585. Mary, Queen of Scots: The Royal Rivals (Part 2)

In marked contrast to her childhood treatment in Scotland, where she was considered at first a sickly child unlikely to live, and later a pawn in a dynastic game, Even at five years old, Mary was hailed as a figure of romance in France, a brave little queen who had been forced to flee the barbaric Scots, the cruel English, for the safe arms of all embracing France. The stage was already set in French minds for the appearance of a childish heroine. To their satisfaction, Mary Stuart, with her charm, her prettiness, and the natural docility of youth, was ideal material to be moulded into the playing of this golden role.

So that was Lady Antonia Fraser in her celebrated biography of Mary, Queen of Scots, and she, Tom, is describing the impact that the infant, well not really infant, because she's five years old, that the young Scottish queen makes on the French court after she arrives in France in the summer. of 1548. And in our first episode you set the scene, didn't you, by talking about the sort of turbulent politics of Mary's childhood, the death of her father and so on when she was only a week old, and then all this complicated political game with Henry VIII and with the French court. So just remind us what went on there. Yeah, so the rough wooing.

Henry VIII wanted um Mary Queen of Scots to marry his son, the future Edward VI. He thought he'd got the deal, then it got ripped up, he got absolutely irate and sent the English to to burn and slaughter and loot, which they then did for eight years. And the impact of this ultimately is that Mary Queen of Scots' French mother, Mary of Guise, who is part of France's leading noble dynasty, she's able to uh foil the English and secure a French match for her daughter. And when I say a French match, I mean it's the most brilliant French match imaginable.

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