Mary, Queen of Scots

Gale Primary Sources Start at the source. Mary, Queen of Scots Dr Natalie Mears University of Durham Various source media, State Papers Online EMPOWER™ RESEARCH Like her cousin, Elizabeth, Mary Stuart (she always Much Scottish material was printed by the Bannatyne used the French spelling of her surname) is one of the and Maitland Clubs in the nineteenth century; The most well-known figures in the sixteenth century, the Hamilton Papers (2 vols, London, 1890–2) are also vital. subject of countless histories, plays, pictures, novels Contemporary printed accounts, such as John and films. Often portrayed as a romantic, tragic Knox’s History of the Reformation of Religion within the heroine, for historians she is controversial: Jenny Realm of Scotland (1587 & 1644), George Wormald’s biography, Mary, Queen of Scots: a Study in Buchanan’s Ane Detectioun of the doings of Marie, Quene Failure, contrasts with more positive studies like of Scottis (1571) and History of Scotland(1582), and John Michael Lynch’s collection, Mary Stewart: Queen in Leslie, Bishop of Ross’s Defence of the Honour of the Three Kingdoms.[1] Right High, Mighty and Noble Princess Mary, Queen of Scotland and Dowager of France (1569) and History of Sources Scotland (1578) in Latin have to be handled with care as material is sometimes inaccurate, deliberately Sources for Mary’s life and reign are voluminous and, misleading or cannot be corroborated by other sources. perhaps befitting a woman who was queen of Scotland and France and who staked a claim to the Crown of Documents about Mary’s household, her marriage to England, they are also scattered in many archives. As Francis II of France, as well as correspondence to/from principally an English archive prior to 1603, State or about Mary while in France are in the Bibliotheque Papers Online focuses on Anglo-Scottish relations from nationale de France. Much of Mary’s own an English perspective and is particularly rich on correspondence has been printed in Alexandre episodes such as the Darnley marriage. The main Labanoff’s Lettres, instructions et mémoires de Marie classes are SP12, SP52 and SP53. The Border Papers Stuart, Reine D’Écosse (7 vols, London, 1844); some of (SP59) are important but not comprehensive because these were translated by Agnes Strickland in material was taken out to fill gaps in SP52 and SP53; her Letters of Mary Queen of Scots (2 vols, New York, also, the Calendars are not always reliable on dating or 1844). Mary’s memoirs, as dictated to her secretary, summarising this material. The State Papers Claude Nau, were published in The History of Mary themselves have to be supplemented with other Stewart from the Murder of Riccio until her Flight into archives, mainly the Cotton (Caligula), Lansdowne and England, ed. J. Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1883) but are of Additional (including the Yelverton Manuscripts) mixed reliability. Some documents are also printed in collections in the British Library (in State Papers Online) the large collections of Teulet (Lettres de Marie and the Cecil Papers at Hatfield House (Calendars Stuart (Paris, 1859) and Relations politique de la France on State Papers Online; some documents transcribed in e et d’Espagne avec l’Écosse au XVI siècle (5 vols, Paris, Haynes & Murdin[2]). The State Papers and Letters of Sir 1862)) and others. Inventories of Mary’s clothes and Ralph Sadler, ed. Arthur Collins (2 vols, Edinburgh, jewels have been printed in Joseph Roberston 1804) is also useful. (ed.), Inventaires de la royne Descosse douairiere de France. Catalogues of the jewels, dresses, furniture, books, and paintings of Mary Queen of Scots, 1556– English regime was unpopular with the Elizabethan 1569 (Bannatyne Club, 111; Edinburgh, 1863). Works by regime. English counsellors, like Burghley, were Guy and Donaldson, listed in the bibliography, have concerned that Mary was not only Elizabeth’s heir good guides to all this material. apparent (who would reconcile England to Rome) but feared that France, Spain and the Papacy sought to Mary’s life and reign establish her as the rightful present queen against Elizabeth, the bastard and heretic.[5] Indeed, these were Mary was born on 8 December 1542, inheriting the fears that Mary herself had fanned when she had Scottish throne a week later on the death of her father, quartered the English royal arms with her own when James V. Almost immediately, she was the subject of Queen of France and when she had refused to sign the marriage negotiations with Edward VI of England to Treaty of Edinburgh (which stated she could not bear forge a peace settlement between the two warring the English royal arms or title).[6] A docile, Anglophile realms. These ‘rough wooings’ eventually collapsed (and preferably Protestant) regime was thus central to and, in 1548, Mary was taken to France where she was English security; the changing loyalties of men like betrothed to the Dauphin, Francis. In France, she was Maitland threatened this. brought up in the royal household, learning music, singing, dancing and needlework. In 1558, she married Unlike Elizabeth, relatively little research has been Francis; a little over a year later (10 July 1559), he conducted on Mary’s queenship: how she governed and became king of France – and Mary, queen. But, her addressed the problem of a woman ruler in a man’s position was short-lived. Francis died in December world. Rather, the focus of attention has been on 1560 and her mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici, keen Mary’s claims to the English throne, both in the present to sideline the Guises (Mary’s maternal family), blocked and future, and how she sought to realise them. This marriages both to Francis’s brother, Charles IX, and the dominated Anglo-Scottish relations and, hence, State King of Spain’s son, Don Carlos. Mary returned to Papers Online. In 1561, she opened negotiations with Scotland in 1561. Elizabeth to be recognised as the English Queen’s heir.[7] Elizabeth argued that she would not nominate a During her absence, and with English military support, successor because she knew from her own experience Scotland had installed a Protestant regime under the under Mary I how dangerous this could be for the Lords of the Congregation and ousted the French reigning monarch. Some of her counsellors were garrison (the Treaty of Edinburgh).[3] Mary met this equally reluctant, largely because Mary was a Catholic, unfavourable situation well. She agreed not to change though legal questions about Henry’s will and whether the realm’s religion (she was allowed to practice Mary could inherit the Crown because she had been Catholicism privately) and she quickly won the support born outside England were also factors. Henry had of leading Protestants, such as Lord William Maitland favoured the descendants of his younger sister, Mary, of Lethington, who began to press the English to over those of his elder sister, Margaret, Mary’s paternal acknowledge her claim to the English throne.[4] This grandmother, and lawyers disputed whether he had the turnabout by men who owed their position to the power to alter the succession in this way. They also Elizabeth would not guarantee to nominate her even if debated whether the Crown, unlike land, could be she married Dudley. inherited by aliens. Unsurprisingly, the Dudley match faded away, only to Whilst Elizabeth probably meant her decision to be be replaced by (for the English) a more dangerous one. final, Mary took it as an opening negotiating position In 1565, Elizabeth permitted Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and talks continued. The following year, the two Queens to go to Scotland to take possession of his Scottish planned to meet at Nottingham. Both sides made much estates (his father had been exiled to England). of the monarchs’ femininity: the meeting was presented Whether it was because ‘he was the lustiest and best as a symbolic marriage (Mary sent Elizabeth her proportioned long man she had ever seen’[12] or because picture in a ring akin to a love token) and the of his dynastic credentials to the English crown (the succession problem would be resolved through grandson of Henry VIII’s sister, Margaret, via her feminine friendship, harmony and love rather than second husband, and English-born), Mary quickly male malice and military force.[8] This was exemplified developed a close relationship with him and he rarely in the masques and entertainments that were planned left her side.[13] The English were worried;[14] Elizabeth for the three day meeting.[9] Ultimately, it came to nearly offered Mary the succession if she married naught. Though the English regime saw the advantages Dudley; she also proposed marriages to the Duke of of a settlement with Mary, the outbreak of religious civil Norfolk and the Earl of Arundel.[15] But it was too little, war in France in the spring of 1562, partly precipitated too late: Mary and Darnley were married in July 1565 by the Guise, revived fears of continental Catholic and Darnley was proclaimed king.[16] conspiracy against England to oust both Elizabeth and Though the Darnley match strengthened Mary’s claims Protestantism and replace them with Mary and [10] to the English crown, its disadvantages quickly became Catholicism. apparent. It alienated key supporters like the Earl of Though the meeting never took place, attempts to Moray and the Hamiltons who rebelled unsuccessfully resolve the problems Mary posed to Elizabeth and the (the Chase-about Raid) and went into exile.[17] The succession continued. In 1563 or 1564, Mary renounced English simply refused to recognise the marriage at all her interest in the English Crown (though not the and Darnley proved himself, in the words of one succession).

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