History of Male British Consorts Part V

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Elizabeth I of England, Henry Stewart, Henry VIII of England, King Consort of Scotland, Lord Darnley, Margaret Tudor, Mary I of Scotland, Royal Marriages

Marriage to Lord Darnley

Mary had briefly met her English-born half-cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in February 1561 when she was in mourning for François II of France.

Henry was the second but eldest surviving son of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, by his wife Lady Margaret Douglas which supported her claim to the English succession. Darnley’s maternal grandparents were Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, and Lady Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England and widow of King James IV of Scotland.

Darnley’s parents, sent him to France ostensibly to extend their condolences, while hoping for a potential match between their son and Mary. Both Mary and Darnley were grandchildren of Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, and patrilineal descendants of the High Stewards of Scotland.

Darnley shared a more recent Stewart lineage with the Hamilton family as a descendant of Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran, a daughter of James II of Scotland. They next met on Saturday February 17, 1565 at Wemyss Castle in Scotland. Mary fell in love with the “long lad”, as Queen Elizabeth called him since he was over six feet tall.

On July 22,1565 Darnley was made Duke of Albany in Holyrood Abbey, and the banns of marriage were called in the parish of Canongate. A proclamation was made at the Cross of Edinburgh on July 28, that government would be in the joint names of the King and Queen of Scots, thus giving Darnley equality with, and precedence over, Mary. This was confirmed in the circulation of a silver ryal in the names of Henry and Mary.

On July 29, 1565, the marriage took place by Roman Catholic rites in Mary’s private chapel at Holyrood, but Darnley (whose religious beliefs were unfixed – he was raised as a Catholic, but was later influenced by Protestantism) refused to accompany Mary to the nuptial Mass after the wedding itself. Despite both were Catholic and a papal dispensation for the marriage of first cousins had not been obtained.

English statesmen William Cecil and the Earl of Leicester had worked to bring the couple together, Queen Elizabeth felt threatened by the marriage because as descendants of her aunt, both Mary and Darnley were claimants to the English throne.

Their children, if any, would inherit an even stronger, combined claim. Mary’s insistence on the marriage seems to have stemmed from passion rather than calculation; the English ambassador Nicholas Throckmorton stated “the saying is that surely she [Queen Mary] is bewitched”, adding that the marriage could only be averted “by violence”.

The union infuriated Queen Elizabeth, who felt the marriage should not have gone ahead without her permission, as Darnley was both her cousin and an English subject.

This date in history, December 14, 1542: Death of King James V of Scotland.

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James IV King of Scots, James V King of Scots, King Henry VIII of England, Madeleine of Valois, Margaret Tudor, Mary I of Scotland

James V (April 10, 1512 – December 14, 1542) was King of Scotland from September 9, 1513 until his death, which followed the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss. His only surviving legitimate child, Mary I, Queen of Scots, succeeded him when she was just six days old.

James V of Scotland

James was the third son of King James IV of Scotland and his wife Margaret of England a daughter of Henry VII of England and sister of Henry VIII, and was the only legitimate child of James IV to survive infancy. He was born on April 10, 1512 at Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgowshire and baptized the following day, receiving the titles Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. He became king at just seventeen months old when his father was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field on 9 September 9, 1513.

James V renewed the Auld Alliance and fulfilled the 1517 Treaty of Rouen on 1 January 1537 by marrying Madeleine of Valois, the fifth child and third daughter of King François I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany (daughter of King Louis XII of France and Anne, Duchess of Brittany). The wedding was a great event and it took place in Notre Dame de Paris. François I made a contract with six painters for the splendid decorations, and there were days of jousting at the Château du Louvre.

Madeleine of Valois

After months of festivities and celebrations, the couple left France for Scotland in May 1537. By this time, Madeleine’s health had deteriorated even further, and she was very sick when the royal pair landed in Scotland. Madeleine wrote to her father from Edinburgh on June 8, 1537 saying that she was better and her symptoms had diminished. However, a month later, on July 7, 1537, (a month before her 17th birthday), Madeleine, the so-called “Summer Queen” of Scots, died in her husband’s arms at Edinburgh, Scotland.

James then proceeded to marry Mary of Guise, daughter of Claude, Duke of Guise, and widow of Louis II d’Orléans, Duke of Longueville, by proxy on June 12, 1538. Mary already had two sons from her first marriage, and the union with James V produced two sons. James, Duke of Rothesay was born May 22 1540, St Andrews, Fife. On April 12, 1541 his brother, Robert, Duke of Albany, was born at Falkland Palace. Sadly, Robert lived only eight days and died April 20, 1541. His brother, James, only eleven months old, died the very next day on April 21, 1541.

James was with his army at Lauder on October 31, 1542. Although he hoped to invade England, his nobles were reluctant. He returned to Edinburgh, on the way writing a letter in French to his wife from Falahill mentioning he had three days of illness. Whatever the cause of his illness, James was on his deathbed at Falkland Palace when his only surviving legitimate child, a girl, Princess Mary, was born December 8, 1542 at Linlithgow Palace. Six days later, December 14, King James V of Scotland died at the age of 30. Scotland once again was ruled by an infant monarch.

On this date in History: April 24, 1558, the marriage of Mary I, Queen of Scots and The Dauphin of France.

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Francis II of France, Henry II of France, House of Stewart, House of Stuart, James V King of Scots, King Henri II of France, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, Kings of france, Margaret Tudor, Marie de Guise, Mary I of Scots, Mary of Guise, Mary Queen of Scots, The Dauphin

Mary was born on December 8, 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, to King James V of Scots and his French second wife, Marie de Guise. Mary was said to have been born prematurely and was the only legitimate child of James V to survive him She was the great-niece of King Henry VIII of England, as her paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor, was Henry VIII’s sister. On December 14, 1542 six days after her birth, she became Queen of Scotland when her father died from drinking contaminated water while on campaign following the Battle of Solway Moss.

Mary I, Queen of Scots

Since Mary was an infant when she inherited the throne, Scotland was ruled by regents until she became an adult. From the outset, there were two claims to the regency: one from Catholic Cardinal Beaton, and the other from the Protestant Earl of Arran, who was next in line to the Scottish throne. Beaton’s claim to the regency was based on a version of the King Jame V’s will that his opponents dismissed as a forgery. Arran, with the support of his friends and relations, became the regent until 1554 when Mary’s mother managed to remove and succeed him.

Henry VIII, King of England and King of Ireland.

King Henry VIII of England took the opportunity of the regency to propose marriage between Mary and his own son and heir, Edward (future Edward VI of England) seeking to unite Scotland and England. On July 1, 1543, when Mary was six months old, the Treaty of Greenwichwas signed, which promised that, at the age of ten, Mary would marry Edward and move to England, where Henry could oversee her upbringing. The treaty provided that the two countries would remain legally separate and that if the couple should fail to have children, the temporary union would dissolve. Cardinal Beaton rose to power again and began to push a pro-Catholic pro-French agenda, angering Henry, who wanted to break the Scottish alliance with France.

The French king, Henri II, desired to unite France and Scotland and proposed marrying the young queen to his three-year-old son, the Dauphin Francis. On the promise of French military help, and a French dukedom for himself, the regent Earl of Arran agreed to the marriage. In February 1548, Mary was moved, for her safety, to Dumbarton Castle. The English left a trail of devastation behind once more and seized the strategic town of Haddington. In June, the much awaited French help arrived at Leith to besiege and ultimately take Haddington. On July 7, 1548, a Scottish Parliament held at a nunnery near the town agreed to a French marriage treaty.

Mary I, Queen of Scots

With the promise of her marriage agreement in place, five-year-old Mary was sent to France to spend the next thirteen years at the French court. The French fleet sent by Henri II, commanded by Nicolas de Villegagnon, sailed with Mary from Dumbarton on August 7, 1548 and arrived a week or more later at Roscoff or Saint-Pol-de-Léon in Brittany.

At the French court, she was a favourite with everyone, except Henri II’s wife Catherine de’ Medici. Mary learned to play lute and virginals, was competent in prose, poetry, horsemanship, falconry and needlework, and was taught French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Greek, in addition to speaking her native Scots. Her future sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Valois, became a close friend of whom Mary “retained nostalgic memories in later life”.Her maternal grandmother, Antoinette de Bourbon, was another strong influence on her childhood, and acted as one of her principal advisors.

King Francis II and Queen Mary I of France and Scotland

Mary was eloquent and especially tall by sixteenth-century standards (she attained an adult height of 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), while Henri II’s son and heir, Francis, stuttered and was abnormally short. Henri commented that “from the very first day they met, my son and she got on as well together. On April 4, 1558, Mary signed a secret agreement bequeathing Scotland and her claim to England to the French crown if she died without issue. Twenty days later, April 24,1558 she married the Dauphin at Notre Dame de Paris, and he became king consort of Scotland. When Henri II died on July 10, 1559 from injuries sustained in a joust, the fifteen-year-old Dauphin became King Francis II of France and sixteen-year-old Mary I, Queen of Scots became Queen of France.

Anne of Brittany: Conclusion

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Anne of Brittany, Brittany, Claude of France, Duchess of Brittany, Francis I of France, Henri III of France, Henry VIII, King Henri II of France, King Henry VIII of England, Louis XII of France, Margaret Tudor, Salic Law

Three days after the death of Charles VIII the terms of Anne’s marriage contract became an issue. The contract stipulated that Anne had to marry her husbands successor if Anne and Charles did not have an heir. This clause in the contract was made so France would be able to maintain control over the Duchy of Brittany. There was one significant obstacle to adhering to the clause in the contract. The new King, Louis XII, was already married, to Joan of France, daughter of Louis XI and sister to the recently deceased Charles VIII. On August 19, 1498, at Étampes, Anne agreed to marry Louis XII if he obtained an annulment from Joan within a year. Days later, the process for the annulment of the marriage between Louis XII and Joan of France began. In the interim, Anne returned to Brittany by October of 1498 and began the administration of her Duchy.

(Louis XII of France & Naples)

With Anne being a fierce defender of the independence of Brittany it may seem odd that she agreed to abide by the contract and marry Louis XII. It has been theorized by many historical scholars that Anne was hoping that Pope Alexander VI would not grant the annulment. That was not the case, for Pope Alexander VI dissolved the marriage between Louis XII and Joan of France before the end of the year. * At Nantes, on January 7, 1499 Anne’s signed her third marriage contract and was married to Louis XII that very same day. Anne was 21 and Louis XII was 37.

Since Anne was no longer a child as she was at her first two marriages, she was now a Dowager Queen of France and about to turn the ripe old age of 22 two weeks after her marriage to Louis XII, she was determined to ensure the recognition of her rights as sovereign Duchess of Brittany from the start of this marriage.

Although after the marriage Louis XII exercised Anne’s powers in Brittany, and issued decisions in her name, he did formally recognize her right to the title “Duchess of Brittany” and allowed her to formally use her title. The marriage contract settled the issue of the succession to Duchy. The Contract ensured that their second child, son or daughter, would inherit the duchy of Brittany. Sadly this was a clause that would not be respected in the future. Anne also had her second coronation ceremony as Queen of France which took place on November 18, 1504, again at St. Denis Basilica.

Since Anne, as the reigning Duchess of Brittany fiercely defended the independence of her Duchy, she arranged the marriage of her daughter, Claude, heiress of the Duchy, born October 13, 1499, to Archduke Charles of Austria, (future Holy Roman Emperor Karl V, King of Spain) to reinforce the Franco-Spanish alliance and ensure French success in the Italian Wars. This marriage contract was signed on August 10, 1501 in Lyon by François de Busleyden, Archbshop of Besançon, William de Croÿ, Nicolas de Rutter and Pierre Lesseman, all ambassadors of Archduke Philipp of Austria, reigning Duke of Burgundy, Charles’ father.

After several years of marriage, and with Claude being the only surviving child of Anne and Louis XII, it became readily apparent that Anne would not produce a male heir. Therefore, Louis XII had the arranged marriage between Claude and Archduke Charles of Austria canceled. Alternatively, Louis XII arranged a marriage between Claude and the perspective heir to the French throne, Francis of Angoulême. This would continue to bring Brittany under the direct control of the French Crown. Anne was determined to maintain independence for her Duchy and refused to approve of this union. Anne continued to support the planned marriage between Claude and Archduke Charles, and added the addendum that her other daughter, Renée, would inherit the Duchy, forever keeping it out of the clutches of the French Crown. She was so against the marriage between Claude and Francis of Angoulême that she withheld any support or sanctioning of the union until her dying day.

Death

At the still young age of 37 Anne died at 6 a.m. on January 9, 1514 of a kidney-stone attack while at the Château de Blois. It has been theorized that her health declined, hastening her demise, due to her many pregnancies and miscarriages. According to her will her body was partitioned. The customary partitioning of her body (dilaceratio corporis, “division of the body” in heart, entrails and bones) allowed for multiple burials, a privilege of the Capetian dynasty, which also allowed for multiple ceremonies.

(Arms of Anne of Brittany)

Anne’s will also granted the succession of Brittany to her second daughter, Renée. Louis XII ignored Anne’s Will and confirmed Claude as Duchess of Brittany. On May 18, 1514, Francis of Angoulême married his second cousin Claude, the new reigning Duchess of Brittany. The younger daughter, Renée (1510–1575), married Duke Ercole II of Ferrara. After the death of Anne, Louis XII married Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII of England, in Abbeville, France, on October 9, 1514. This represented a final attempt to produce an heir to the French throne, for despite two previous marriages the king had no living sons. On December 24, 1514, Louis was reportedly suffering from a severe case of gout. In the early hours of January 1, 1515, he had received the final sacraments and died later that evening. Louis XII was interred in Saint Denis Basilica. He was 52 years old and had reigned for 17 Years.

Succession

The succession to the throne of France followed Salic Law, which did not allow women to inherit the throne or pass on succession right to their issue. As a result, Louis XII was succeeded by Francis I. Born to Louise of Savoy, on September 12, 1494. Francis I was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême and he was a great-great grandson of King Charles V of France. This meant that the Duchy of Brittany was once again the property of the queen consort of France.

(Tomb of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII of France)

Anne’s marriage with Louis XII of France, produced at least another nine pregnancies:

* Claude of France (13 October 1499 – 20 July 1524), who succeeded her as Duchess of Brittany and later also became Queen consort of France as wife of Francis I.
* miscarriage (1500).
* Stillborn son (21 January 1503).
* miscarriage (end 1503).
* miscarriage (1505).
* miscarriage (1508).
* miscarriage (1509).
* Renée of France (25 October 1510 – 12 June 1574), married Ercole II d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara, and became Duchess of Ferrara of Chartres, and Lady of Montargis on occasion of her wedding.
* Stillborn son (January 1512).

Each miscarriage or stillbirth is said to have delighted the ambitious Louise of Savoy, whose son Francis was the heir apparent under the Salic Law. There even existed contemporary rumours that Louise used witchcraft to kill Anne’s sons. Anne’s male bloodline ended with her great-grandson Henri III of France in 1589.

Through her granddaughter Margaret, Duchess of Savoy (Claude’s youngest daughter), Anne of Brittany was the ancestor of Vittorio Emanuele IV, Prince of Naples, and the current pretender to the throne of Italy. Through her great-granddaughter Claude, Duchess of Lorraine (daughter of Henri II of France), Anne is also the ancestor of Karl II von Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, the current pretender to the throne of Austria. Through her granddaughter Anna d’Este (Renée’s eldest daughter), Anne of Brittany is also the ancestor of the Houses of Guise and Savoy-Nemours.

* The marriage and annulment between Louis XII and Joan of France was rather complex and the details of this will be addressed in a future blog post.