Wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Francis, Dauphin of France

Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–1587) married Francis, Dauphin of France (1544–1560), at Notre-Dame de Paris on 24 April 1558. Background

Mary became the Scottish monarch soon after her birth when her father, James V, died in December 1542. A plan for her to marry the English Prince Edward was controversial in Scotland, and resulted in a war between England and Scotland, now known as the Rough Wooing.Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2000), pp. 6–10. After Scottish forces were defeated on at the battle of Pinkie, a Convention of Scottish nobles at Edinburgh on 16 October 1547 agreed to pursue an alliance with France. They hoped Henry II of France would give them financial aid and military support. They were prepared to give Henry II strongholds in Scotland including Dunbar Castle. Mary would be sent to France and married to the Dauphin. A French diplomat Henri Cleutin promoted these arrangements and gained the consent of James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran, who ruled Scotland as Regent and Governor.Pamela E. Ritchie, Mary of Guise (Tuckwell, 2002), pp. 22–25.

Mary was sent to France, taking ship at Dumbarton, following an agreement contracted at Haddington on 7 July 1548 by Henri Cleutin and André de Montalembert with the Regent Arran.Lucinda H. S. Dean, 'In the Absence of an Adult Monarch', Medieval and Early Modern Representations of Authority in Scotland and the British Isles (Routledge, 2016), p. 144: Marie-Noëlle Baudouin-Matuszek, 'Mary Stewart's Arrival in France in 1548', Scottish Historical Review, 69:87, Part 1 (April 1990), pp. 90–95: Marie-Noëlle Baudoin-Matuszek, 'Henri II et les expéditions Françaises en Écosse', Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes, 145:2 (Juillet-Décembre 1987), pp. 339–382. Records of the Parliaments of Scotland, 1 July 1548, Legislation: treaty of HaddingtonThomas Thomson, Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland: 1424–1567, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1814), pp. 481–482.

Mary was brought up at the French court with the royal children Elisabeth of Valois and Claude of Valois,Susan Broomhall, 'In the Orbit of the King: Women, Power, and Authority at the French Court, 1483–1563', Women and Power at the French Court, 1483–1563 (Amsterdam, 2018), p. 17 : Alphonse de Ruble, La première jeunesse de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1891).Marcus Merriman, 'Mary, Queen of Scots', Innes Review, 38 (1987), p. 36. . and betrothed to the heir of the French crown, the Dauphin, Francis of Valois, the son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.Jane T. Stoddart, The Girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1908), p. 142

Arguments for and against the wedding Mary's mother, Mary of Guise, ruled as regent from 1554. By the end of 1556, she felt that the wedding of her daughter and the dauphin ought to take place sooner rather than later. She thought the Parliament of Scotland would be more likely to accept her pro-French policies if Mary was married to the French prince. Opponents claimed she was replacing traditional Scots laws with French practice, and the Parliament had rejected her proposals for a tax. There were also troubling rumours that Mary, Queen of Scots, was unwell, and might not survive. Mary of Guise wanted the wedding to cement a dynastic union of France and Scotland.Pamela E. Ritchie, Mary of Guise in Scotland: A Political Career (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2002), pp. 168–171.

Henry II of France had a role in the decision as protector of Scotland, and in the French court a party, including the Constable of France, Anne de Montmorency, 1st Duke of Montmorency, opposed the marriage and the power it would give to Mary's uncles François, Duke of Guise, and Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. According to James Melville of Halhill, the brothers argued that the marriage would enable Henry II to build more fortresses and hold stronger garrisons in Scotland. After gaining the support of the Scottish Parliament, Mary of Guise was able to frame her arguments in March 1557 for the wedding as a measure in Henry's military interests.Pamela E. Ritchie, Mary of Guise in Scotland: A Political Career (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2002), pp. 172–175.

Betrothal Henry II requested that Scottish commissioners be sent to France to finalise the marriage treaty.Maurice Lee, jnr., James Stewart, Earl of Moray: A Political Study of the Reformation in Scotland (New York, 1953), p. 29. The commissioners for the marriage in 1558 did not agree with proposals that Francis should have a coronation in France after the wedding, with the Honours of Scotland, but he would become King of Scotland, entitled to a crown matrimonial.John Parker Lawson, History of Scotland by Robert Keith, 1 (Edinburgh, 1845), pp. 165–173, 354–364.

Already, Mary had signed documents at the Palace of Fontainebleau on 4 April 1558 which disposed her rights to the Scottish crown in the event of her death and committed Scotland to compensate the French crown for its expenses as her ally in the Rough Wooing.Thomas Finlayson Henderson, Mary Queen of Scots: Her Environment and Tragedy (London, 1905), pp. 99–100: Jane T. Stoddart, The Girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1908), p. 153.David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), pp. 23–26.John Guy, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (Fourth Estate, 2009), pp. 90–91.Pamela Ritchie, Mary of Guise: A Political Career (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2002), pp. 191–192.Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary of Guise (London: Collins, 1977), p. 216. These documents, which conveyed potential advantages to the French crown, are thought to have been unknown to the Scottish commissioners.Jane Dunn, Elizabeth & Mary (London, 2003), p. 14: Pamela Ritchie, Mary of Guise in Scotland (East Linton, Tuckwell, 2002), p. 191: Joseph Stevenson, Mary Stuart: a Narrative of the First Eighteen Years of Her Life (Edinburgh, 1886), p. 147: Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, 1 (London: Dolman, 1844), pp. 50–56

Mary and Francis were betrothed at the Louvre on 19 April 1558.Stuart Carroll, Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe (Oxford, 2011), p. 82: David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), p. 21: Alphonse de Ruble, La première jeunesse de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1891), p. 152.Retha M. Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 49. They signed a contract in which Mary declared her wish and consent to marry, with the advice of the representatives of the Three Estates of Scotland and her grandmother, Antoinette of Bourbon, the Dowager Duchess of Guise.John Parker Lawson, History of the Church in Scotland by Robert Keith, 1 (Edinburgh: Spottiswoode Society, 1844), 353–359 The formalities were followed by dancing.Jane T. Stoddart, The Girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1908), p. 143: Alexandre Teulet, Papiers d'État, 1, p. 292. The Venetian ambassador, Giovanni Michiel, wrote that during the first dance, Antoine of Navarre whispered to him about controversy at the French court concerning the marriage plan. Anne de Montmorency, 1st Duke of Montmorency had wished the wedding deferred.Alexander Wilkinson, Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), p. 37: David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), pp. 20–21: Rawdon Brown, Calendar of State Papers, Venice, 6:3 (London, 1881), p. 487 no. 1216.

The day (19 April) is sometimes known as Mary's handfasting,Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, 3 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1852), p. 71. a word used in an early translation of John Lesley's History of Scotland. Giovanni Michiel called the occasion, il giorno dello dar della mano.David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), p. 21: Thomas Thomson, The History of Scotland by John Lesley (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1833), p. 264

The Scottish negotiators and commissioners for the marriage contracts included James Stewart, Commendator of St Andrews and the Earl of Cassilis, who took out personal loans with an Italian financier Timothy Cagnioli to pay their travel costs.Annie I. Cameron, Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 411–413. Cassilis, Rothes, Lord Fleming, and Robert Reid, Bishop of Orkney died in Paris or in Dieppe while returning to Scotland later in the year.Pamela Ritchie, Mary of Guise: A Political Career (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2002), p. 195: David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland: 1585–1592, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1881), p. 66.E. Cody & W. Murison, The Historie of Scotland by Jhone Leslie, 2 (Edinburgh: STS: Blackwood, 1895), pp. 384–385.Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, 1 (London: Dolman, 1844), p. 58 The diplomats may have died of plague, Mary's opponents and Scottish chronicle writers later claimed they were poisoned as victims of a plot.John Guy, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (Fourth Estate, 2009), p. 93: Thomas Thomson, Diurnal of Occurrents (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1833), p. 268Aeneas James George Mackay, Chroniclis of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: STS, 1899), pp. 126–127 The surviving diplomats returned to Scotland in October in a ship commanded by Captain Delaforce, who was rewarded with a gold chain made by John Mosman.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 10 (Edinburgh, 1913), pp. lxxix, 393, 398, 444.

Wedding at Notre-Dame

There are several contemporary accounts of the wedding.Alexander Wilkinson, Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 43–49, 174 fn.29: Herbert Van Scoy, Bernerd C. Weber, 'The Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and the Dauphin', Scottish Historical Review, 31:111, Part 1 (April 1952), p. 42 fn.9.Alexandre Teulet, Papiers d'état, 1 (Paris, 1851), pp. 292–303Alexandre Teulet, Relations politiques de la France et de l'Espagne avec l'Ecosse, 1 (Paris, 1862), pp. 302–311Douglas Hamer, 'The Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin: A Scottish printed Fragment', The Library, Vol. s4 XII, Issue 4 (March 1932), 420–428. There was a procession from the Bishop's Palace to the church on a newly built scaffold and gallery, described as a theatre ou eschaufault with a gallerie.Sarah Carpenter & Graham Runnalls, 'The Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots', Medieval English Theatre, 22 (2000): William Bentham, Ceremonial at the Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scotts with the Dauphin of France (London: Roxburghe Club, 1818), pp. 4, 9: Discours du grand et magnifique triumphe faict au mariage (Rouen, 1558).Retha Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 49.Armand Eudel du Gord, Recueil de fragments historiques sur les derniers Valois (Paris, 1869), p. 61 The events of day had many similarities to the wedding of Mary's father, James V, to Francis's aunt, Madeleine of Valois, on 1 January 1537.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V of Scotland (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), pp. 91, 187–188.