Mary of Guise

Mary of Guise (November 22, 1515 – June 11, 1560), Queen Consort (1538-1542) of James V of Scotland and Regent of Scotland (1554-1560); also known as Mary of Lorraine.

Mary was born at Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine, the eldest daughter of Claude, 1st duc de Guise (head of the French House of Guise), and his wife Antoinette of Bourbon-Vendôme. On August 4, 1534, she married Louis II, Duke of Longueville, at the Louvre, and on October 30, 1535, her first son, François, was born. On June 9, 1537, Louis died leaving her a widow at the age of 21. On August 4, Mary gave birth to her second son, Louis.

Mary married King James in 1538. After his death in 1542, she engaged in a power struggle with James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran (c. 1517-1575), who had been appointed regent for her infant daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1548 she arranged her daughter's betrothal to the French Dauphin. Mary of Guise secured Arran's resignation and succeeded him as regent in 1554. In 1559 she began persecuting the Scottish Protestants, who, exhorted by John Knox, rebelled against her and declared her deposed. Both France and England intervened in the ensuing struggle. Mary died from dropsy at Edinburgh Castle in June 1560, and the civil war ended soon after with the Treaty of Edinburgh (1560). Mary's body was taken to France and interred at the church in the Convent of Saint-Pierre in Reims, where Mary's sister Renée was abbess.