Mary of Guise, Queen of Scotland
The House of Guise, a branch of the ducal family of Lorraine, played an important part in the religious troubles of France during the sixteenth century. By reason of descent from Charlemagne, it laid claim for a brief period to the throne of France. The Guises upheld firmly Catholic interests not only in France, but also in Scotland, where Marie de Lorraine and her daughter, Mary Stuart, were allied to them. Their religious zeal, however, was often tarnished by their own violence, and by that of their partisans; it also coloured certain plans for political reform that were dangerous to monarchical centralization. Finally, the relations which existed for thirty-five years between Spain and the House of Guise roused the suspicions of French patriotism. In their favour it must be said that the Huguenots also were guilty of many acts of violence, and appealed to England, as the Guises did to Spain, and that the Calvmistic nobility was even more dangerous to French unity than the Catholic.
Mary of Guise, Queen of Scotland; b. 22 Nov., 1515; d. at Edinburgh, 10 June, 1560; was sister of Francois de Guise and of the second Cardinal of" Lorraine, and eldest of the twelve children of Claude de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, and Antoinette de Bourbon. Left a widow in 1535, after a year of married life with Louis II d'Orleans, Duke of Longucville, she refused to marry Henry VIII, King of England, but at the express command of Francis I consented to go to Scotland to wed (9 May, 1538) James V, King of Scotland, whose first wife, Margaret of France, had died a year before.
By James V she had (7 or 8 Dec, 1542) one daughter, Mary Stuart, and a week later (14 Dec.) she became a widow and regent. Henry VIII sought to take advantage of this regency to establish in Scotland an anti-Catholic influence, and to this end wrung from Mary of Guise the treaty of 12 March, 1543, which promised Mary Stuart in marriage to Edward, his son. Mary of Guise, however, particularly after the death of her adviser, Cardinal Beaton (1546), looked to France for the support of a Catholic policy, and it was decided by the Estates of Scotland (5 Feb., 1548) that Mary Stuart should be sent to that country, Scotland's oldest and most faithful ally, to be married to the young Dauphin Francis, son of Henry II.
While the Reformation continued to progress in Scotland, Mary of Guise, through the advice and assistance of her brothers, Francois de Guise and the second Cardinal of Lorraine, succeeded in maintaining her authority. From Paris her brothers kept her informed of the great success achieved by her daughter, Mary Stuart. "She rules the king and queen", wrote the Cardinal de Lorraine. On the marriage of Mary Stuart with the Dauphin Francis, Henry II desired them to assume the titles of King and Queen of England and Ireland, alleging that Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was ineligible, being the child of an illegitimate marriage, also a heretic.
The Guises hoped for a brief period that as a result of their policy Catholic rule would be re-established throughout Great Britain. Nicolas de Believe, Bishop of Amiens, and several doctors of the Sorbonne went to Scotland in 1559 to prevail upon Mary of Guise to put on trial all non-Catholic ecclesiastics. Though of a moderate temper, and while she wrote to the Guises that the only means of preserving the old religion in Scotland was to allow the people complete liberty of conscience, the queen dared not oppose the orders from France.
A revolt followed; the Protestants pillaged churches and monasteries and entered Edinburgh. John Knox proclaimed the right of insurrection against tyranny; and the assembly of the peers and barons of the kingdom declared Mary of Guise deposed from the regency (21 Oct., 1559). She was then at Leith, guarded by a troop of French soldiers. They soon overcame the Protestant troops and she was able to enter Edinburgh, but an English army sent by Elizabeth to the assistance of the Protestants laid siege to Edinburgh, and at this juncture Mary of Guise died.
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