to the ruling Valois dynasty. She told her mother, ‘I can assure you, Madame, that nothing which comes from you shall be known through me.’
Mary’s spending continued to increase, however, and as she grew she needed new dresses, some of cloth of gold. Then, to the horror of her housekeeper, Mme de Parois, she intended to give some old dresses to her aunts, the abbesses of St Pierre and Farmoutiers, to be cut up and used as richly-embroidered altar frontals. This crisis came at the end of 1555 and Mary told her mother of it in a letter on 28 December. De Parois had exploded in fury, since the disposition for sale of cast-offs was one of the fringe benefits of royal service, and she accused Mary of trying to impoverish her. Mary might have been persuaded by the cardinal or her mother that she was, as a thirteen-year-old, exceeding her authority, but Mary knew that as a sovereign queen she could not be overruled, so she maintained her position that she had been maligned by a servant and de Parois, under acertain amount of duress, resigned. Mary’s first display of power was an act of petty malevolence against a defenceless servant.
In his picture of Hollywood, Adventures in the Screen Trade , William Goldman tells us that one of the distinguishing marks of a star is that they know that from the moment they awaken until they go to sleep, no one will ever disagree with them about anything they say, no matter how outlandish. Four hundred and fifty years previously, Mary Stewart had just discovered this extremely dangerous power.
Mary had reacted to de Parois’s complaint by insisting on exerting her power as a queen, but, had she been overruled, she would have left herself no room in which to manoeuvre. Diane de Poitiers’s tactics would have been to persuade the cardinal that her wishes were also his and he would then have removed de Parois on her behalf. Catherine de Medici would simply have had an already well-prepared alternative in case of opposition. Mary’s direct approach verged on a childish tantrum and the effect on her was a physical collapse. This happened frequently when she was challenged and her collapses consisted of vomiting, dizziness, acute depression and bouts of crying, lasting anything from a few days to several weeks. Her normally robust physical health nearly always gave way when reality intruded upon her fantasy existence as a fairy princess, although, on this occasion in 1556, it seems that she had contracted the ‘quartan ague’, actually a recurrent summer fever similar to malaria. Later, she certainly did contract smallpox and thus was at a serious risk of death. Even if she survived, there was a grave possibility of extreme disfigurement, but Catherine put her daughter-in-law-to-be in the hands of her own Dr Fernel, who masterminded Mary’s recovery with her looks unimpaired.
Mary would have taken little interest in the shifting of the tectonic plates of diplomacy when, on 6 July 1553, the sickly boy-king of England Edward VI died, probably of tuberculosis. The threat to France by England lessened as Mary Tudor succeeded him, and the new queen, devotedly Catholic, set about putting a severe brake on the progress of the Protestant Reformation.However, when Mary Tudor married Philip II of Spain, son of Charles V, France was again surrounded by hostile powers. The threat of invasion became a reality when, in 1557, Philip II mobilised his forces in the Netherlands. His ally, the Duke of Savoy, invaded and was met by Montmorency with the French forces at St Quentin, later the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. This earlier battle was equally bloody, resulting in a total defeat for the French, with Montmorency and his sons among the 400 French noblemen taken prisoner and marched off to Brussels. Henri immediately sent for the Duc de Guise and gave him sweeping powers of retaliation. Freeing his enemy Montmorency was not seen as a priority by the duke. However,
Mary’s spending continued to increase, however, and as she grew she needed new dresses, some of cloth of gold. Then, to the horror of her housekeeper, Mme de Parois, she intended to give some old dresses to her aunts, the abbesses of St Pierre and Farmoutiers, to be cut up and used as richly-embroidered altar frontals. This crisis came at the end of 1555 and Mary told her mother of it in a letter on 28 December. De Parois had exploded in fury, since the disposition for sale of cast-offs was one of the fringe benefits of royal service, and she accused Mary of trying to impoverish her. Mary might have been persuaded by the cardinal or her mother that she was, as a thirteen-year-old, exceeding her authority, but Mary knew that as a sovereign queen she could not be overruled, so she maintained her position that she had been maligned by a servant and de Parois, under acertain amount of duress, resigned. Mary’s first display of power was an act of petty malevolence against a defenceless servant.
In his picture of Hollywood, Adventures in the Screen Trade , William Goldman tells us that one of the distinguishing marks of a star is that they know that from the moment they awaken until they go to sleep, no one will ever disagree with them about anything they say, no matter how outlandish. Four hundred and fifty years previously, Mary Stewart had just discovered this extremely dangerous power.
Mary had reacted to de Parois’s complaint by insisting on exerting her power as a queen, but, had she been overruled, she would have left herself no room in which to manoeuvre. Diane de Poitiers’s tactics would have been to persuade the cardinal that her wishes were also his and he would then have removed de Parois on her behalf. Catherine de Medici would simply have had an already well-prepared alternative in case of opposition. Mary’s direct approach verged on a childish tantrum and the effect on her was a physical collapse. This happened frequently when she was challenged and her collapses consisted of vomiting, dizziness, acute depression and bouts of crying, lasting anything from a few days to several weeks. Her normally robust physical health nearly always gave way when reality intruded upon her fantasy existence as a fairy princess, although, on this occasion in 1556, it seems that she had contracted the ‘quartan ague’, actually a recurrent summer fever similar to malaria. Later, she certainly did contract smallpox and thus was at a serious risk of death. Even if she survived, there was a grave possibility of extreme disfigurement, but Catherine put her daughter-in-law-to-be in the hands of her own Dr Fernel, who masterminded Mary’s recovery with her looks unimpaired.
Mary would have taken little interest in the shifting of the tectonic plates of diplomacy when, on 6 July 1553, the sickly boy-king of England Edward VI died, probably of tuberculosis. The threat to France by England lessened as Mary Tudor succeeded him, and the new queen, devotedly Catholic, set about putting a severe brake on the progress of the Protestant Reformation.However, when Mary Tudor married Philip II of Spain, son of Charles V, France was again surrounded by hostile powers. The threat of invasion became a reality when, in 1557, Philip II mobilised his forces in the Netherlands. His ally, the Duke of Savoy, invaded and was met by Montmorency with the French forces at St Quentin, later the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. This earlier battle was equally bloody, resulting in a total defeat for the French, with Montmorency and his sons among the 400 French noblemen taken prisoner and marched off to Brussels. Henri immediately sent for the Duc de Guise and gave him sweeping powers of retaliation. Freeing his enemy Montmorency was not seen as a priority by the duke. However,
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