Mary, Queen of Scots. Who was she while she was at the French
court during the reign of Henry II and his wife, Queen Consort, Catherine de Medici?
History tells us that Mary Queen of Scots, grew up under the care of the Queen Consort of France,
Catherine de Medici, reaches adulthood, and presents a threat to the Queen Consort.
But was she really a threat?
What exactly was the relationship between Catherine and Mary? Did they like each other?
Was there spite and venom between them as it appears in the Serpent Queen mini series;
or was their relationship much more complex?
Let's delve into this topic and find out if there was hate,
love or something in between for these two fierce and feisty women in history.
First of all, it should be noted that Mary came to the French court as a child queen,
the Queen of Scotland, to be exact.
At only six days old, Mary was the only surviving legitimate child and the presumptive heir to
the throne of King James V of Scotland who died of a fever in December 1542.
She was immediately crowned Queen of Scotland,
in spite of a tradition that preferred only male rulers.
As soon as she was crowned, the infamous King Henry VIII of England started trying
to get Mary betrothed to his son Edward, and he would stop at nothing to accomplish it.
But Scotland rejected Henry’s proposal and the King’s responded by what is now termed,
the “Rough Wooing” where King Henry tried to strong arm Scotland into agreeing to the union
through brute force (which means he sent soldiers to fight against the Scots on their native soil).
Scotland, terrified of King Henry VIII and losing badly to his forces, turned to France for help.
The French king Francis I, agreed, as long as she marry his first born son Francis.
From that point on, a five year old Mary, Queen of Scots was officially betrothed to Francis,
the three year old French heir to the throne formally called Dauphin.
It was then decided to send Mary to France so that she could be out of
the way of Henry VIII’s rampage. She was accompanied by her ladies in waiting,
famously known as her ‘Four Maries’ and a retinue of Scottish nobles came along to
watch over her, ensure her safety and report back to the court of Scotland.
She was first sent to a convent for education and lodging. There were several nuns of extremely
good character at the convent where Mary was sent, and they showed a great deal of interest
in her since she was a queen, beautiful, and had a loving and gentle personality.
Mary developed a great attachment to these sisters and started to consider becoming a
nun so she could live in the convent with them for the rest of her life;
where she was with people who loved her and who she loved in return.
But King Francis I of France and the Scottish nobles who had come with
her from Scotland, were opposed to any such plan.
They intended her to be married to the young prince, and to become one of the
great ladies of the court, to lead a life of magnificence and splendor.
So they decided to take her immediately away; hence she was sent to palace of the king,
where she would spend her day until her marriage to the prince.
In all the years that Mary spent her childhood at the French court, she was visited only once by her
mother, and I think this plays into the dynamics of the relationship between Mary and Catherine.
In the French royal court, Mary was subjected to a great deal of restraint.
In royal houses of the day, rules of etiquette were exceedingly specific
and tightly enforced and as Mary grew older, she was subjected to greater and greater restraint.
As a result, it came to be that Mary would spend a considerable portion of every day in the
apartments of Queen Catherine, wife and mother of the little Francis to whom she was to be married.
From the get go, Catherine inwardly did not like the young Queen of Scots,
but outwardly, she appeared congenial enough.
Some historians say that she was jealous of Mary because Mary was more beautiful and accomplished
and more generally beloved than even Catherine's own daughters, the princesses of France.
It is reported that she treated Mary in rather a stern and haughty manner,
and that she might even end up opposing Mary's marriage to her son Francis.
Mary, on the other hand, felt entirely the opposite. Mary liked Queen Catherine
and looked up to her with admiration, and became attached her, very probably since she
represented a mother figure. Catherine was, after all, the mother of Mary's
young fiancé and children quite naturally develop with a strong need for attachment.
Also, we need to take into account that king Francis I expected Catherine to
take the child under her wing since Mary was a queen in her own right and
would be the wife of his grandson.
In the queens chambers, the two of them would sit together and just talk, or they would work
on their embroidery, which was a famous past time for ladies of exalted rank in those days.
When Mary first became acquainted with Catherine on these occasions, she used to love her company.
It was said that she admired Catherine's talents and her conversational powers,
and she liked very much to be in her room. She listened to all that Catherine said,
watched her movements, and endeavored in all things to follow her example.
Catherine however, was cynical and thought that it might all be a pretense,
and that Mary did not really like her but only wished to make her believe
that she did, in order to get favor or to accomplish some other selfish end.
One day Mary was asked why she seemed to prefer the queen's company to that of her
youthful and more suitable companions in the court. Mary said that she couldn't learn from
the other children the way that she could learn from Queen Catharine's
conversations (something which would be of use to her as a guide in her future life.)
One would have thought that this answer would have pleased the queen,
but it did not because she didn't believe that it was sincere.
At this point, we have to remember that Catherine de Medici had a rough childhood
and was never able to develop a feeling of trust in the world, so naturally she didn't trust this
presumptuous child who could one day easily challenge Catherine's position at the court.
Adding to this, the day came when Mary made a
mis-step in their relationship where she offended Catherine to the core.
Mary was of royal blood and Catherine was not.
Mary happened to say a bit boastfully in conversation in the presence of
Queen Catharine, that she herself was the descendant of a hundred kings.
This rankled Catherine, thinking that she must be
considered inferior by this child who had been spending so much time by her side.
I am guessing that this is when Catharine set her mind not to ever like or trust Mary,
no matter how much others in the court may love her.
During the course of her childhood, Mary had developed strong bonds with not only her
betrothed, Francis but his sisters as well; which only increased the envy Catherine had of Mary.
Fast forward to Mary's marriage to Francis on April 24th, 1558,
which lasted less than two years.
By this time, Catherine de Medici's father in law, King Francis I had died
and Catherine's husband was now King Henry II of France, making her queen consort of France.
But then, Henry II died on July 10th, 1559 from a jousting accident. And Mary, because she was
married to the first son of Henry and Catherine i.e. Francis, suddenly became the queen consort.
Francis was crowned King Francis II at the age of 14 and Mary was 15 going on 16.
All of this put Mary in direct competition with Catherine since Catherine was no longer
queen consort due to Henry's death and she was demoted to the position
of queen dowager (which was yet another reason for Catherine to dislike Mary).
But then Francis II died. Francis died 18 months after his coronation
of a middle ear infection that led to an abscess in his brain.
Even though Mary and Catherine spent an anxious and distraught time together by
Francis's bedside as he lay dying, they still remained enemies (at least in Catherine's mind).
Mary was overwhelmed with grief at the death of her husband. She knew at once what a great
change it would make in her condition. She would lose immediately her rank and station.
Queen Catharine would come into power as queen regent when her second son,
Charles IX took the throne.
Some historians go so far as to say that Queen Catharine was happy at the death of Francis
because it meant that her rank and power were restored; but to say she was happy is a bit much.
By the way,this is where the Starz show The Serpent Queen
begins the story of Catherine de Medici when she is planning the
coronation ceremonies for Charles IX's ascension to the throne in Episode one.
Catherine de Medici rose to great heights of power as Queen Regent across a span of 30 years.
She did this with intelligence, cunning and a willingness to be ruthless when needed.
As for Mary, she returned to Scotland to be their Queen and to also attempt to take the throne
of England from Queen Elizabeth I (but that is a long story and one many people are familiar with).
Suffice it to say that it was the ultimate end of Mary when she was
beheaded for treason against Queen Elizabeth I on February 8th, 1587.
So was the relationship between Mary Queen of Scots and Catherine de Medici
a hateful one? Well, it appears that it was from Catherine's side
of things. Perhaps not so much for Mary but it hard to say for sure.
The source that I used to get insight into how Mary the child, felt about
Catherine de Medici is from a 1904 biography by Jacob Abbott entitled, Makers of History,
Mary Queen of Scots. I left a link for you to read this for free, in the community tab of my channel.
So now it's time for you to leave comments and tell me if you think
Mary held any animosity towards Catherine and why you think that might be the case.
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