MARY STUART
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MARY STUART
Soon after her arrival at her destination Mary was placed with the French king's own daughters in one of the first convents of the kingdom, where she made rapid progress in the acquisition of the literature and accomplishment of the age. She received instructions in the art of making verses hy the famous Ronsard, and Latin was taught her by the great Scottish scholar Buchanan. When only fourteen years old she had attained to such a mastery of the language that she pronounced before Henry II a Latin oration, in which she maintained that it is becoming for women to study literature and master the liberal arts. Introduced at the court of Henry II, which, as Robertson observes, " was one of the politest but most corrupt in Europe," Mary, while yet a child, became the envy of her sex, surpassing the most accomplished in the elegance and fluency of her language, the grace and liveliness of her movements, and the charm of her whole manner and behavior. " Graceful alike in person and intellect," says Froude, " she possessed that peculiar beauty in which the form is lost in the expression, and which every painter, therefore, has represented differently. Eprely, perhaps, has any woman combined so many noticeable qualities as IMary Stuart : with a feminine insight into men and things and human life, she had cultivated herself to that high perfection in which accomplishments were no longer adventitious ornaments, but were wrought into her organic constitution. . . . She had vigor, energy, tenacity of purpose, with perfect and never-failing self- possession, and, as the one indispensable foundation for the effective use of all other qualities, she had indomi- table courage" (IJisf. of Enr/land, vol. vii, ch. iv). The dauphin, to whom she was betrothed, was about two years her junior, but, as they had been playmates in early childhood, a mutual affection had sprung up be- tween them, and when, on April 24, 1558, she was to be joined to him in wedlock, she hesitated not to submit to the most absurd stipulations. Not only was she obliged to agree that her intended husband should have the title of king of the Scots, but she was even betraj'ed into the signature of a secret deed, by which, if she died chikl- less, both her Scottish realm and her right of succession to the English crown, as the granddaughter of Henry VII, were conveyed to France. The foolishness of this secret compact Mary had afterivards sufficient cause to regret more than once.
Scarce were the nuptial solemnities fairly over, when queen Mary of England died (1558). In accordance with the agreement entered into, France promptly put fonvard her claims to the vacated throne, and, tliough Elizabeth was made successor, IMary Stuart's rights were insisted upon, and continued to be urged with great per- tinacity by her ambitious uncles the princes of Lorraine. " On every occasion on which the dauphin and dau- phiness a[)peared in public, they were ostentatiously greeted as the king and queen of luigland ; the English arms were engraved upon their plate, embroidered on their banners, and jiainted on their furniture ; and jMary 's own favorite device at the time was the two crowns of France and Scotland, with the motto ' Aliaque mora- tur,' meaning that of England." July 10, 1559, Henry died, and the young dau|>hin ascended the throne of Charlemagne as Francis II. '" Surely," thought Mary, " I am soon to realize my highest cxiiectations. Over three kiugdonis I sliall sway tlic sceptre. The holy father himself will come from Kome and pronounce his bless- ing u|)on nie as his most faithful daughter. The lately- deceased queen of England received her name in honor of the blessed Virgin, I shall be pronounced more worthy of it still." Alas for human frailty. Man proposeth, but God dispDseth. ]\Liry had reached the summit of her splendor at a moment when she believed herself only ascending the heights. ' Feeble and -sickly, Fran- cis II was scarcely seated on the throne when he was seized by disease, and, fast wasting away, died Dec. 5, 15G0. Only a year and a half had the young pair en- joyed their royal honors. ChiieUess, Mary was obliged