Mary I of Scotland: Encyclopedia II - Mary I of Scotland - Early years

Mary I of Scotland - Early years

Princess Mary Stuart was born at Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, on December 8, 1542 to King James V of Scotland and his French wife, Marie de Guise. She was the first member of the royal House of Stuart to use the gallicised spelling Stuart, rather than the earlier Stewart.

During the reign of Robert II of Scotland, the Scottish Crown had been confirmed to be inherited by males in the line of Robert's children - all sons - who were listed in that parliamentary act, because the legitimacy of Robert's children of first marriage were questionable. Females and female lines could inherit only after extinction of male lines. All other male lines had deceased years ago, but Duke of Albany, a royal cousin, had lived yet some years ago and died 1536. Had he not died before James V, Mary would not necessarily have inherited. In this sort of Semi-Salic situation, Mary ascended the throne because all other male lines of the royal house had gone extinct before the death of Mary's father.

Her father died at the age of thirty, probably from cholera, although his contemporaries believed his death to have been caused by grief over the Scots' humiliating loss to the English at the Battle of Solway Moss. In Falkland Palace, Fife, her father heard of the birth and prophesied, "The devil go with it! It came with a lass, it will pass with a lass!" The Stewart family had gained the Scottish throne through Marjory (daughter of Robert I, the Bruce). James truly believed that Mary marked the end of the Stewarts' reign over Scotland. Instead, through Mary's son, it was the beginning of their reign over both the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England. (Mary adopted the French spelling Stuart during her time in France, and she and her descendants stuck with it. See Francization.)

The six-day-old Mary became Queen of Scots, with James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, the next in line for the throne, acting as regent (until 1554, when he was succeeded by the Queen's mother, who continued as regent until her own death in 1560). Six months after her birth, in July 1543, the Treaties of Greenwich promised Mary to be married to Edward, son of King Henry VIII of England in 1552, and for their heirs to inherit the Kingdoms of Scotland and England. Two months later, Mary and her mother, who strongly opposed the marriage proposition, went into hiding in Stirling Castle, where preparations were made for Mary's coronation.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early years", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki