No. III.

FUNERALS OF MARY OF GUISE, QUEEN REGENT OF SCOTLAND.

Marie De Lorraine, daughter of Claude Duke of Guise, was born 22d November 1515. On the 4th August 1534, she was married to Louis of Orleans, Duke de Longueville; and after his death, in 1538, she became the second wife of James the Fifth, King of Scotland. (See vol. i. p. 61, note 6.) In this place it was proposed to collect merely a few notices respecting her death and funerals.

In the present volume, at page 71, Knox has given an account of the Queen's death, which took place in the Castle of Edinburgh—he says on the 9th June 1560. Dr. Robertson following Bishop Lesley, and other early authorities, says it was on the 10th; while according to Chalmers, and later writers, it happened on the 11th June. In the Diurnal of Occurrents the time is very precisely stated, yet it so happens that either the 10th or the 11th might be assigned for the date. The passage stands thus:—

"Upoun the tent day of Junij, the yeir foirsaid (1560,) Marie Quene Dowriare and Regent of this Realme, at 12 houris at evin, deceissit in the Castell of Edinburgh, and maid the Erie of Merchell, and Schir Johne Campbell of Lundy, knycht, hir executouris in Scotland." (p. 59; see also p. 276 of the same work.) This would seem to fix the 10th; but in the grant to Seigneour Francis, referred to in a note, page 507, the 11th of June was reckoned as the day of the Queen's decease. Sir William Cecil and Dr. Nicholas Wotton, in a letter written on the 17th June, intimate their having heard of the Queen's death, when they were on their way from Berwick; and in a subsequent letter from Edinburgh, dated the 19th June, they say, "The xith of this monethe, the Quene Dowagier dyed here at Edenboroughe, as we understande of a dropsie; by whose deathe the Nobilitie of Scotlande be entred into greater boldness, for mayntenaunce of their quarrell, then before they durst shew." (Lodge's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 329.) In the Treasurer's Accounts of that month are the following entries:—

"Item, to Johne Weir pewtterar, for ane wobe of leid weiand (blank) stanis, to be ane sepulture to inclose the Quenis Grace in.iiij lb. xv s.
"Item, to the said Johne for sowdane of the said wobe of leid,xxxij s.
"Item, for ije dur nalis to the Quenis Grace sepulture,iij s.
"Item, for xxj elnis and ane half of blak gray, to hing the chapell of the Castell of Edinburgh the Quenis G. bodie lyand thairin,vj lb. ij s. iiij d.
"Item, foure elnys of quhite taffateis of the cord to mak ane cross aboun the Quenis Grace, price of the eln xxiiij s. Summa,iiij lb. xvj s."

After these items, there follows a list of sums paid to the attendants, servants, and other persons connected with the Queen's household; in all 97, chiefly French, amounting to £1352, 8s.

Bishop Lesley, in noticing the Queen's death, says, "Hir bodie thaireftir was carried to France in ane ship, to the Abbey of Feckin in Normandie." (History, p. 289.) Knox, at page 160, speaks of her burial having been deferred, and that "lappet in a cope of leid," her body lay in the Castle of Edinburgh till the 19th October, "quhan sche by pynouris was caryed to a schip, and sa caryed to France." Another authority asserts, that it was not till the spring following that her body was removed from Edinburgh.

"Upoun the xvj day of the said moneth of March, [1560-1] at xij houris in the nycht, the corpes of vmquhile Marie Quene Douriare of Scotland and Regent, was convoyit secretlie furth of the Castell of Edinburgh, and put in ane schip in Leith, and convoyit thairfra to France, be Mr. Archibald Crawfurd person of Eiglishame; quhair sho was honourablie buryit." (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 282.)

In mentioning the Queen Regent's funerals, Bishop Lesley, in his Latin History, is somewhat more circumstantial, by adding, that after reaching the sea-port of Fécamp in Normandy, and lying for a time in the Monastery, the body was finally removed to Rheims. His words are,—" Ejus autem corpus in Galliam postea transvectum primum ad Monasterium Feckamense, quod in Normania est, deinde ad cœnobium S. Petri Rhemis in Campania, cui Soror ipsius pie tunc præerat, delatum, honorifice condebatur." (De Rebus gestis Scotorum, p. 569.)

Throckmorton also, in a letter addressed to Queen Elizabeth from Paris, 13th July 1561, says, "The said Queen of Scotland's determination to go home continues still: She goeth shortly from Court to Fescamp, in Normandy, there to make her Mother's funerals and burial, and from thence to Calais, there to embark." (Tytler's History, vol. vi. p. 398.)

After the funeral ceremonies at Fécamp, the Queen's body was transported to the city of Rheims, and interred in the Church of the Abbey or Convent of Saint-Pierre-les-Dames, of which her sister Renée de Lorraine was Abbess. This younger daughter of Claude de Lorraine, first Duke of Guise, was born in 1522. She became Abbess in 1546, and survived till the 3d of April 1602, when she was interred beside her sister the Queen of Scotland. There was a handsome marble monument erected in the choir of the church; but the Abbey itself was in a great measure destroyed during the excesses of the French Revolution in 1792. The monument was adorned with a full length figure in bronze of the Queen in royal apparel, holding the sword and the rod of justice, "tenant le sceptre et la main de justice." (Anselme, Hist. Genealogique, tome iii. p. 492.)