Queen mary of scots ladies in waiting
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The Four Marys: Mary Queen of Scots’ Ladies in Waiting
Mary Queen of Scots, queen of Scotland at the age of just 6 days, had a very chaotic and endangered life. When she travelled to France in 1548 for her own protection and safety, she was escorted by her four ladies-in-waiting, coincidentally all named Mary. It is possible that Mary’s mother the French Marie de Guise personally chose the young girls to be companions to the Queen.
The four ladies-in-waiting all had Scottish fathers and two of them had French mothers and therefore could be relied upon to be loyal not only to their Scottish Queen but also to the French Queen Mother, Marie de Guise.
It was also the Queen Mother’s intentions for her daughter to marry the Francis, Dauphin of France, to whom Mary was betrothed.
These four ladies, who would accompany the young Queen to France were to become the Queen’s closest companions and friends, as well as her ladies-in-waiting. They are known to history as ‘The Four Marys’; Ma
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So runs the old ballad, remembering the four friends and companions of a fifth Mary – Mary Stuart, the romantic and ill-fated Queen of Scots. The queen’s fate is well known – she was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587 for her complicity in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I. But who were her four Marys, and what became of them?
Mary Stuart was Mary, Queen of Scots in her cradle. Her early years were spent in an atmosphere of unease as her mother, Marie de Guise, sought to protect her from the rovgirig Scottish nobles who fought for the regency and for control of the little queen. The nobility was divided between those who supported the traditional French and Catholic alliance that Marie represented, and those who looked to a newly Protestant England to support the burgeoning Scottish Reformation.
Despite this tension, Marie dem Guise sought to give her daughter a happy childhood, and appointed four girls to be her companions and, later, ladies-in-waiting. What all
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The four ‘Maries’ accompanied Mary Queen of Scots as a child to France in 1548 and remained her closest lifelong friends. Mary Beaton was the daughter of the head of Mary’s household, who accompanied her, and the others were the daughters of the three noble families closest to the Stewart Court. They had taken a vow of chastity following the death of Mary’s husband, Francis II, confirming that they would not marry until their mistress was also remarried.
Mary Beaton (or Bethune)
Mary Beaton was the daughter of John Beaton of Creich, from a distinguished family, who had traditionally fulfilled roles at Court and in Government. John had married Joanne de la Reyneville (or Gryssonier), one of the French Ladies-in-Waiting of Marie of Guise, Mary’s mother. The Beatons travelled to France with their two other children, David and Lucretia, and their son James was born while they were there. Mary Beaton was about eighteen months older than Mary and was consid