acquiring glory for the name of Guise was, and he made a raid on the fort of Calais, poorly defended by the English. On 1 January 1558, the town fell to France. Mary Tudor felt the loss of England’s last foothold in France keenly, declaring that if her heart were to be opened after her death, people would find the word ‘Calais’ engraved on it. Henri held an entrée joyeuse into Calais and the Duc de Guise was made Lieutenant-General of France. The final link binding the king and the house of Guise was now ready to be forged.
A marriage between Mary, as a daughter of the house of Guise, and François de Valois would form the strongest bond possible, as well as answering Henri’s need to encircle England. In Scotland, Marie de Guise, who was trying to stem the tide of the Scottish Reformation, was enthusiastic about having the next king of France as her son-in-law. A significant number of the Scottish nobility had rejected her government and signed the First Band (or Bond). They were later known as the Protestant Lords of the Congregation, and, although Marie de Guise had effectively stalemated these men, there were growing signs of an alternative, Protestant, government beginning to come into existence. It was still nascent, and indeed its spiritual leader, John Knox, had travelled to Dieppe, only to be sent back into exile at Geneva, with John Calvin, having been told that the time for his return was not yet ripe.
Prior to the capture of Calais, and easily foreseeing what was to come, Marie de Guise sent nine commissioners to France to negotiate the terms of the marriage. With the diplomatic skill instinctive to the Guises she was careful to include Lord James Stewart, Mary’s half-brother; Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Cassilis; and John Erskine of Dun, all three men Protestants, but totally reliable in their defence of Scotland’s liberties. They were all enthusiastic about the marriage since it might very well mean that Mary would live out her life in France, leaving Scotland open for their own exercise of power in a council of regency. At this time Mary certainly had no plans to return.
The terms of the marriage agreement were largely what had been agreed at Haddington and came as no surprise to the commissioners, but what did come as a shock was that the French negotiations were supervised by Diane de Poitiers. These men had dealt, reluctantly and unsatisfactorily, with the queen regent, Marie, and here was another Frenchwoman, neither a queen nor a regent, but in their Protestant eyes, simply the king’s whore. There were no ministers of state or chancellors attending and the negotiations were to be very straightforward. In fact, Henri could afford to be as generous as the Scots requested since he had put into action plans for an alternative, secret, treaty.
Once the Scots lords had recovered their composure after meeting the haughty beauty Diane, negotiations began. The agreement on the table reiterated Mary’s pledge to preserve the freedom, liberties and privileges of Scotland; on marriage the young couple would be the King-Dauphin and Queen-Dauphine, but François would be King of Scotland until he succeeded to the French throne, when he would become king of both nations. All Frenchmen would be naturalised Scotsmen and eventually all Scotsmen would, similarly, be naturalised Frenchmen, 2 but in the meantime Scotland would be governed onbehalf of the absent royal children by Marie, Queen Regent. If Mary died without heirs, then the crown would revert to the next heir by blood. Since this was the Duc de Châtelherault, both sides prayed fervently that this would never happen. If François died first, which seemed likely, Mary would receive a payment of 600,000 livres, and her male issue would inherit both crowns, while, under the Salic laws of France, her female issue would inherit only the Scottish crown.
The only disputed point was that François would not receive the Scottish crown for his coronation as
A marriage between Mary, as a daughter of the house of Guise, and François de Valois would form the strongest bond possible, as well as answering Henri’s need to encircle England. In Scotland, Marie de Guise, who was trying to stem the tide of the Scottish Reformation, was enthusiastic about having the next king of France as her son-in-law. A significant number of the Scottish nobility had rejected her government and signed the First Band (or Bond). They were later known as the Protestant Lords of the Congregation, and, although Marie de Guise had effectively stalemated these men, there were growing signs of an alternative, Protestant, government beginning to come into existence. It was still nascent, and indeed its spiritual leader, John Knox, had travelled to Dieppe, only to be sent back into exile at Geneva, with John Calvin, having been told that the time for his return was not yet ripe.
Prior to the capture of Calais, and easily foreseeing what was to come, Marie de Guise sent nine commissioners to France to negotiate the terms of the marriage. With the diplomatic skill instinctive to the Guises she was careful to include Lord James Stewart, Mary’s half-brother; Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Cassilis; and John Erskine of Dun, all three men Protestants, but totally reliable in their defence of Scotland’s liberties. They were all enthusiastic about the marriage since it might very well mean that Mary would live out her life in France, leaving Scotland open for their own exercise of power in a council of regency. At this time Mary certainly had no plans to return.
The terms of the marriage agreement were largely what had been agreed at Haddington and came as no surprise to the commissioners, but what did come as a shock was that the French negotiations were supervised by Diane de Poitiers. These men had dealt, reluctantly and unsatisfactorily, with the queen regent, Marie, and here was another Frenchwoman, neither a queen nor a regent, but in their Protestant eyes, simply the king’s whore. There were no ministers of state or chancellors attending and the negotiations were to be very straightforward. In fact, Henri could afford to be as generous as the Scots requested since he had put into action plans for an alternative, secret, treaty.
Once the Scots lords had recovered their composure after meeting the haughty beauty Diane, negotiations began. The agreement on the table reiterated Mary’s pledge to preserve the freedom, liberties and privileges of Scotland; on marriage the young couple would be the King-Dauphin and Queen-Dauphine, but François would be King of Scotland until he succeeded to the French throne, when he would become king of both nations. All Frenchmen would be naturalised Scotsmen and eventually all Scotsmen would, similarly, be naturalised Frenchmen, 2 but in the meantime Scotland would be governed onbehalf of the absent royal children by Marie, Queen Regent. If Mary died without heirs, then the crown would revert to the next heir by blood. Since this was the Duc de Châtelherault, both sides prayed fervently that this would never happen. If François died first, which seemed likely, Mary would receive a payment of 600,000 livres, and her male issue would inherit both crowns, while, under the Salic laws of France, her female issue would inherit only the Scottish crown.
The only disputed point was that François would not receive the Scottish crown for his coronation as
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