Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘The events of 1562 and the acceptance of a parliament with strong Protestant leanings in 1563 show how far Mary was reinforcing and confirming her original choice, to allow her government and therefore her kingdom to be controlled by the Protestants. She had thrown away the opportunities which existed in 1561’

‘We do know, however, that Mary Queen of Scots’ council was dominated by the leading Protestants of 1559-60, Argyll, Glencairn, lord James and others. Of the sixteen, only four were Catholics: Huntly, his junior partner in the north, Erroll, another northern earl, Atholl, and the earl of Montrose. We also know that she simply retained those who already held the offices of state’

‘The only direct part she played in the resolution of the conflict between French, English and Scots, which took place less than a month after the death of Mary of Guise, was on the matter of her use of the English arms, which she had promptly assumed on the death of Mary Tudor, thus publicly asserting that Elizabeth, illegitimate in Catholic eyes, had no valid title to the English throne.’

‘Mary of Guise died on 11 June 1560. Mary Queen of Scots returned to Scotland on 19 August 1561. It is highly symbolic that Mary’s personal rule should begun with a vacuum, which lasted for fourteen months; not only was she absent, but throughout that period, as lord James Stewart pointed out to her, she left her kingdom without any legally constituted government at all.’

‘Henri II insisted that, as a reigning monarch, she must take precedence over his daughters. But her value in his eyes was that she was his son’s future bride, though whom he would control Scotland; he did not envisage her doing so herself as an individual monarch, and the secret agreements she made just before her marriage show far she agreed with him.’

‘It was undoubtedly unusual - and normally disadvantageous - for any ruler brought up in one country to rule over another, very different, one. As a Fleming, Charles V was never loved by the Spaniards; as a Spaniard, his son Philip II was alienated from the Flemings. Both were at home in their country of origin, and had to struggle to establish viable contacts and understanding with their subjects elsewhere.’

‘She was of course aware that she came from a Catholic to a barely Protestant country in a state of intense flux and religious upheaval; her new subjects presented her with a set of pressing confessional and political problems. But behind the imminent business of dealing with the Scotland of the early 1560s lay the even more complex matter of appreciating the nature of her kingdom’

‘Mary Queen of Scots signed away her Scottish kingdom to France, in three secret agreements. First, she made a free gift of Scotland, and her claim to England, to the French king, should she die without issue; second, she put her country in pawn, for the money spent by France in defending it and educating her; and third, she negated in advance any agreement between her and the Scottish Estates‘

Read quite a bit of this for class and my essay, but not read it from cover to cover before.

‘Her father had loomed larger than life; his word had been law and he had both loved and bullied her, given her lavish gifts, but destroyed her friends. He had once seemed to acknowledge that she would be his heir, but then snatched the prospect away. He had tantalised her with glimpses of a life free of his tyranny as a prince’s wife in a foreign land, and then rejected every possibility before it came to fruition’

‘It has often been said that Katherine reconciled Henry to Mary. While Katherine undoubtedly fostered good relations within her new family, we have seen that Mary and her father had largely enjoyed a good relationship since her submission to his authority in 1536 and Mary already took part in court life.’

‘ill during March and April of 1542. Henry put his own physicians at her service but in early April she was still suffering with ‘palpitations of the heart’ and was considered in danger of her life. On 22 April Chapuys wrote to Mary of Hungary that the princess’s health was still giving cause for grave concern. The heart palpitations might suggest a chest infection or even perhaps post-traumatic stress disorder’

‘Mary spent Christmas 1538 at Blackfriars, once again ill with her ‘old sickness’... If Mary’s illness were stress-related, a relapse would hardly be surprising - reaction to the executions of her cousins, Montagu and Exeter, and the house-arrest of Lady Salisbury may well have been a contributing factor. In January, old servants of Katharine’s were also questioned and admitted carrying letters‘

‘Mary had signed the documents of submission to Henry in the belief that the pope would absolve her... Cifuentes, Charles’s envoy in Rome, was appalled to discover Chapuys had encouraged Mary to submit to Henry’s demands. He had received her request for papal absolution, but he thought that unless she renounced her oath in front of two witnesses, it could not be given.’

‘As noted, Henry had not necessarily wanted Mary to be branded a bastard - had Elizabeth been a boy, the problem would have gone away, and Mary could have been displaced without losing all her status. Similarly, if no living child had resulted from the pregnancy, he would still have had an heir who had not been declared illegitimate. But he was now faced with disaster - two daughters.’

‘she was given the news that her father had married Anne Boleyn. Her immediate reaction was to be ‘a little sad’, but pulling herself together, she made no comment, only resolving to write immediately to her father... The letter itself is unknown to history, but Chapuys said Henry was pleased with it and praised his daughter’s prudence. From this, we can perhaps infer Mary said nothing of substance’

‘That spring, she caught smallpox, as did several maids in Queen Katharine’s household. Smallpox was bot so virulent in the 1520s as it later became, but it was a dangerous sickness, and could leave the sufferer badly scarred. Even hostile descriptions do not mention Mary being scarred so perhaps, since she was still young, she was only lightly touched. By 4 August, she was reported to be better again’

‘On St George’s Dat 1527, the French ambassadors went to see Mary at Greenwich... The proud father told the ambassadors to speak to his daughter in Latin, French and Italian, and she was well able to respond in all three languages. She also wrote in French for them, before performing on the spinet. The ambassadors agreed the young lady was very accomplished for her age, which was eleven years and two months.’

‘From mid-1525, government documents do refer to her as Princess of Wales... So, while Henry did not issue formal Letters Patent, the title was used in documents and grants, Mary was referred to as Princess of Wales and, by inference, was his heir. Similarly, a despatch from the Imperial ambassador in Rome, the Duke of Sessa, dated 25 August 1525, called her Princess of Wales.’

‘In 1518, when Henry had accepted the French proposition that Mary was his heir in default of a son, he had still been hoping for more children. By 1521, he seemed resigned to the idea of Mary succeeding him. This, he said, made her a more advantageous match for the emperor than Charlotte and ought to attract a reverse dowry. If he subsequently had a son, Henry would pay the same dote of 300,000 crowns’

‘Sixty years later, Mary’s relative, James VI of Scotland, was to say that he had been taught to speak Latin before he had learnt Scots, and Mary may have had a similar early immersion in both Latin and French. Her first Latin teacher was probably Katharine herself, followed by Dr Richard Fetherstone, Katharine’s chaplain. Mary’s tutor for French was Giles Duwes.’

‘Once she was safely christened, and protected from the wiles of the devil, attention could be turned to Mary’s material comfort. Although Mary was her father’s heir at birth, Henry had no wish to acknowledge this - she was merely a placeholder until the birth of his son, so, while a son would have had the dignity of his own household, Mary was accommodated within that of her parents.’