Marie of Guise

Marie was born on 22 November 1515, at Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine; she was the eldest daughter of Claude of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, and his wife, Antoinette de Bourbon.

When Marie was 5, she joined her grandmother Philippa of Guelders in the convent of the Poor Clares at Pont-à-Mousson. Her uncle Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, and her aunt Renée of Bourbon visited when Marie was about 14 years old. Impressed by her qualities and stature, they took her away and prepared her for life at the French court. In 1531, Marie made her first appearance there, at the marriage between Francis I of France and Eleanor of Austria. She established a friendship with the King's daughters, Madeleine and Margaret.

On 4 August 1534, Marie became Duchess of Longueville when she married Louis II d'Orléans; she was 18 years old. Their union was happy but, unfortunately, brief.
On 30 October 1535, Marie gave birth to her first son, Francis. On 9 June 1537, sadly, Louis died and left Marie a widow at the age of 21. For the rest of her life, Marie kept her last letter from her bon mari et ami. On 4 August of the same year, she gave birth to their second son, who she named Louis after his deceased father.

Later in 1537, Marie became the focus of marriage negotiations with James V of Scotland. He had lost his wife, Madeleine, and was looking for another French bride to further the interests of the Franco-Scottish alliance.
The recently widowed Henry VIII of England, in attempts to prevent this union, also proposed to Marie. Given Henry's marital history, Marie refused the offer: I may be a big woman, but I have a very little neck.

Francis I accepted James V's proposal and conveyed his wishes to Marie's father. Francis prepared a marriage contract that offered James a dowry as big as if Marie had been a princess. Marie received the news with shock and alarm, as she didn't want to leave her family and country.
The marriage contract was finalised in January 1538; Marie finally accepted the offer and made plans for departure. She sailed from Le Havre on 10 June 1538, landing in Scotland six days later.

James and Marie were married on 18 June 1538, at St Andrews Cathedral. James' mother, Margaret Tudor, 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, with very good entertaining. Marie was crowned Queen of Scotland at Holyrood Abbey on 22 February 1540.

Marie and James had two sons, James and Robert. However, unfortunately, they both died on 21 April 1541. The third and last child of the union was a girl, named Mary. King James died only six days after her birth, leaving baby Mary as Queen regnant of Scotland. The government of Scotland was entrusted to the Regent, James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran.

Henry VIII wanted to marry his son, Edward, to the infant Queen Mary. This led to internal conflicts and to an English invasion.
At first, Marie stayed unwillingly at Linlithgow Palace; in July 1543, she moved with the infant Queen to Stirling Castle. When the English diplomat Ralph Sadler spoke to her, Marie assured him that the English marriage would go ahead as planned when Mary was 10 years old. In the meantime, the Queen would be safe at Stirling.
It soon became clear to Henry VIII that Mary and Edward would not be married, despite the Scottish promises and the Treaty of Greenwich. So, at the end of 1543, he launched the war known as Rough Wooing, hoping to turn the situation around.

Equipped with a newly painted spear for her royal standard, Marie came to view the progress of the siege of Haddington, in July 1548. Her party came in range of the English guns and 16 of her entourage were killed around her. After this terrifying incident, and by resolution of the Scottish parliament, Queen Mary was sent to France in August 1548. There, she was raised with her husband-to-be, the Dauphin Francis, son of Henry II of France.

The English troops abandoned their occupation of Haddington in September 1549 and Paul de Thermes and Arran walked in. Marie was triumphant, writing that the English had left nothing behind but the plague. The peace process began and Scotland was included in the Treaty of Boulogne of 24 March 1550. After the Treaty was signed, Marie was able to travel to France to see her family.

Marie left Scotland on 6 September 1550 and arrived at Dieppe in time to participate in a festival with the French court and her daughter on 1 October 1550. At Rouen, Marie and the Queen of Scots rode in procession behind soldiers carrying banners depicting Scottish fortresses recently defended and recovered by the French.
Over the winter she stayed with the French court at Blois, then spent the summer with Henry II. Throughout her time in France, Mary was anxious to gain the best settlement for her daughter's marriage to the dauphin and financial support for herself in Scotland.

In May 1553, the imperial ambassador in London heard she had challenged Arran's regency and proposed James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, her illegitimate step-son, as a replacement. Marie herself became regent on 12 April 1554. The eleven-year-old Queen Mary sent her congratulations to la Royne, ma mere.

In many affairs, Marie consulted her brothers in France, so that Scotland and France worked as allies in dealing with other nations. During her regency, Frenchmen were put in charge of the treasury and the Great Seal, while the French ambassador sometimes attended the Privy Council. The resentment of the Scottish nobility at these appointments would fuel the coming crisis.
Marie quickly began to deal effectively with Scottish affairs. In July 1554, she travelled to Jedburgh to hold a Justice Ayre for a fortnight, hoping to quell the longstanding feud between the Scott and Kerr border clans. In the autumn she paid for a ship, troops and a cannon to help the Earl of Sutherland arrest Iye du Mackay, Lord Reay, who had caused mischief in Sutherland. During another progress in 1556 she visited Inverness, Ross, Elgin, Banff and Aberdeen. These domestic efforts were hampered by the outbreak of international conflict in January 1557. An apparent set-back occurred in October, when Marie went south to Hume Castle and sent an army towards England. Instructed to cross the border and attack Wark Castle, the Scottish lords held their own council and returned home.

Marie's regency was threatened, however, by the growing influence of the Scottish Protestants. To an extent, Marie had tolerated the growing number of Protestant preachers. She needed to win support for her pro-French policies, and they could expect no alternative support from England, when Mary I ruled. The marriage of her daughter Mary to the dauphin of France was quickly followed by Mary I of England's death and the succession to the throne of England by Elizabeth I. Mary's claim and rights of succession to the English throne depended in part on the Papal view of Elizabeth's legitimacy. If Henry II of France was to pursue Mary's claim with the Pope, as part of an ambitious plan that Scotland and England would succumb to French domination, he needed Scotland to be a secure Catholic country. As the Scottish Reformation crisis was developing, Henry II died on 10 July 1559, and Mary, Queen of Scots also became Queen Consort of France. In France, Mary and Francis II began to publicly display the arms of England in their blazon. This too was a motivation for English intervention in Scottish affairs.

In 1557, a group of Scottish lords who became known as the Lords of the Congregation, drew up a covenant to maintain, set forth, and establish the most blessed Word of God and his Congregation. This was followed by outbreaks of iconoclasm in 1558/59. At the same time, plans were being drawn up for a Reformed programme of parish worship and preaching, as local communities sought out Protestant ministers. In 1558, Marie summoned the Protestant preachers to answer for their teaching, but backed down when lairds from the west country threatened to revolt.
The accession of Elizabeth in England stirred the hopes and fears of Scottish Protestants. Elizabeth came to secretly support the Lords of the Congregation. In January 1559, the anonymous Beggars' Summons threatened friars with eviction in favour of beggars. This was calculated to appeal to the passions of the populace of towns who appeared to have particular complaints against friars. Fearing disorder and now determined by circumstance to show less tolerance, Marie summoned the reformed preachers to appear before her at Stirling on 10 May. Insurrection followed. The men of Angus assembled in Dundee to accompany the preachers to Stirling, and on 4 May they were joined by John Knox. Stirred by Knox's sermons in Perth and Dundee, the mob sacked religious houses. In response, Marie marched on Perth, but was forced to withdraw and negotiate.

Among Marie's ambassadors were the Earl of Argyll and Lord James Stewart, Earl of Moray, both professed Protestants. When Marie stationed French mercenaries in Perth, they abandoned her and joined the Lords of the Congregation at St Andrews, where they were also joined by John Knox. Even Edinburgh soon fell to them in July. The Congregation Lords made a truce with Marie and signed the Articles of Leith at Leith Links on 25 July 1559 which promised religious tolerance, then withdrew to Stirling.

In September, the 2nd Earl of Arran accepted the leadership of the Lords of the Congregation and established a provisional government. However, Marie was reinforced by professional French troops. In November, the rebels were driven back to Stirling. Fighting continued in Fife. All seemed lost for the Protestant side until an English fleet arrived in the Firth of Forth in January 1560, which caused the French to retreat to Leith.

Negotiations with England then began. The resulting Treaty of Berwick in February was an agreement between the Earl of Arran and the English to act jointly to expel the French. As a result, Elizabeth I sent an English land army into Scotland to join their Scottish allies in besieging the French at Leith. As the fighting continued the English ambassador in France praised Marie for having the hart of a man of warre and the English bishop John Jewel described her asa woman with a man's courage.

After an English assault on Leith was repulsed with heavy losses, some of the leaders of the Lords of the Congregation came to Edinburgh Castle on 12 May 1560 and had dinner with Marie and the keeper of the castle. The Lords again complained about Frenchmen being appointed to Scottish government posts. Negotiations to end the siege of Leith and demolish new fortifications at Dunbar Castle continued. But the next day, the talks ended when permission was refused for the French commanders in Leith to come to the castle to discuss the proposals with Marie.

While continuing to fortify Edinburgh Castle, Mary became seriously ill, and over the course of the next eight days her mind began to wander; some days she could not even speak. On 8 June she made her will. Marie of Guise died of dropsy on 11 June 1560. Her body was wrapped in lead and rested in a coffin on a bier in St Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle for several months.

On 18 March 1561, it was secretly carried from the castle at midnight and shipped to France. Mary, Queen of Scots attended her funeral at Fécamp in July 1561. Marie of Guise was interred at the church in the Convent of Saint-Pierre in Reims.

James V of Scotland and Marie of Guise

16th century