Mary, Queen of Scots
ENGLAND, Scotland and France may not be strictly in step these days, but history undeniably links us all and never more closely than where royal personages were concerned. The torrid life and bloody end of Mary, Queen of Scots are powerful illustrations of the religion-riven, devious dynastic politics of the 16th century, but her early years emphasise the old national ties.
Ever under threat because of her Catholic upbringing, in 1548, at six years of age, Mary was betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin, and was transported from Dumbarton to Saint-Pol-de-Léon on the Brittany coast, travelling in style with a French fleet sent by Francis’s father Henry II. Much of her childhood was spent at the Château de Saint-Germainen-Laye west
