Mary of Guise
1515 – 1560 · Generation XXIII · Queen consort, then regent of Scotland
Mary of Guise (1515–1560). Queen consort, then regent of Scotland. Married James V Stewart in 1538. One of their children is recorded in this archive. Eldest daughter of Claude, Duke of Guise, she was first married at eighteen to the Duke of Longueville, who died in 1537 and left her pregnant. Both Henry VIII and James V then sought her hand; she went to Scotland, and her two infant sons there died within a day of each other in 1541. Six days after their daughter Mary was born, James was dead. She sent the child queen to France in 1548 to be raised beside her intended husband, the dauphin Francis, and in 1554 replaced the Earl of Arran as regent, placing Frenchmen over the treasury and Great Seal. Her early tolerance of Protestant preachers gave way to open war with the Lords of the Congregation, who were backed by English troops besieging Leith. She died of dropsy in Edinburgh Castle in June 1560, and her body was shipped to France for burial at Reims.
Place in the family
- Mary of Guise was a 8× great-grandmother of Queen Victoria.
- The archive records 108 of her descendants, across 17 generations.
Partners
- Married King James V of Scotland (1512 – 1542) in 1538 — one child together
Children
- Mary Queen of Scots (1542 – 1587)
Life
- 1515 — Born
- 1538 — Married James V Stewart
- 1560 — Died