FRANÇOIS II
AND
MARIE STUART
At the age of 24 King James V of Scotland came to France and married François I’s 16 year old daughter Madeleine at Notre Dame in Paris. Within three months of arriving in Scotland, Madeleine died of tuberculosis.
The following year François organised a second marriage for James V. This time it was a 23 year old widow, Marie de Guise. Marie had attended the wedding of James and Madeleine.
She was a member of a very powerful Guise family. The widower King Henry VIII of England was also seeking to marry her.
Marie (called Mary in Scotland) gave birth to two sons who did not survive. After four years of marriage she gave birth to a daughter. Less than a week later, James V died and the new baby, also named Mary (Marie in France) was Queen of Scotland.
Once again Henry VIII tried to move in. He wanted to arrange the marriage of the baby girl to his five year old son and heir, Edward. Marie de Guise knew this was an easy way for Henry to take over Scotland. She needed to buy time so agreed they would discuss the details of the marriage when the baby was ten years old.
Just over a year later at Fontainebleau, François I’s son and heir, Henri and his wife Catherine de Medici, finally had a child. They named their son François.
When Francois I of France and Henry VIIII of England died within two months of each other
at the beginning of 1547, Henri II became king of France on his 28 th birthday and Edward IV
became King of England at the age of nine.
Very shortly after becoming King, Henri II was giving military aid to Scotland against England. A diplomatic agreement was drawn up arranging for the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scotland to François, Henri II’s eldest son and heir to the Frence throne. Mary was five and François was four. With Scotland under assault from English troops, it was decided it would be safer to evacuate Mary to France.
Henri II sent his personal royal galley to transport little Mary. To avoid the English navy they had to sail around Ireland and Cornwall before landing in a small port in Brittany. Mary’s grandmother Antoinette de Guise met her and accompanied her on the two month trip from the port in Brittany to the chateau at St Germain where she was to be brought up with her future husband and the other royal children. Everywhere she went there were celebrations and she was treated like the Queen she was (of Scotland) and would be (of France) in the future.
Great care was taken with Marie’s education. Unlike her future husband, she was tall for her
age and very fit. Her education was entirely French and she no longer spoke English. She also learnt to draw and paint, write poetry and embroider. She sang and played the lute. She could follow the hunt on a horse with no problem.
The King could not have been happier with his choice for the next Queen of France. He referred to her as “my daughter the Queen of Scotland” and she took precedence over the other princesses.
Marie was a head taller than her husband to be. He was opposite in almost every way. He was sickly and not at all interested in intellectual and artistic pursuits. They only thing he felt he could share with her were hunting and other sporting activities. Nevertheless, the unlikely couple got on very well. They grew up together, knowing that their destiny was to share the thrones of France and Scotland (and if Henri II had his way, England as well). They were sincerely attached to each other.
They were married at Notre Dame in Paris when Marie was 15 and Francois was 14. It was a magnificent spectacle. The bride went against tradition and wore a magnificent white* gown and a crown filled with pearls and precious stones.
*White was normally worn by Queens in mourning for their husbands.
After the succession of celebrations with feasts and balls the young couple went to the Loire
Valley for their honeymoon. They stayed at the chateau owned by Marie’s uncle the Cardinal of Guise.
You can visit the bedroom in the Royal Estate of Chateau Gaillard at Amboise (not to be confused with Chateau Gaillard the medieval chateau in Normandy built by Richard the Lionheart).
It is a MUST SEE!! There is a very good explanation of the fascinating history of the property on the website.
Just over a year after the honeymoon, King Henri II died suddenly after an accidental injury during a joust. He was 40. His 15 year old son was now King François II and Marie Stuart was Queen of France (as well as Scotland).
Religion was playing a key part in politics, particularly in England. Mary Tudor had reintroduced Catholicism as the official religion but her successor Elizabeth had revoked those laws and restored Protestantism. In Scotland there was also conflict and Protestantism became the official religion. In France Henri II had suppressed the Protestants but their numbers had continued to grow, particularly among the elite.
The Guise family were the leaders of the pro-Catholic faction and with their niece becoming Queen of France, they moved very quickly to take control. The young king François II was completely dominated by Marie’s uncles. The Duke de Guise was in control of the military affairs and his brother, the Cardinal of Guise, was in charge of France’s finances. Henri II’s long time mentor and father figure, the Duke of Montmorency was dismissed, as were the Bourbon princes.
Catherine de Medici was also powerless. That situation, however would prove to be temporary.
Less than eighteen months after succeeding his father as King, François II died from yet another infection. This time Catherine de Medici did not hesitate to take the upper hand. She had herself appointed Regent for her next son who became King Charles IX at the age of ten.
Marie returned to Scotland where the next chapter of Mary Queen of Scots began. In France, the reign of Catherine de Medici was also beginning.