#francois ii

On April 24th 1558 15 year old Mary Queen of Scots married the French Dauphin 14 year old Francis de Valois.

The couple  were married with spectacular pageantry and magnificence in the cathedral of Notre Dame, scene of the tragic fire last week, by the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen, in the presence of Henry II, Queen Catherine de’ Medici, the princes and princesses of the blood and a glittering throng of cardinals and nobles. The Duke of Guise was master of ceremonies. Mary in a white dress with a long train borne by two young girls, a diamond necklace and a golden coronet studded with jewels, was described by the courtier Pierre de Brantôme as ‘a hundred times more beautiful than a goddess of heaven … her person alone was worth a kingdom.’ 

The wedding was followed by a procession past excited crowds in the Paris streets to a grand banquet in the Palais de Justice with dancing far into the night.

This marriage and the coronation which took place a few months later were to be major landmarks on the path of the Auld Alliance.

Francis, a sickly child from birth, suffered from chronic respiratory problems all of his life.  One day, a chronic  inflammation of the middle ear brought on by constant ear infections made him very ill.  A huge swelling appeared behind his ear caused by the spreading of the inflammation/infection and his condition worsened.  He died when an abscess formed in his brain as a result of the inflammation, he was just 17.

Whether the marriage was ever consummated is uncertain. Mary’s mother also died in 1560 and it suited the French to send her back to Scotland and claim that she was the rightful queen of England as well. She would eventually meet political and romantic disaster in Scotland, enduring years of imprisonment in England where, too dangerous a threat to Elizabeth’s throne, she was executed in 1587, at the age of forty-six.

You can find a run down of the wedding  more detail about the ceremony, the festivities, the procession to the Louvre, and the banquet there on the site below. 

- Catherine de’ Medici, 1576

It’s a legitimate shame that Catherine is constantly villainized by the media and some historians. She came up with many great compromises to keep Catholics and Huguenots from fighting, but someone always had to go and ruin the peace she worked so hard to maintain. 

Seriously, everyone should have listened to Mama Bear.

Team Francis II of France 6 Cm Round Badge