mary-tudor:“Francis left Lyons in mid-October and, while returning to Paris, he had an unexpec
mary-tudor:“Francis left Lyons in mid-October and, while returning to Paris, he had an unexpected introduction to the twenty-four-year old King of Scotland, James V, in the Loire Valley. He greeted the king, saying that he had ‘come to see Your Grace and to comfort you’. This charming and handsome man, with a red beard ‘like fine shining gold’ and a hedonist love of women, laughter and pleasure reminded Francis of his own days as a carefree younger man. James managed to keep in touch with his people by disguising himself in rags in an attempt to understand their concerns and fears. History does not record whether he tried to seduce them once he had revealed his identity.He was also vehemently anti-English, blaming them for the death of his father James IV at the Battle of Flodden Field in Northumberland in 1513. The young prince had been a year old at the time. As a result, he and Francis shared an anitpathy towards Henry VIII. Their burgeoning friendship meant that the king felt no affront when James made it clear that he was not interested in a proposed arranged married to Francis’s adopted daughter Marie de Vendôme; he apparently found her ‘hunchbacked and misshapen’. The unfortunate girl was later said to have died from a heart broken by embarrassment at such a public rejection.Instead James asked for Madeleine, Francis’s favourite daughter by Claude, and was given her hand in marriage. She had been smitten from the first encounter, and it was said that ‘from the time she saw the King of Scotland, she became so enamoured with him and loved him so well that she would have no man alive to be her husband but he alone’. It might have been a love match, but Francis was delighted at the prospect of a marital union between the house of Stuart, a successful Scottish dynasty, and that of Valois, which strenghtened the current Franco-Scottish special relationship. Unfortunately for all parties involved, Madeleine suffered from tuberculosis, and was not thought able to bear children. Her doctors warned that if she were removed from France and taken to the colder climes of Scotland, it might prove fatal. Francis attempted to persuade James to marry his younger daughter Marguerite instead, but the Scottish King was as obstinate as he was charming.A barely affordable dowry of 100,000 gold coins was settled on Madeleine, and on 1 January 1537 a splendid marriage, as befitted the union of a princess and a king, took place in Notre-Dame. It was the first time that a royal daughter of Francis’s was married. All the usual lavish ceremonies and entertainments were observed, not least a great feast with orchestras playing and a fortnight of tournaments and jousting. Yet there was sadness behind the dancing and frivolity, not just because Francis found himself paying James’s (far from inconsiderable) expenses. Madeleine, who had worn a dress of white and gold damask with a jewelled collar for the religious ceremony, had grown weaker and Francis feared for her wellbeing upon her imminent departure for Scotland. When he took his leave of the newly wed pair, with gifts of ships and horses for James and gold and jewellery Madeleine, it was with deep foreboding.Madeleine and her new husband arrived in their kingdom in May 1537 after a tempestuous five-day journey. Their entourage included a twelve-year-old page, Pierre de Ronsard, who would later become one of France’s greatest poets. Upon her arrival, Madeleine was surprised not to find a cultured […] country such as the one that she had left, but a cold […] place. Although her blissful marriage meant that she was happy enough with the situation, the miserable climate only made her tuberculosis worse. She was dying before she left France. James believed that taking her to Balmerino Abbey in Fife might ameliorate her situation, but this proved useless. Repeating the words, ‘Alas, I wanted to be Queen’, she was confined to the sick-room. Although Madeleine, in an attempt of optimism, wrote to her father that she was cured, on 7 July 1537 she died at the royal palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh.Ronsard, who had been present, wrote: ‘She died without pain in her husband’s arms’. She had only been queen for forty days, and was known as ‘the summer queen’.Unlike most other marriages of the day, that of James and Madeleine had been a genuinely affectionate one, and the Scottish king was devastated by the death of his wife. After he made a noble but pointless attempt to kill himself with his sword, which was wrestled out of his hand by his courtiers, he wrote to Francis to inform him of the tragic news.In his heartfelt letter, he declared that ‘Triumph and merriness was [sic] all turned into dirges and soul masses, which was very lamentable to behold… [I write to tell you of] the death of your daughter, my dearest companion.’ When Francis, who was himself lying ill at Fontainebleau, received the news, he felt stunned by grief. The revelation was delayed for some time until his health partially recovered, for fear that the shock would prove fatal.(…) Yet Francis had not managed to remain King of France for the previous two decades by being a sentimentalist. Despite his personal feelings, he knew that a sense of ‘business as usual’ had to be maintained. Accordingly, he let his former son-in-law know that the alliance between France and Scotland had to be maintained, and thus the following year James married Mary of Guise, daughter of Francis’s trusted counsellor Claude of Guise.” From: “Francis I, The Maker of Modern France”, by Leonie Frieda. -- source link