Real Royals: Mary Stuart
With Reign reigning supreme on the CW network, the interest in this young, intriguing monarch whose life was filled dramatic happenings has been sparked anew. While the show is charming viewers, Reign is more fiction than history, which is sad considering that her history was rife with things that could have made for amazing (and historically accurate) drama. Her ascension to the throne at the age of six-days-old, her flight to France, widowhood at a young age, witnessing the brutal murder of her musician while pregnant with the heir to throne, the murder of her second husband, abduction by her third husband, and her death at the scaffold at the hands of her cousin would have all made for interesting television. Yet the CW made the decision to focus on a fictional account of her teenage years. So who was this young woman that the French tried to manipulate and the English tried to eliminate?
Mary was born on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1542, at Linlithgow Palace in West Lothian to King James V of Scotland and his queen consort, Marie de Guise from the powerful French family the House of Lorraine.
Shortly after Mary’s birth, she was baptized in St. Michael’s Church, next to Linlithgow Palace. James V did not attend the baptism of his daughter—and only legitimate surviving heir—as he was near to suffering a nervous collapse—which was believed to be brought on by his army’s recent defeat by the English forces at Solway Moss—had been moved first to Edinburgh Castle then Falkland Castle where he took to his bed. When learning that his child had survived birth, it is said that he said, ‘Adieu, farewell, it (the Scottish Crown) cam wi’ a lass, it will gang wi’ a lass’. A week later, the thirty-one-year old king was dead.
Mary became Queen of Scotland at just six-days-old. As she was a minor at the time her accession, regency was unavoidable and after a brief power struggle between James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran and Cardinal David Beaton—which would continue until Mary of Guise became her daughter’s regent in 1554—the Earl of Arran, and heir presumptive, was appointed Governor of Scotland.
Ever the opportunist, Henry VIII of England saw the regency as his chance to finally gain control of Scotland, which he viewed as ‘a thorn in his side’, by arranging a marriage between his son and heir, Prince Edward, aged 5, and Queen Mary, who was six months old at the time. Under pressure from Henry VIII, Arran agreed to purse an English marriage for Mary. Given the military supremacy of England, the Scottish parliament gave their consent too.