The secret documents were extremely clever. They were written in florid and high-flown language to create the illusion that Scotland’s national interests were indeed protected—but by Henry II and the Valois dynasty. Mary was only fifteen; she was not a constitutional lawyer. Her identity was shaped in France and bound up intimately with Henry II and the Valois dynasty. No one had told her that the secret documents, and especially the third, were illegal by Scots law. Again Mary was inclined to be too trusting. She had already signed thirty-five blank sheets of paper for her mother’s
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