22nd November 2015
Today is the 500th birthday of Mary of Guise, mother of Mary Queen of Scots. She was born in 1515 in Lorraine, the great-great-great niece of Jacquetta of Luxembourg. Her first husband, Louis II of Orleans, died in the same year as Jane Seymour and Queen Madeleine of Scotland. The widowers, Henry VIII and King James V, both sought Mary's hand. She married James, whose advantages included having a record clean of wife-executing. Mary's two-year-old son, Francis 'Le Petit Duc', was left behind, and later died aged 15.
Queen Mary's reign began well. Margaret Tudor, her new mother-in-law, wrote to Henry VIII 'I trust she will prove a wise Princess. I have been much in her company, and she bears herself very honourably to me'. The marriage produced two sons. But the boys died on the same day as babies, and James himself died just six days after the birth of his new heir, Mary Queen of Scots. Like Margaret Tudor before her, Mary was a foreign dowager queen in Scotland with a baby monarch to defend. Mary Queen of Scots became Scotland's first queen regnant, and Mary of Guise was key in defending her claim.
Mary betrothed her daughter to Henry VIII's heir Prince Edward, but increasingly leaned towards a French match instead. After the Rough Wooing, when the English tried to press their claim by invading, five-year-old Mary Queen of Scots was betrothed to the dauphin and sent to France.
Mary managed to obtain Scotland's regency from the Protestant Earl of Arran in 1554, following in Margaret Tudor's footsteps. Unlike Margaret, Mary remained single and continued to rule on her daughter's behalf until her death in 1560. During that time the whole of Britain was ruled by women, with Mary I and then Elizabeth I as queen in England.
Mary died aged 44 at Edinburgh Castle, after Elizabeth I's forces had attacked Leith. Her body was taken to France, where her daughter was able to attend her funeral. This quote is from The Other Queen, set during Mary Queen of Scots' imprisonment in England eight years later:
I have God’s hand of destiny on my life, I was born to rule Scotland. I cannot refuse the challenge to win back my throne. My mother gave her life to keep the kingdom for me, I shall honour her sacrifice and pass it on to my heir, my son, her grandson, my little boy, James, Prince James, heir to Scotland and to England, my precious son.
Image: Mary of Guise, 1515–1560, Queen of James V, c.1537, National Galleries Scotland PG 1558