History of the Stewarts | Famous Stewarts
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Mary of Gueldres - 'A sovereign both prudent and energetic'
Mary of Gueldres, the only daughter and heiress of Arnold, Duke of Gueldres, was born in 1433 and was brought up and educated at the court of her kinsman, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.
She was chosen as a suitable royal bride by a party of specially appointed Scottish commissioners, who approved as much of her amiable qualities as of her ancestry and her queenly character. She set sail from Flanders in a resplendent galley, escorted by 13 other ships, with a retinue of nobles and 300 men at arms, landing at Leith on 18 June 1449.
A fortnight later, on 3 July, she married James II, King of Scots, at Holyrood and was crowned queen on the same day. The marriage and they had 5 sons and 3 daughters, although 1 son and 1 daughter died in infancy.
Her surviving children were:
1. James, afterwards king as James III.
2. Alexander, created Earl of March in 1455 and Duke of Albany in 1458.
3. David, Earl of Moray, who died when about 3 years old.
4. John, Earl of Mar. He was warded by his brother on a charge of treason and died a bachelor in prison in 1479.
5. Mary, who married 1stly, Thomas, Lord Boyd. She married 2ndly (Papal dispensation 25 April 1474), James Hamilton, 1st Lord Hamilton.
6. Margaret, who is stated possibly to have married William, 3rd Lord Crichton. By him she had a daughter, Margaret, Lady Rothes, but whether this was in wedlock or not remains uncertain.
Upon the death of her husband at the Siege of Roxburgh on 3 August 1460, when he was six weeks short of his 30th birthday and she was about 27, she immediately took command of the situation, becoming unofficial regent for her nine-year-old son, James III. Taking her young son with her, she immediately set out for Roxburgh, where the siege was going badly since the death of her husband. She rallied the forces ranged against the castle and succeeded in capturing it in a couple of days. Then, having had her son hastily crowned at the nearest suitable place, which happened to be Kelso Abbey, on 10 August, they made a royal progress back to Edinburgh in some style.
For the remaining three years of her life Mary continued to dominate the political scene and look after the interests of her eldest son, aided and quite frequently hindered by her chief minister, James Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrews who felt that he should be regent and not Mary. When James II died he had been abroad but in May 1461 he returned to Scotland, and immediately began to challenge Mary´s authority with the backing of his following at court, known as the ´old lordes´ (as opposed to the ´new lordes´ who were supporters of Mary). In July 1460 she had sheltered Margaret of Anjou (wife of Henry VI of England) and her son, Prince Edward, in Lincluden Abbey, after their party´s defeat at Northampton; as part of the deal, a treaty was signed promising Edward in marriage to Mary´s daughter, Princess Mary of Scotland. She also gave temporary refuge to Margaret and Henry after their defeat at Towton in March 1461, exacting as the price of her help and friendship, the surrender of Berwick back into Scottish hands. In April 1462, frustrated with the difficulty she had experienced in securing Scottish support for the Lancastrian cause, Margaret and Henry set off to France to seek the aid of King Louis XI. Their departure allowed Mary to negotiate a better peace with the Yorkist regime. This meant that the English royal administration remained preoccupied with peace talks during the campaigning season of 1462. Mary continued to struggle to gain acceptance of her foreign policy in parliament, and she herself personally accompanied the Scottish royal host in an abortive assault on Norham Castle in Northumberland in July 1463.
A devout Catholic, Mary founded Trinity College Church in 1460 in memory of her husband. The church, was in Edinburgh´s Old Town, however it was demolished in 1848 to make way for Waverley station.The Queen Regent died 1 December 1463, however the location of her death is not known for sure. Her funeral was not held until June 1464, in Brechin Cathedral. It is commonly supposed she was initially buried at Brechin because the Holy Trinity College church had not yet been completed. It is more likely that she may have died in either Angus or Perthshire and therefore Brechin Cathedral was the nearer location and it was there that her body was transported. She was buried in Trinity College Church although her body was moved to Holyrood in 1848 as the church was demolished to make way for Waverley Station.
