Mary Queen of Scots by Retha Warnicke Page B

Arschot’s father, Duke Anthony, lost his bid to enforce his mother Philippa’s claim to Guelders when Emperor Charles seized it in 1543 from William of Cleves, who had attempted to exercise an even more ancient claim to the duchy than Lorraine’s when he became its ruler in 1538. If Mary did wed Don Carlos after he became the Netherlands’ regent, her maternal relatives could view her marriage as a means of recovering their lost rights.
    Lady Arschot’s presence also fed rumors that Mary might wed William of Orange, whom she had met at the Paris wedding of Elizabeth to Philip’s proxy. William was the cousin and heir of Lady Arschot’s first husband, René of Nassau, prince of Orange. Shortly after reaching Nancy on the 22 April where guests were entertained with hunting and plays, Mary was stricken by tertian fever and decided to return with her grandmother to Joinville, convalescing there until late May and missing, therefore, Charles’s coronation on the 15th.
    On the 28th after spending two days at Rheims, Mary departed for St Germain, where the king, the queen regent, Prince Henry, Navarre, Condé, and others greeted her on 10 June. Shortly thereafter, she left court for the Louvre and then for Lorraine’s castle at Dampierre. On the 18th, having returned to the Louvre, she assured Throckmorton of her determination to go home that summer, despite not having fully recovered her health. While awaiting Elizabeth’s response to her request for a passport to land in England in case of an emergency at sea, Mary suffered another, shorter bout of tertian fever. Then on 20 and 21 July, after Throckmorton explained that Elizabeth had denied her a passport because she refused to ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh, Mary replied that she would consult with her estates about the treaty and reminded him that she had not worn England’s arms since her husband’s death, implying that she had been following his and his councilors’ advice. Indeed, in late December 1560 Throckmorton commented on her former subjection to Francis and thought, considering her youth, she was showing wisdom, modesty, and great judgment. Even without the passport she planned to return home because her arrangements were well advanced and her baggage had been dispatched to Le Havre. The seas that could be treacherous to navigate even in the summer months could not deter her.
    DEPARTING FRANCE
    On 25 July after the royal family hosted a four-day series of parties for her at St Germain, she began the 148-mile trip to Calais with six Guise uncles and the duchess of Guise. As their route took them through Normandy and Picardy, she hoped to honor her mother’s body at Fécamp, but the illness of Lorraine and Guise that delayed them at Méru on the 28th ended this plan. They were at Beauvais on 3 August, rested at Abbeville on the 7th and 8th, then left for the Abbey of Forest Monstrier, and reached Boulogne on the 10th and Calais on the 11th. About noon on the 14th, her fleet set sail. Realizing that refusing to grant Mary a passport was a breach of etiquette and opposed, as Surian said, “to the dictates of humanity,” 5 Elizabeth belatedly forwarded one that arrived after her cousin’s departure.
    Although not with her on this voyage, Buchanan, her future tutor and court poet, later alleged that Lorraine advised his niece to leave with him her furniture and wardrobe, presumably including her jewels, from concerns that they might be lost at sea. She reportedly responded: “When she ventured upon danger, she did not see why she should take greater care of her valuables, than of her person.” 6 This was surely Buchanan’s little joke about the cardinal’s alleged greed, since when he wrote it, he was one of Mary’s bitterest enemies. Jewels did actually figure in her farewell, as she gave a string of pearls to Lorraine and a necklace of assorted gems to the duchess. Much more important than mere decorative trinkets, jewels constituted portable wealth