| Mary Seton | |
|---|---|
| Biographical Information | |
| Title: | Lady Seton |
| Born: | 1542 |
| Religion: | Catholic |
| Relationship Information | |
| TV Character Information | |
| Portrays: | Lady Aylee |
| Portrayed by: | Jenessa Grant |
Mary Seton was Scottish noblewoman and childhood companion of Mary, Queen of Scots. She and three other Ladies-in-Waiting were collectively known as "The Four Marys".
Childhood[]
Mary Seton was the daughter of George Seton, 6th Lord Seton and Marie Pieris, a French-born lady-in-waiting to Mary of Guise, the wife of James V of Scotland.
As a child, Mary Seton became a lady-in-waiting to the young Mary, Queen of Scots, along with three other girls of similar age and standing in Scots society. They were famously known as "The Four Marys": Mary Seton, Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston. They were chosen by Marie de Guise, with the exception of Mary Fleming, for their Franco-Scottish parentage.
Adulthood[]
In France[]
The Four Marys accompanied the young Mary to France, where she later married the Dauphin, Francis II of France. Mary Seton was the only one of the four not to marry, and continued to be in service to Mary in Scotland and during her captivity in England.
In Scotland[]
When Queen Mary returned to Scotland, after her ceremonial entry at Edinburgh in September 1561, she went to Linlithgow Palace, while the four Marys, accompanied by the Queen's uncle Duke of Guise, travelled west to Coldingham Priory and Dunbar. They stopped at the house of Mary Seton's brother, George Seton, for dinner.
The Grand Prior then returned home through England making strategic plans of Berwick-upon-Tweed and Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mary Seton accompanied the captive Queen back to Edinburgh after her defeat by the Confederate lords at the Battle of Carberry Hill. Seton aided her queen in escaping the island fortress of Loch Leven by standing at a window dressed in the Queen's clothes while Mary fled to the mainland in a small boat, arriving in England following the Battle of Langside.
In England[]
In August 1570, Mary's mother, Mary Pieris who was at Blair Castle heard her daughter was ill, and wrote from Dunkeld to Queen Mary to ask if she could come home. The messenger carrying the letters, John Moon, was captured, and Mary Pieris was imprisoned in Edinburgh, Scotland. In October, Queen Elizabeth heard that Mary Pieris had been arrested and would be banished from Scotland for writing to her daughter and Queen Mary, and took action that Lord lennox should be advised that she thought it no great cause. Pieris was released, before Elizabeth's intervention, promising not to write to Queen Mary again.
When Queen Mary was moved to Sheffield Castle in September 1571, Mary Seton stayed in attendance, but her servant John Dumfries was excluded and kept in the town. Janet Spittle was sent back to Scotland. Mary Seton then had an older woman as her servant, and as they were tired of each other by April 1577, the servant was allowed back to Scotland.
At Sheffield in November 1581, Robert Beale questioned Mary Seton about Queen Mary's recent illness, which had a quick onset. Seton said that she had not seen the Queen as ill before, her side gave her evil pains especially in the thigh and leg. The Queen lacked appetite, was losing sleep, and in Seton's opinion could not long continue. The master of Mary's household in England, Andrew Beaton, wished to wed Mary Seton, but as she had made a vow of celibacy, Andrew travelled to Paris to obtain a dispensation. He died during his return journey.
Seniorhood[]
Sometime around 1585 she retired from the Scottish Queen's household in England to the Convent in France where the abbess was Renée de Guise, the sister of Mary of Guise and aunt of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary wrote a letter to Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury on 22 February 1608, mentioning that her right arm was paralysed, and the letter was in French because she had forgotten the little English she knew after twenty years, as a 'poor recluse in a monastery.' She wrote that she had sent other letters to the Countess and Lady Arbella Stuart. Mary Seton died at the Convent in 1615.
Little else is known about her last years other than what was written by James Maitland, the expatriate Catholic son of William Maitland. Maitland visited the convent and found Seton to be living in poverty and suffering from failing health. He complained to her family, to whom he was remotely related, and to Queen Mary's son James VI of Scotland, but there is no evidence of a response.
Notes[]
- Her mother, was a French-born Lady-in-Waiting to Mary of Guise.
- Mary Beaton's mother was also one of Mary of Guise's Ladies-in-Waiting.
- Seton was a skilled hairdresser to the Queen, as described by in detail by Sir Francis Knollys, Mary's keeper at Carlisle Castle, in his letter to William Cecil.
Related Pages[]
