Ok, you know the drill by now – we’re continuing our closer look at all the machinations at play through Europe during the divorce of Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII. You can catch up on 1532 here, and today we’re going to pick up where we left off in 1533.
So much of Mary, Queen of Scots’ later life was operatic that it’s easy to gloss over her formative years. Her violent death, her rivalry with Elizabeth I, her disastrous second and third marriages, the possibility she was involved in a murder – all of this tends to drown out the rest. But much like Eleanor of Aquitaine, the “less” dramatic early years actually involved being the queen of France and Mary’s long-term residency at the French court uniquely positioned her as both a Stuart and Scottish monarch.
