Stuart dynasty

90 TJie Stuart Dynasty.
keep of that rock-seated castle. And when at last the
Council, in something akin to despair, allowed the rightful
Queen to leave her country and become naturalised in France,
men knew that the hopes of any abiding union with
England were at an end, so long as the Scottish Queen re-
mained free to choose a husband, a fact realised tardily but
decidedly by Henry VIII. before he died, so that he passed
the Scotch line over when apportioning succession to the
British throne in his famous will.* It is at the period of
her departure for France in July 1548, that we first hear of
Mary Stuart in connection with the four young ladies of
high degree, who have become famous as " the Queen's
Maries," their surnames being Livingston, Fleming (married
in after years to Maitland of Lethington), Seton, and Beaton.
They were the playfellows of Mary's youth, as well as the
companions of her older and darker days; and we now get
a passing glimpse of them on board the vessel which was to
bear the Scottish Queen to the shores of France. Mary,
when she reached that country, was sent at first to be
educated at a convent,! while her brother, the Lord James
Stuart, returning to Scotland, was soon chosen amongst the
leading Lords of Congregation when it was known that he
favoured the Protestant cause.
In Scotland, the Earl of Arran had resigned the Begency
to the Queen mother, in 1554, the dukedom of Chatelherault
in France consoling the feeble and flexible Hamilton for loss
of dignity and power at home.J
Four years later, on April 24, 1558, the Scottish Queen
married the Dauphin of France, who was destined in a few
months' time to become Francis II.
Henry II. being accidentally wounded in a tournament in
July 1559 by the Count de Montgomery, died in a few days,
and consequently Francis and Mary were hailed King and
Queen of France.
Fatal prospect apparently for those who hoped for unity
of the English and Scotch crowns, and the peaceful estab-
lishment of Protestantism in those countries !
Mary, acting under the prompting of her uncles the
Guises — one of whom, the Cardinal of Lorraine, became First
Minister, and his brother, the Duke of Guise, Commander-
in-Chief — took the fatal step of quartering the arms of
* Froude's ' History of England,' edition 1858, vol. iv. p. 528.
f Ellis's 'Original Letters,' 1st series, vol. ii. p. 252.
J Burke's ' Peerage,' p. ii.