloud I see. Then sudden in the mere  I see his funeral bier.

When I lie quietly  Sleeping upon my couch, I hear him speak to me  And I can feel his touch. In my duties each day He is near me alway.

Nothing seems fine to me Unless he is therein. My heart will not agree  Unless he is within. I lack all perfection  In my cruel dejection

I shall cease my song now, My sad lament shall end. Whose burden aye shall show True love can not pretend And, though we are apart, Grows no less in my heart.

• Mary, Queen of Scots was married three times. Each of her marriages ended in the death of her husband.
  • Her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley died in 1567, two years after his marriage to Mary. The union produced one son, James VI and I, King of Scotland and England. She was twenty-three at the time of his birth.
  • She wed her third husband, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell in 1567. He died eleven years later in 1578. The marriage produced no children and was highly unpopular with the Scottish people. In fact, it was one of the primary reasons for Queen Mary's forced abdication in July of 1567.

• Little James saw his mother for the last time when he was less than a year old. When James was thirteen months old, Mary was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favour of her young son. James thus became King James VI of Scotland and Mary fled to England, seeking refuge at the court of her cousin, Elizabeth I--a grave mistake.
• Elizabeth imprisoned Mary, claiming she was a threat to the English crown and had threatened her many times before. This alluded to the attempted claims of the Scottish queen and her late French king following the death of Mary Tudor, Elizabeth's predecessor.
• Mary was imprisoned at the hands of Elizabeth for nineteen years. In 1587, at forty-four years old, Mary was executed by order of her cousin, the English queen. All of Mary's possessions were burned by orders of the English government.
  • One of James' great ambitions was to inherit the English throne, so when Elizabeth I signed his mother's death warrant, he only made a formal protest. He did not attempt to save Mary's life, hoping that Elizabeth would favour him and name him her successor.
  • On March 24, 1603, when Elizabeth I of England died, James inherited the English throne, becoming King James I of England.
• Mary's death warrant was signed by Elizabeth sometime in early 1587, though the English queen would later claim that she was unaware of the document's contents and signed off on Mary's death unwillingly.
• Mary was executed on February 8, 1587 in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle. She wore a red petticoat beneath her black dress, a symbol of Catholic martyrdom, as some English claimed that Catholicism would die with Mary. The executioner was unsteady and though the first blow came, it was not the end for Mary. It is said that the first blow came unsuccessfully, Mary whispered "Sweet Jesus", and the second blow fell, thus ending her life.

Notes

• Mary was born December 8, 1542 and was made Queen on December 14, when she was 6 days old.
• Mary's father, James V of Scotland, once sought the hand of Catherine de' Medici before her marriage to King Henry II.
• Mary was briefly engaged to Prince Edward of England when she was 6 months old, and for an even shorter time was considered for King Philip II's first son who was 4 years her junior.
• Mary was considered a pretty child and later, a strikingly attractive woman.
• In childhood, she caught smallpox, but it did not mark her features.
• Marie of Guise, Mary's mother, visited Mary in France when she was seven. Neither mother nor daughter realized this would be the last time they would see each other.
• Mary returned to Scotland after Francis' death when she was 18 years old.
• Mary actually signed herself 'Marie' throughout her life due to her French upbringing.
• Mary was exceptionally tall for a woman of her time, nearly six feet in height. She towered over her first husband, King Francis II.
• King Henry II's sister, Madeleine of Valois, was Queen Mary of Scotland's father's first wife.
• Although Mary sought refuge in her cousin Elizabeth's court and the English queen imprisoned and ordered Mary's execution, the two queens never actually met.
• In Scotland, Mary's formal surname and royal house is spelled 'Stewart'. But in France, it is 'Stuart'.

Family Tree

Mary was born the great-niece of King Henry VIII of England, as her paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor, was Henry VIII's sister.