Click2Biography - Mary Queen of Scots - Chapter 2

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 2 - ENGAGED AT SIX YEARS OLD</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">When she was barely six years old, she was engaged to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/files/images/edward-VI_lrg.jpg"><b>Edward VI</b></a>, the frail son of Henry VIII. Had she married Edward, she would have been Queen Consort of England. Instead, Catholic forces inside <a href="http://www.nls.ac.uk/digitallibrary/map/images/scotia.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Scotland</b></a>, including Mary's mother, pushed for an engagement to the French heir, the dauphin Francis. </p> <p align="justify"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page19.asp"><b>Henry VIII</b></a> fought a war over the issue - called the "Rough Wooing" War. In the end, the French won that battle. As a young girl, Mary went to France to be raised in the French court. When <a target="_blank" href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/files/images/mary-queen-of-scots_lrg.jpg"><b>she was sixteen</b></a>, she married <a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~zzz12/daup.htm" ; target="_blank"><b>Francis</b></a> who was two years younger than she. When her <a href="http://www.nls.ac.uk/digitallibrary/mqs/images/heraldic.jpg" target="_blank"><b>young husband</b></a> became King Francis II, Mary was also <a target="_blank" href="http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/images/Mary_by_Clouet.jpg"><b>Queen</b></a> Dauphiness of France. It was a <a href="http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/history/studpages/maryqofs/MQSART_files/image002.jpg" target="_blank"><b>happy</b></a> time for her.</p> <p align="justify">Happy times never lasted long in Mary Stuart's life. ("Stuart" was the French spelling of her name.) Within two years, the marriage was over. Francis II had died, and Mary was a <a ; href="http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/history/studpages/maryqofs/MQSART_files/image004.jpg" target="_blank"><b>widow</b></a> at eighteen. No longer useful to her French relations, Mary returned to Scotland. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.lib.utexas.edu/photodraw/portraits/cmedici.jpg"><b>Her mother-in-law</b></a>, the powerful <a href="http://www.netsrq.com/~dbois/medici-c.html" ; target="_blank"><b>Catherine di Medici</b></a>, wanted the young queen out of France. Mary returned to her homeland which, after twelve formative years in France, was unfamiliar to her. She settled into the royal palace of <a href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/palaces/holyrood/img01.htm" target="_blank"><b>Holyroodhouse</b></a> ("Holy Cross House") in Edinburgh.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="maryq_ch1.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="maryq_ch3.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>