In 1547, King Henry II proposed a union between his six year old son Francis, and Mary, who was also six years of age. This was an important agreement between the two countries. Scotland needed strength and allies against current and future threats, and The Queen of France, Catherine de Medici, was unsuccessful in carrying a second male heir to term after the birth of her first born son.
Within months, Mary was moved to France, where she resided with the Valois family for many years. She spent her time gallivanting through the castle and playing with other children, especially Francis. However, the royal family feared for Mary’s safety (although many believed that she was simply becoming an annoyance to the French Queen) and she was moved to a convent at the age of nine.
During her time away, tragedy struck in France. Francis was a sickly child, and around the age of ten, passed away. Catherine had no other male heirs to take the throne upon Henry’s death, and with that, an uprising began.
The Bourbon line, a family that resided in Navarre, had desired the French crown for decades and wanted it for themselves. Shortly after the death of Prince Francis, when France was in a fragile state, the Bourbon family waged war and after a little over three years, they took the country for themselves and became its official rulers.
Charles de Bourbon, the new King of France, decided upon his rule that he wanted to keep the alliance between his country and Scotland, and by doing so, he would marry the Queen of Scotland to Louis Bourbon, his son.
A couple years passed and later in 1557, when Mary was fifteen, there was an English assassination attempt at the convent where she was living. Worried about her safety and more importantly, the alliance, King Charles decided that it was time for Mary to return to French court; where she would meet, and soon marry Prince Louis.
She traveled by carriage for many days, and she soon reached the castle walls of French court. She remembered the sights and smells of her surroundings and her memories there. But she knew the atmosphere would not be familiar at all. She was nervous, as she grew up thinking she would marry her playmate Francis.
She stepped out of the carriage with grace and smiled as she looked around her for the Prince, whom she had never laid eyes on. As she looked far to her right, a tall handsome man began walking towards her, and like magnets, she began walking towards him.
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