by Mayv 'SpearBourne' Amaia

Created on: September 01, 2009   Last Updated: April 27, 2012

Marie de Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, was born 22 November 1515 at Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine, to Claude, Duke of Guise, and Antoinette of Bourbon-Vendome, the first of their twelve children.

Very little is known of her life prior to her marriage on 4 August 1534, when 18-year-old Marie married 24-year-old Louis II, Duke of Longueville, at the Louvre. Their marriage was a happy one, producing a son, Francois, on 30 October 1535. A second son, Louis, was born 4 August 1537.

Sadly, Marie, at just 21 years of age, was already widowed by the time her second son was born, as the elder Louis had died in Rouen on 9 June.

That same summer, James V, King of Scotland, lost his 16-year-old bride, the French Princess Madeleine of Valois, to tuberculosis. To strengthen a Franco-Scottish alliance, he wanted another French bride, and sought Marie's hand.

James's mother's brother, King Henry VIII of England, had recently lost his third wife, Jane Seymour, in childbirth; Henry VIII wanted to prevent such a strong alliance between Scotland and France against England, so he sought Marie's hand in marriage himself.

Given Henry VIII's marital history - he'd banished his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and had the second, Ann Boleyn, beheaded - Marie refused his offer. She was reputed to have remarked, "I may be a big woman, but I have a very little neck." This remark was a reference to Ann Boleyn's macabre joke that her executioner would have an easy job because she had "a little neck."

King Francis I of France accepted James V's proposal over Henry VIII's and let Marie's father, Claude, know of this. When she was informed, she was both shocked and alarmed at the prospect of leaving her family and her home. She was further distraught by the death of her son, Louis, who was just four months old at the time.

Claude, unable to break off the engagement, attempted to delay matters. James may have sensed Marie's reluctance and wrote to her, seeking her advice and her support. She acquiesced to his appeals and made preparations to join him in Scotland.

On 18 May 1538, with Robert, Lord Maxwell, standing in as proxy, James V and Mary of Guise, as she came to be called in Scotland, were married at Notre-Dame de Paris. The following month, accompanied by the fleet James had sent for her, she left France but was forced to leave her young son, Francois, behind.

James formally received her in Fife when she arrived on 10 June. They were married in person at St. Andrews a few days later.

Mary was

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