THE YOUNG QUEEN OF SCOTS IN FRANCE.
Those who have been accustomed to hearing the French court of that time
spoken of as dissolute and vicious, and who have furthermore taken for
granted that Mary's early life was shaped by the unsavoury habits of the
courtiers, and that the crimes of which she was afterwards accused were
only the natural outgrowth of her early training, will do well to
remember that her education was not intrusted to the French court or
courtiers. Antoinette de Bourbon, maternal grandmother of the young
queen, a lady eminent throughout France for her virtues, was the person
in whose hands Mary of Lorraine had placed the religious education of
her child. The brave Duke of Guise (who had won Calais from the
English) and his brother the Cardinal, were also particularly interested
in the welfare of their little niece. To these Mary, from the
beginning, became warmly attached, and their landless and uninterrupted
solicitude for her well-being, sealed that reciprocal love of uncles and
niece which lasted until death.
Mary was already Queen of Scotland and betrothed of the future King of
France, and would probably succeed to the throne of England; nothing,
therefore, was overlooked that would help to qualify her for the high
position to which she was destined. Her education did not stop with the
lighter accomplishments suited to her sex and station; the deeper
studies of literature, ancient and modern; history, Sacred Scripture,
the languages and the fine arts, were assiduously attended to. An
interesting document in the form of a Latin exercise book which she used
when about twelve years of age, is preserved in the National Library in
Paris. It contains sixty-four themes, written in clear characters,
which, however, vary in appearance according to the quality of the pen
and ink she happened to have at hand. She writes on subjects taken from
Plato, Cicero and other classical authors; she cites different works of
Erasmus; she discusses the history of certain learned women of
antiquity; she speaks of the profit to be derived from the study of Holy
Scripture if approached with a pure heart; and among other things she
has a theme on Purgatory, thrown into the form of an epistle addressed
to Calvin. Mary's physical, mental and moral development were studiously
watched, and carefully reported to her mother in Scotland. When she had
just completed her eleventh year, the Cardinal of Guise, in a letter to
her mother, writes of her as follows: "Your daughter has grown much
taller and she daily improves in goodness and virtue, in beauty and
intelligence. She could not possibly make greater progress than she
does in all that is excellent and of good reputation. Never have I seen
her equal in this realm, either among high or low.... You may be
assured that in her you have a daughter who will be the greatest of
comforts to you." Further on the Cardinal drops a remark which shows
that Mary had already developed a trait of character that was
conspicuous throughout the remainder of her life. "In the settlement of
your daughter's establishment, it is my opinion that there should not be
anything that is either superfluous or mean, for meanness is the thing
which, of all others, she hates most in the world."
In a letter written to her mother on the occasion of her first
communion, Mary uttered a prayer which we who know--what she could not
then know--the trials that awaited her, cannot read without being
touched by the sad contrast between her first bright hope and the
subsequent gloom that settled over her life. "I have come," she said,
"to Meudon to Madame my grandmother, in order to keep the feast of
Easter, because she and my uncle--Monsieur the Cardinal--wish that I
should take the Sacrament. I pray to God very humbly to give me grace
that I may make a good beginning."
On Sunday, the 4th of April, 1558, the fair Scottish queen, who was now
in her sixteenth year, was married to the young Dauphin, in the
Cathedral of Notre Dame. All Paris was astir in its festive garments.
Scotland and France vied in adding to the splendour of the feast; the
choicest music swelled along the high arches of the grand old cathedral;
the streets of the gay capital re-echoed with the popular
demonstrations; nor need we doubt that the martial strains of the
Highland pipes mingled with the livelier tones of the French fife and
drum. According to a chronicler of the event, it was the universal
opinion of the multitude that, "if Scotland be a possession of value,
she who is queen of that realm is far more precious, for if she had
neither crown nor sceptre, her single person, in her divine beauty,
would be worth a kingdom."
In the following November, Mary Tudor, Queen of England, died, and Mary
Stewart, at least in the opinion of the Catholics, who did not
acknowledge the legitimacy of Elizabeth, daughter of Ann Boleyn, became,
by right, Queen of England. Mary's title to the crown of England came
through her paternal grandmother, the Princess Margaret, eldest sister
of Henry VIII. A few months later, the death of the French King brought
the Dauphin to the throne, and Mary became Queen of France. A little
more than a year afterwards, she was left a widow of eighteen. She had
all along been, and still was, the pride and admiration of France; yet
she could truly say, "Now, I'm in the world alone." Her father had died
when she was an infant; her father-in-law, who was strongly attached to
her, had been cut off by a sudden death; her husband died shortly after;
and a few months later, the news of her mother's death, under
distressing circumstances, reached her. No wonder she turned her
thoughts away from royal splendour and gave herself up to meditation on
the hollowness of worldly greatness. No wonder it took all the influence
of her friends to persuade her from entering the Convent at Rheims and
passing the remainder of her days under the habit of an humble nun. But
this was not permitted her; and the question of her return to Scotland
began to be discussed. The Estates of Scotland convened to consider the
conditions on which they would permit the return of their Sovereign.
The men who led this movement had shortly before been in open rebellion,
and, with the assistance of Elizabeth of England, had carried on war
against the Queen-Regent, Mary of Lorraine. They had furthermore
concluded a treaty with Elizabeth that was prejudicial to Mary's right
of succession to the English throne; and had, by Act of Parliament,
proscribed the Catholic religion in Scotland. The articles of the treaty
and the acts against Catholic worship had been presented to Mary for
ratification; but she had declined to sanction them, the question being
weighty and she being without counsel of her nobles; more especially,
however, because these were not the work of the Scottish nation, but of
a faction in league with Queen Elizabeth.
Indeed, the English Ambassador to Paris, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, had
repeatedly urged Mary to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh. It was after
an interview with her on this subject that this shrewd and observant
agent of Elizabeth and Cecil penned for the information of the English
court, the following description of the young widow, which is valuable
as the testimony of an enemy who knew her well:--
"During her husband's life no great account was made of her, for that
being under bond of marriage and subjection to him (who carried the
burden and care of all her matters), there was offered no great occasion
to know what was in her. But since her husband's death, she hath shewed
(and so continueth) that she is of great wisdom for her years, and of
equal modesty, and also of great judgment in the wise handling of
herself and her matters; which, increasing with her years, cannot but
turn greatly to her commendation, reputation, honour and great benefit
to herself and her country.... Assuredly she carries herself so
honourably and discreetly that one cannot but fear her progress."
Mary's "modesty and honour," therefore, were already the cause of alarm
to her English foes. What wonder, then, if they strove to dispoil her
of both, or that failing, endeavoured to convince her subject that she
had cast them both from her?
Two delegates were sent from Scotland to negotiate with their Queen
concerning her return. One represented the Congregation,[#] or what may
be called the Revolutionary party--and this was Mary's own half-brother,
Lord James Stewart, later known as the Earl of Moray; the other, John
Leslie, afterwards Bishop of Ross and the life-long friend of Mary,
represented what may be called the old loyal party. The suspicions
entertained by the loyal party as to the honesty of Lord James'
intentions are revealed by the fact that Leslie advised Mary to have him
arrested and detained in France, until she should be firmly seated on
the throne. If she did not care to do this, Leslie recommended that,
instead of going direct to Edinburgh, which was the stronghold of the
Congregation, she should land at Aberdeen, where the Earl of Huntly,
with twenty thousand of her loyal subjects, was prepared to welcome her
and conduct her in triumph to Edinburgh. And when we consider the
influence of the powerful Gordon, who even then was "Cock of the North,"
it seems probable that the Congregation, without the aid of Elizabeth,
could have raised no force sufficient to oppose him.
[#] Since December, 1557, when a certain number of Scottish nobles, at
the instance of Knox, solemnly pledged themselves to support the new
religion and "to forsake and renounce the congregation of Satan,"--by
which they meant the Catholic Church,--the Protestants in Scotland had
been known as the Congregation.
But Mary--for what reason we are not informed, but probably from her
aversion to strife and bloodshed--declined the invitation of the
Catholic Earl, and decided to return to Scotland under the patronage of
neither the circumcised "Saints" of the Congregation, nor the
uncircumcised Philistines of the Gordon country, but as a messenger of
peace who would unite all parties in the bonds of mutual forbearance,
and would seek her support in the undivided loyalty of the realm. So far
she had won all hearts, and had met no man but would have thought it a
privilege to be permitted to devote his life to her service. May we not
suspect that she hoped her personal influence, which had hitherto known
victory only, would soften the animosity of rebel lords and religious
fanatics?
At any rate she prepared to depart for Scotland. "All the bravest and
noblest gentlemen of France assembled themselves around the fairest of
Queens and women," to give her a last proof of their love and respect.
Among the Scottish nobles who formed part of her cortege on her way to
Calais, was he who, a few years later, became the evil genius of her
life--the brave and reckless Earl of Bothwell. In the following
soliloquy, the unfortunate Earl, outlawed and pining away in a Danish
prison, has been made to express his impressions of the young widow when
he first knew her in France:--
"O Mary, Mary, even now,
Seared as I am to shame,
The blood grows thick around my heart
At utterance of thy name!
I see her as in by-gone days,
A widow, yet a child,
Within the fields of sunny France,
When heaven and fortune smiled.
* * * * *
O lovelier than the fairest flower
That ever bloomed on green,
Was she, the darling of the land,
The young and spotless queen.
The sweet, sweet smile upon her lips,
Her eyes so kind and clear,
The magic of her gentle voice,
That even now I hear!
And nobles knelt, and princes bent,
Before her as she came;
A queen by gift of nature she,
More than a queen in name."[#]
[#] "Bothwell," by William Edmondstoune Aytoun.
On the 15th of August, 1561, having bid farewell to her uncles, the
Cardinal and the Duke of Guise, to her other relatives and the large
number of friends and admirers who accompanied her to the water's edge,
she embarked at Calais and turned with a heavy heart to her new home,
where her mother, only a few months before, had been denied a grave;
where the death of her husband had been made the subject of rude jibes,
and where she herself had been denounced by the leader of the new
religion, as another Jezebel. France may be said in the meantime to
have been in mourning; and the words of the poet Ronsard, poetry though
they be, express a feeling that was common to the nation.
"Ho! Scotland," he writes, "I would that thou mightest wander like
Delos on the face of the sea, or sink to its profoundest depths, so that
the sails of thy bright queen, vainly striving to seek her realm, might
suddenly turn and bear her back to her fair Duchy of Tourraine."
Six days after her departure, having evaded, under cover of a dense fog,
the English cruisers sent out to intercept her, she landed at Leith, and
proceeded to the Royal Palace of Holyrood at Edinburgh.