Abstract
On 21 September 1548, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and fiancée to the dauphin François, arrived in Angers.1 A spectacular entrée festival greeted her arrival. A rich display of tapestries produced a flow of colour, draping neatly from almost every building that lined the streets of the city.2 On arrival, the royal party and, most likely, representative groups from the various social strata of the city, processed from the gate of Saint-Nicholas to the church of Angers.3 Guillaume Lerat, sieur de Beauchamp, then in his final year as mayor delivered the official harangue ‘as if to the King’ and a number of gifts were presented to Mary.4 Among these offerings from the citizens of Angers were luxury foods intended to symbolise the fertility of the Loire region such as sugared almonds, jams and a selection of ripe fruits including pears, prunes, plums and grapes. The Queen’s governors, Lord Erskine and Lord Livingston, who had accompanied Mary on her stormy voyage from Scotland, were given a fine selection of red and white wine.5
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Notes and References
M.H. Merrimann estimates that this figure may well be too low, see his ‘Mary, Queen of France,’ in Michael Lynch (ed.), Mary Stewart. Queen in Three Kingdoms (Oxford, 1988), p. 39. Badouin-Matuszek, ‘Henri II et les Expeditions francaises en Ecosse’, p. 366 suggests that this figure was spent for 1549 alone.
Gordon Donaldson.,James V-James VII (Edinburgh 1965. 1994). n. 79.
Mary’s French career has been examined in three main studies. The finest of these is Jane. T. Stoddart’s The Girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots. The other studies are Alphonse de Ruble, La Premiere Jeunesse de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1891) and Joseph Stevenson, Mary Stuart: A Narrative of the First Eighteen Years of Her Life (Edinburgh, 1886).
Henri II to M. de Humyeres, from Thurin on 24 August 1548, MS BNF fonds francais 3134 fol. 12 cited in Georges Guiffrey (ed.), Lettres inedites de Diane de Poytiers (Geneva, 1970 a facsimile of the original Paris edition of 1886), pp. 33–4, n. 1.
Diane de Poitiers to Mons. de Humyeres, from Tarare on 3 October [1548], in Guiffrey (ed.), Lettres inédites de Diane de Poytiers, p. 35. Elizabeth, called ‘Ysabal’ by Poitiers, was born on 13 April 1545 and married Philip II of Spain on 22 June 1559, aged fourteen.
Jenny Wormald, Mary Stuart. A Study in Failure (London, 1988), pp. 78–9. Indications of rivalries and tensions between Mary’s entourage and the royal nursery staff are evident from 1548, see Diane de Poitiers to Mons de Humieres from Chavaigne, 15 October [1548] in Guiffrey (ed.), Lettres inédites de Diane de Poytiers, p. 42, n. 2 and Henri II to an unknown recipient, from St André, 17 October 1548, ibid.
Frederic J. Baumgartner, Henry H. King of France 1547–59 (Durham and London, 1988), pp. 95–6.
Alexander Labanoff (ed.), Lettres, Instructions et Memoires de Marie Stuart, Reine d’Ecosse; Publies sur les originaux et les rnanuscrits du State Paper Office de Londres et des principales archives et Bibliotheques de l’Europe (London, 1844), t. I, p. 9.
Estienne Perlin, Description des royaumes d’Angleterre et d’Escosse (Paris, Francois Trepeau, 1558), D7v.
M.I. Heyns, Le Miroir du Monde, reduict premierement en rithme BrabanFonne (Antwerp, Christopher Plantin pour P. Galle, 1579), Blv. Scots Gaelic was often mistaken for ‘Irlandois’, see Nicolas d’Arfeville, Navigation du Roy d’Escosse laques Cinquiesme du nom, autour de son Royaume (Paris, Gilles Beys, 1583), A3v.
Sebastian Munster, Cosmographie, ed. Francois de Belleforest (Paris, Michel Sonnius, 1575), e3v, columns 101–2.
C. Read, Mr. Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth (London, 1955), p. 125.
Elizabeth Bonner, ‘Scotland’s Auld Alliance with France, 1295–1560’ in History vol. 84 (1999), p. 29.
Louis Paris (ed.) Negociations, lettres et pieces diverses relatives au regne de Franfois II tirées du portefeuille de Sébastien de L’Aubespine eveque de Limoges (Paris, 1841), pp. 750–4.
Andrew Lang, ‘The Household of Mary Queen of Scots in 1573’, p. 347.
Ibid., p. 348.
On Benoist, see Emile Pasquier, Un Cure de Paris pendant les Guerres de Religion, René Benoist Le Pape des Halles (1521–1608). Etude Historique et Bibliographique (Paris & Angers, 1913). Pasquier pays scarce attention to Benoist’s time in Edinburgh.
In 1577, Nicolas Winzet became abbot of the Schottenkloster at Regensburg and was closely linked with John Leslie. See J.H. Burns, The True Law of Kingship. Concepts of Monarchy in Early-Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996), p. 211.
John Durkan, ‘The Library of Mary, Queen of Scots’, in Michael Lynch (ed.), Mary Stewart, Queen in Three Kingdoms (Oxford, 1988), pp. 71–4. Durkan does not cite any sources to justify his statement.
On the output of the Scottish presses, see H. Aldis (ed.), A List of Scottish Books Printed in Scotland before 1700 including those printed forth of the Realm for Scottish Booksellers (Edinburgh, 1904, reprinted in 1970), and A.W. Pollard & G.R. Redgrave (eds.), A Short Title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland & Ireland and of English books printed abroad, 1475–1640 (first edition London, 1926, Oxford, 1986).
Julian Sharman, The Library of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1889). In her will, Mary left her library to the University of St Andrews. The books never reached their intended destination.
This may have been the edition translated by Charles Fontaine, Les XXI épistres d’Ovide. Les dix premieres sont traduites par Charles Fontaine (Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1573).
This most likely refers to Guillaume Aubert’s Elegie sur le trespas de feu Joachim du Bellay (Paris, Federic Morel, 1560).
Pierre de Ronsard, Discours des miseres de ce temps (Paris, Guillaume Buon, 1562, 1563 & 1572).
Noted in Claude Binet, Vie de Ronsard, cited without page reference in Pierre de Nolhac (ed.), Ronsard et son Temps (Paris, 1925).
Mark Greengrass, ‘Mary Queen Dowager of France’, in Michael Lynch (ed.), Mary Stewart Queen in Three Kingdoms (Oxford, 1988), p. 183.
Mary Stuart, Le Testament et derniers propos de la Royne d’Escosse avant son supplice (Paris, Pierre Marin, 1589), A4v-Blr.
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© 2004 Alexander S. Wilkinson
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Wilkinson, A.S. (2004). Mary Queen of Scots: A French Life. In: Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542–1600. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286153_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286153_2
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