A Stuart-wank TL

[ArchMonarchist]

Some notes so far, to bracket the birth of the TL's main character:

1. Because I love symmetry, I gave Marie-Marguerite the same birthday as Henry VIII, and the same entry date to Scotland and number-gender-birthday-order of children as Marie de Guise (MQOS' actual mother). This has positive benefits for MQOS.
2. Given that my goal is to wank the Stewarts (God, I hate saying that) by giving their chessboard a Queen, I need to set MQOS up for an ideal upbringing. She needs to stay in Scotland long enough to learn to deal with the nobility, receive an actual education instead of needlework and dancing - as skilled at both as she was - and to not be married too young. By giving her several older brothers, MQOS will not become a war-worthy sensation on the marriage market until *spoiler alert* all of them are dead.
3. Since there's no infant queen to marry off, there won't be any rough-wooing, economic dislocation or military devastation in the early 1540s, so Scotland won't lose a generation of largely catholic Catholic nobles or child-rearing age men in futile wars. Nor will Henry have as pressing a need to exclude the only real claimant to the throne after his children from the succession.
4. So, at the moment of MQOS birth, the Scottish crown is wealthier and stronger than in OTL, as is the Scottish realm. Unlike Marie de Guise (OTL mom), Marie-Marguerite is a princess of the blood royal with close familial relationships to both the Tudors and the Valois. She is also the wealthiest noble in Scotland in her own right, a status that will increase with her dower properties, and has five more years experience with Scottish politics than Marie de Guise had in OTL. All of these make her a much stronger regent and advocate for her daughter than Marie de Guise was capable of being, with enormous consequences for British history.

 

[ArchMonarchist]

FYI, Scottish politics is NEXT LEVEL chaotic and this is also the part where a bunch of timeline changes come in, so be prepared to work those eyeballs or just skip to the end of each year for TL;DRs.

1543: A bitter winter descended on Scotland as the reign of King James VI began following a suitable period of Christian mourning. Publicly declaring her regency via heralds, banners, and proclamations nailed to every flat surface in sight, Marie-Marguerite follows up with a deep-of-night flight to Stirling Castle - an impregnable fortress in the possession of her mother-in-law. The purpose of the trip was two-fold: to gain a foothold against what was sure to be a Protestant backlash to her regency, and to gain the support of the still-formidable Queen (Grand) Mother, Margaret Tudor. There, she confers with both her aunt and her mother to draft the first letter of her Regency . . . to Henry VIII; a missive that would bear fruit.

Aghast at her flight and uber-public assumption of the Regency, the Protestant Lords commanded her to return to Edinburgh to have her Regency confirmed by the Privy Council; an order which Marie-Marguerite counters by stating that the royal will had already been confirmed, thereby commanding all the great men of the realm to attend to her at Stirling. There, the Queen gradually gathered domestic support via her connections with the clergy, the merchant class, the educated bourgeoise, and noble royalists and catholics. Meanwhile, the Earl of Arran, titular figurehead of the nobility and a bit of a dolt, took it upon himself to marshall their forces in opposition to the Queen Mother. His position, however, was undermined when the nobility - aware that a royal will hugely boosted her regency claim - refused to elect him Governor without first meeting with Marie-Marguerite. Arran, ensconced with his partisans, declined and instead settled in wait for aid from England. As a result, the nobility of Scotland split in two, with Marie-Marguerite taking the larger share due to her close ties with France, wealth, and custody of all the heirs to the throne. Over the next six weeks, Arran ruled in the royal absence as if he were Governor, appointing David Beaton as Chancellor before changing his mind and throwing him in prison - a fatal error, as the wily cardinal immediately defected to the Queen Mother and escaped with liberal bribes to his guards provided by the very same. As Arran's attempts to place spies in Marie-Marguerite's household failed, and the nobility grew even more unsettled due to the tension in the realm, it became clearer and clearer that all hinged on the actions of the English king, whose endorsement would break the royalist-leaning tie either way.

Arran was delighted when Henry released 23 Scottish nobles held in captivity on the condition that they uphold the reformed faith, a delight that only increased when Henry sent a personal envoy, Ralph Sadler, to Scotland. In response, Arran declared his support of the English Reformation, in spite of his personal Catholicism. This move backfired, however, as - to everyone's surprise - Henry VIII refused to actively intervene. The 23 Scottish nobles, English ambassador, and Tudor sisters were more than capable of turning events to his will without risking a war on his northern frontier. On top of this, the recently single (thanks to Catherine Howard's execution) English King was openly floating his niece as a marriage prospect. And in any case, Marie-Marguerite had consistently shown herself unwilling to risk a full-blown conflict with England anyway. His decision, however logical, devastated the Protestant cause and the remaining not-yet-defected nobles. Without the possibility of military, political or financial support from England the Protestant minority had no realistic path to resist the Queen mother, particularly after she had gained the support of Cardinal Beaton. It did not aid things for Arran that the Queen Mother's spies actually had managed to infiltrate his household and disrupt his correspondence. Marie-Marguerite, secure in the passage of time, waited at Stirling as a trickle of nobility joining her cause grew to a steady clip. The culmination of her year was the coronation of her son, the 7 year-old king James VI in September. By the end of the year it had become clear that the tortoise had won the race. Marie-Marguerite had outmanouvered the spastic Scottish nobility who - as sexist and nationalistic as most men throughout history have been - were completely unprepared for her astute political talents. (TL;DR Marie-Marguerite doesn't have the long, exhausting struggle to secure the regency that Marie de Guise had, nor does she make as many enemies as quickly).

1544-1546: The return of the English captives to Scotland entailed the arrival of the Earl of Lennox, a veteran intriguer who switched sides between France, England Scotland with rapidity. Deathly opposed to the Earl of Arran and his entire family, his alliance with the Queen mother was a foregone conclusion. With the Earls Bothwell, Moray, Lennox, Huntly and Argyll firmly in hand, Marie-Marguerite finally strikes. Sending her strongest nobles to their territories, "pensions" included, to raise an army, Marie-Marguerite proceeded to diplomatically isolate Arran and his allies. Arran, with his religious vacillation and bone-headed political errors, had managed to alienate most of his support save the most radical protestants and members of his own family. Thus, when her allies had returned to her, replete with 8,000 armed soldiers, the chessboard was set.

The royalists set upon the city of Edinburgh, utterly obliterating the Hamilton forces. The final phase of their conquest was securing the submission of Arran himself in Edinburgh castle. With her allies in control of the lowlands, highlands, and capital, and with the prospect of English aid still relatively far on the horizon, Marie-Marguerite had at last legally secured the Regency, the Governorship, and the Guardianship of the royal children. While the nobility bristled at her concentration of power, there were no other more agreeable candidates (both Arran and Beaton having earned a multitude of enemies during their long political careers), the middle class wholeheartedly adored her pro-commerce policies, and she retained her popularity with the common people. In her struggle, Marie-Marguerite was unable to help the French during Henry's 1544 invasion (conveniently for her "peace with England" policy), begging off her aloofness with complaints of 'Heretics and rebels' - an excuse that would come back to bite her later. While Francis I was angry at Marie-Marguerite's disinclination to aid him, the dauphin Henry urged his father to consider the long-term. So, when Marie-Marguerite's order for French artillery arrived complete with payment in cash up-front, the French duly obliged, allowing the Queen Mother to entirely outclass the Scottish rebels in military terms.

The second major challenge of the Regency occurred when Cardinal Beaton attempted, against direct orders from the Queen Mother, to burn the Protestant George Wishart. Angry at the defiance of her authority, Marie-Marguerite marched with an escort of 100 armed men to physically haul him off the stake. While this action perturbed the Catholic monarchs on the continent, it earned her positive reviews in the British Isles where public burnings were hated among both Catholics and Protestants alike. Henry VIII was especially elated at this nominal defense of the reformed faith. This action also earned the praise of Marie-Marguerites slightly older and far more Protestant sister, Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara, who praised Marie-Marguerite to her friend and correspondent, John Calvin. While Cardinal Beaton resents her intervention intensely, her Grace returns the favor by alerting him of a plot against his life later in the same year. However, the fact that she had heard of it at all reminded the Scots of her formidable network of informants. The Queen's joy, however, is diminished when her son Henry died of smallpox - an event that many Scots believed to be an ill-omen of her alliance with his namesake. This despair is compounded when her two remaining middle sons die of the sweating sickness months later, in April 1546. Despite her personal and sincere devastation, the continued health of King James VI and the Princess Mary (whose value on the marriage market drastically increased) allowed the Queen to retain power. (Tl;DR Marie-Marguerite secures the upper hand against the nobility, while skirting her Auld Alliance obligations and securing her already positive relations with religious reformers. However, she loses 60% of her children within the span of a few months. ).

 

[RobinP]

Tl;DR Marie-Marguerite secures the upper hand against the nobility, while skirting her Auld Alliance obligations and securing her already positive relations with religious reformers. However, she loses 60% of her children within the span of a few months. ).

Oof! Loosing kids is hard. Poor girl.

English King was openly floating his niece as a marriage prospect.

It will be interestingly to see how the English and Scottish will react to this. Because while the Hapsburgs were marrying uncle/niece marriages left right and center, it wasn’t super common there.

Great chapter!

 

[ArchMonarchist]

Oof! Loosing kids isn’t hard. Poor girl.



It will be interestingly to see how the English and Scottish will react to this. Because while the Hapsburgs were marrying uncle/niece marriages left right and center, it wasn’t super common there.

Great chapter!

Wait, losing kids ISN'T hard? Damn. I don't know whether to be shocked, admiring, or horrified.

And yes, you're right. Ultimately, the marriage is a long shot for any number of political, religious, and person reasons. However, negotiations get dragged on long enough to have some VERY interesting effects on the Third Succession act (the one that disinherited the Stuarts and recognized the Tudor sisters' right to succeed) and the reconciliation of the royal family under Catherine Parr, who does not become Queen in this timeline.

 

[isabella]

Well is not like Henry can disinherit Margaret’s line in favor of Mary’s here...

 

[ArchMonarchist]

Hey, all. My apologies for the gap in posting. I developed not-so-lovely codependency between alcohol consumption and writing, and I had to take a step back from it to get some things in order. I'm returning with another installment! This one is long, and I'm also taking a break from the yearly list format which I find not so conducive for communicating all the nuances of the period. It's a long one, so there's a TL;DR at the end. I hope you enjoy it!

The First Regency, 1547-1551:

Marie-Marguerite found herself in a position of nominally vast power as the Governess-Regent (a clunky title imposed on her by historians). However, power was firmly limited by the aggrandized Scottish nobility. Adding insult to injury - it soon became clear that her mother was dying. Despite a flighty nature at odds with her daughter’s studied regality, Mary Tudor had become a popular figure in the Scottish court. Maintaining her celebrated beauty until her death, the fashionable and charming princess bolstered her daughter as an ally, an English liaison, and a living symbol of the evermore ironclad Stuart claim to the English throne. Seeing the nearness of the end, Marie-Marguerite, in 1547, commissioned a portrait of herself, her mother, and her daughter. Only slightly flattered by the artist, all three beauties stunned through the canvas. The image would later be endlessly copied, especially in the 1560s when Mary Stuart’s claim to the English throne came to the fore.

It also soon emerged that Henry VIII was dying. Marie-Marguerite initiated a correspondence with her uncle shortly before her mother’s death, based on their shared, genuine sadness. Marie-Marguerite, who had seldom seen her mother before her 16th birthday, relished in Henry’s stories of their youth. Henry, for his part, genuinely respected his niece and recognized her intellect. Henry, who had never clarified his daughter’s legitimacy or ruled on the Stuart claim, waffled until his death. Courtiers suggested that this was the exact reason that the wily Marie-Marguerite had commiserated with her sick, old uncle. Henry’s 1547 death ushered in the reign of Edward VI, along with a furious succession debate. Both events dismayed Marie-Marguerite, who recognized that the young arch-Protestant would rankle at a Catholic Scotland and that stirring the pot over the English succession benefitted her not at all.

Furthermore, the young king Edward VI could not have been more different from his almost exact contemporary, the young James VII of Scotland. The young Scot, and his even younger sister, inherited the Plantagenet tendency toward good health and tall height exemplified by Henry VIII and Edward IV. The young Scots king excelled at academics and athletics, growing to a full six feet in height by the age of twelve, and to 6’6 by the age of 17. The Queen Mother brought her children along to her many political meetings and events, advertising them as symbols of her power. This political immersion served both children well since their tutors used the content of the meetings to guide their lessons (i.e. foreign languages, history, geography, and rhetoric). The highly intellectual Queen Mother proved a loving and warm, yet highly strict mother with very high expectations for her children. Their shared days brought the Queen Mother and her children much closer than other women of her status and time, with the royal mother and children often dining together while discussing politics and culture.

The accession of Edward VI brought immediate religious tensions to the British isles. The Duke of Somerset, who governed England in the name of Edward VI, made it clear that he regarded Scotland as a glorified vassal. Considerable catholic opposition to the imposition of Protestantism led to the Prayer Book Rebellion. Marie-Marguerite was suspiciously regarded by some Protestants as encouraging this. While the conspirators had attempted to contact her, she had again refused to press any claim to the English throne. Despite her refusal to entertain any claims to the throne for her son, his celebrated popularity led to constant whispers of the rivalry between the two cousin kings. None of this was helped by the fact that the English royal family remained hopelessly riven. With both Tudor sisters still bastardized, and with no Catherine Parr reuniting the family, the siblings had not spoken in years, and, by 1549, Edward’s hardline Protestantism led to a growing estrangement from his oldest sister. Despite this reputation as a hardliner, both English and Scottish Protestants pushed for a marriage between the Catholic princess Mary and her double-cousin-king.

These cries grew even more insistent after the quick, painful death of James VII from dysentery in 1551 at the age of 17. The death of the massively popular, young giant-king, who had just begun taking control of government before his 17th birthday, devastated the nation (see: the death of OTL Henry, Prince of Wales in 1612). With the death of the hope of Scotland, the crushed Marie-Marguerite was forced to contend with still more political obstacles. The heir to the throne, a girl of 8, was now one of the best matches in Europe. With two kings and two Tudor princesses as grandparents, the impeccably pedigreed young beauty brought a crown of her own as well as the technical status as second-in-line to the English throne after King Edward. Almost immediately after her coronation, the Duke of Somerset (who remains tenuously in power ITTL due to the nonexistence of economically ruinous wars with Scotland) dispatched an envoy to flatly inform the Queen Mother of Scotland that unless she agreed to cooperate with the reformed religion and espouse her (hopefully-converted) daughter to Edward, the “era of amity” between the neighboring kingdoms would be brought to a close. Marie-Marguerite, who ITTL has not only her income but a relatively healthy treasury unlike Marie de Guise OTL, argues that both kingdoms have benefitted from an increase of farming on the borderlands, reduced war casualties among men of child-bearing age, and spikes in trade. Somerset truthfully counters that Scotland has benefitted far more from this status than England, citing a demographic boom brought about by increased food supply and not losing tens of thousands of men in war from a country of only 500,000 people. His insistence on the marriage forced Marie-Marguerite’s hand. While her gentle(wo)man’s agreement with Henry VIII had brought her relative safety from the Protestant faction in Scotland, the increasingly close relationship between Edward VI and the reformers renders this arrangement untenable.

Marie-Marguerite is confirmed once again as Regent the day after her daughter’s coronation at age 8 in September of 1551. This inaugurates the Second Regency, with all indicators flashing bright red that this one will be more fractious than the first.

TL;DR Henry VIII dies, Mary Tudor dies, James VII dies, and now Marie-Marguerite is faced with a hostile England that wants to destroy her fragile, relatively popular peace. The new Queen Mary’s status as heir to the English throne makes her marriage to Edward a necessity for the English.

Next up: The Second Regency!

 

[Wendell]

And here I thought OTL was a Stuart wank...

 

[zert]

Just caught your story and very interesting things happening. Shame that the male line of the Stuarts are dying before they can begat children of their own, but the Future Queen of England will have much awaiting her future coronation.

 

[ArchMonarchist]

Just caught your story and very interesting things happening. Shame that the male line of the Stuarts are dying before they can begat children of their own, but the Future Queen of England will have much awaiting her future coronation.

Thank you! I'm glad you like it! Let me know if you have any feedback or criticisms.

When you refer to "the future Queen of England" do you mean Mary Stuart, Mary Tudor, Marie-Marguerite, or Elizabeth I? In any case, ALL of them are going to have a very interesting ride even if they don't all become queen!

 

[zert]

Thank you! I'm glad you like it! Let me know if you have any feedback or criticisms.

When you refer to "the future Queen of England" do you mean Mary Stuart, Mary Tudor, Marie-Marguerite, or Elizabeth I? In any case, ALL of them are going to have a very interesting ride even if they don't all become queen!

I'm sorry, I meant our featured Princess and Queen, Mary-Marguireite, though she may well remain Queen Mother and principle Regent for her daughter Mary.

 

[ArchMonarchist]

The Second Regency, p. 1. (1551 - 1553)

Marie-Marguerite takes up negotiations for the marriage between Edward VI and Mary in thickly-veiled bad faith, a relative rarity for her given her general and somewhat atypical honesty. She asked Somerset for his terms, and his response was a dead letter. In addition to handing over Mary by the age of 10 (i.e. within 18 months), the Scots had to relinquish the Auld Alliance, cede effective authority to Edward and his ministers, abolish the Catholic hierarchy, and dismiss Cardinal Beaton. Furthermore, if Mary died without an heir, her claim to Scotland would fall to Edward. None of these terms were remotely acceptable to Marie-Marguerite, and even the Protestant Scots balked at such degradation. Marie-Marguerite feinted, stating that her only opposition to the marriage was Mary's age. The Queen Mother counter-offered that she would accept all the other terms of the marriage if they agreed to wait until Mary was 13 - particularly since there was no way the marriage could be consummated before then anyway. Edward VI and Somerset, who trusted Marie-Marguerite not one bit, clearly recognized that she was stalling, but didn't have specific grounds to dismiss her ostensibly reasonable request yet. So, the cycle of diplomatic correspondence continued apace.

Religious tensions instigated political clashes. While Marie-Marguerite had forestalled the assassination of Cardinal Beaton, another plot came to light against the young Queen by the same group of would-be assailants. This was a blunder, however. While Cardinal Beaton was an arch-politique, scheming, clannish, corrupt clergyman with a long-term mistress and 8 children, Mary Stuart was a charming, vibrant, fatherless child whose generally popular mother maintained an enormously popular administration. Due to Marie-Marguerite treating every day as "Bring your daughter to work day", Mary Stuart was a familiar sight to the people of Edinburgh and even Scots who dislike the Queen Mother personally realize the benefits of her regime. Marie-Marguerite seized the opportunity, publicizing the assassination attempt and leaning into its unpopularity to drum up sympathy for her daughter. It works. Crowds assemble outside of Edinburgh Castle to acclaim the Young Queen and wish her a long and glorious reign (See: Queen Victoria, Ronald Reagan, and company after their assassination attempts). However, the crowd is not as thrilled to see Marie-Marguerite, blaming her for the "English Match" negotiations. The crowd doesn't go so far as to boo her, but they do implore her to "Keep our princess home!" among similar utterances.

Seeing that her ship of state is tacking a bit too close to catholicism, jeopardizing her painstakingly-acquired reputation for moderation, Marie-Marguerite reaches out to the most obvious Protestant ally and friend she can: her sister, Renée. The two sisters had never met, growing up hundreds of miles apart before nearly being at the French court simultaneously. Renée, who is herself facing the murder of her coreligionists in Italy, needs a friend and ally even more than her sister does. So, upon receiving Marie-Marguerite's letter, she promptly sits down to write a respectful, thoughtful, lengthy response. What begins as a quasi-cynical canvass for support turns into a stream of loving missives which becomes one of the most celebrated correspondences in Europe. The two sisters begin discussing religion, politics, and society after several months of increasing friendly messages. Displaying her formidable intellect, each sister defends her post with stunning competence. It was as if Liselotte and Samuel Pepys had been pen-pals. At the request of their friends, the sisters begin to write open letters on the subject of religion. Although sincerely religious, neither woman is a hardliner, and their letters back and forth are academically rigorous and beautifully written without being boorish. Over the years, their open letter series became a smash hit, with copies made and read by every educated person in Europe. Interestingly, despite the fact that both sisters had countless replies to their letters, neither would answer anyone else's comments or refutations unless directly voiced by her sister. In their still voluminous personal (i.e. non-religious) correspondence, Renée - to the immense consternation of other Protestants - suggests a marriage between her niece (Mary Stuart) and great-nephew (the catholic Dauphin of France).

Ralph Sadler, still resident ambassador to Scotland after a decade, catches wind of the French desire for Mary's hand. He also reports furtively that Marie-Marguerite is negotiating with the French ambassador to send Mary to France. In reality, she had only met with him to discuss the English threat. The French, annoyed that Marie-Marguerite had claimed all the benefits of the Auld Alliance without paying into the kitty, diplomatically told Marie-Marguerite that unless she was willing to wed the Queen to the Dauphin Francis, French help was unlikely. Marie-Marguerite, however, knew that the Scottish would not appreciate being a French dependency any more than being an English one. Despite the minimal extent of their conversation, the English reacted with extreme annoyance. Until Edward VI married or settled the succession, Mary's marriage gave her husband a way-too-strong-for-comfort claim to the English throne. In response, the English canceled the binational border commission and free trade agreement between the two kingdoms, both of which both proved highly damaging to the Scottish economy in the medium-term.

In an utterly predictable trend throughout Scottish history, English paranoia about the Auld Alliance motivated them to take hostile actions against Scotland that directly strengthened said Auld Alliance. Furthermore, the impact of the abovementioned English actions was rude enough to require a response without being harsh enough to cow the Scots. When Sadler came to tell Marie-Marguerite that Edward was prepared to declare war if marriage were not offered, Marie-Marguerite promised to set the marriage before Parliament. To absolutely no-one's surprise, Parliament virtually unanimously rejected the marriage treaty. The common people cheered the news, and Sadler's house was vandalized thereby during the night. If Marie-Marguerite had been hoping to keep stalling, however, her luck ran out. The English Privy Council, eagerly pressed by Edward VI, declared war a month after the Scottish Parliament's decision - one week after the news was officially delivered.


Next up: The Rough Wooing.

 

[Kurd Gossemer]

Good update, hoping eagerly for the next one.

 

[ArchMonarchist]

Good update, hoping eagerly for the next one.

Thank you so much! Please, feel free to let me know if you have any feedback!

 

[ArchMonarchist]

The second regency p. II: (1553- 1554).

The young queen Mary, never sheltered from political reality, breaks down into sobs, understanding (excellently for her 10 years, competently for an adult) the brutal economic and demographic toll the war will have on her kingdom. Another announcement almost brings Marie-Marguerite to tears as well: John Knox is returning to Scotland. After deciding in the late 1540s that the Queen Mother was too powerful to resist, he had toured the Protestant capitals of Europe honing his already phenomenal preaching skills and charisma. While Marie-Marguerite had earned the trust of the Protestant community in Scotland due to her two decades of complete tolerance of their views, no-one believed that she could keep a lid on the problem forever. Furthermore, her policy was alienating radical Catholics (including Philip II of Spain) by the day, many of whom claimed that her tolerance was allowing Protestant literature and philosophy to spread from Scotland like cancer.

The very day she heard of the English declaration of war, Marie-Marguerite applied for a Papal dispensation to marry her daughter to her great-nephew - an action (like so many others) thoroughly prohibited by catholicism, and easily waived by the pope. Since Parliament was still in session, Marie-Marguerite donned her most glorious regalia (which was, to put a fine point on it, breathtakingly gorgeous and expensive), dressed her daughter similarly, and entered Parliament. The presence of the reigning sovereign was strictly forbidden. But when the Speaker of the House attempted to explain this to Marie-Marguerite, she waved him off in a gesture that was profoundly dismissive without being humiliating. The young queen Mary then rose to speak and delivered what was an exceptionally beautiful and elegant speech on the subject of English domination. Invoking the Declaration of Arbroath, the auld enmity, and the death of her grandfather at Flodden Field, the young Queen delivered and then some. The highlight of her speech was when she analogized Edward’s invasion to being physically raped by her cousin - a line that drew shocked gasps coming from a 10-year-old girl, but which were strong and accurate enough to linger. The speech was a sensation (see: Maria Theresa’s presentation before the Hungarian Parliament, Elizabeth I’s “heart and stomach of a king” speech, Isabella the Catholic’s address to the Castilian nobility, etc), bringing the crowd to either tears, applause, or shocked silence. Marie-Marguerite’s subsequent plea for taxes to finance the upcoming war, which she would give her own entire fortune to fight, was approved almost immediately.

While Mary Stuart had, IOTL, a preternatural charm that could manifest as charisma when needed, these skills were wasted on courtly entertainment and fashion in France. Marie-Marguerite, on the other hand, realized that her daughter’s charm was a formidable political weapon, and cultivated it for this purpose. Mary Stuart, an excellent conversationalist from a young age (as OTL) witnessed her mother’s political wheelings and dealings first-hand, learning from a master how to navigate politics as a woman. Marie-Marguerite also instills in Mary a sense of pride in, and responsibility for, her kingdom. In one illustrative incident, Mary Stuart asked her mother why the indigent poor begged on the street. Marie-Marguerite responded, completely out of step with her contemporaries, that they were her personal responsibility, and that their poverty was their (Marie Marguerite and Mary Stuart’s) fault.

The return of John Knox and the news of invasion from England breathed air into the Protestant cause in Scotland, which languished under neglect from Henry VIII. Most prominently, Knox breathes air into the young lungs of James Stewart, Mary Stuart’s illegitimate brother. Marie-Marguerite openly loathed the young nobleman and spared no effort to thwart his every ambition all while smiling sweetly in his face. This habit of punishing or rewarding children for her relationships with their mothers would come to be one of Marie-Marguerite’s primary failings, fundamentally altering her relationship with Mary Tudor (cousin, not mother), the illegitimate James Stewart, Elizabeth I and, much later, Princess Isabella Eugenia of Spain. Historians would remark that this vindictive streak led the Earl of Moray to his later intense advocacy for the Protestant cause (which we all know isn’t true, since he had it anyway).

In a shocking move, Marie-Marguerite fires Cardinal Beaton. With the mind of a 2020 PR executive, Marie-Marguerite could clearly see that his unpopularity was dragging her down. Furthermore, her total co-option of the Scottish catholic faction rendered him unnecessary. In his place, Marie-Marguerite breaks with the tradition and appoints the young (28), brilliant, and highly Protestant William Maitland, Laird Lethington, as her chancellor - despite him holding neither a bishopric nor a peerage. She further appointed William Kirkcaldy of Grange, another brilliant, young Protestant, as the leader of her forces against England. Observers noted that, after agreeing to work for Marie-Marguerite, both young men began to spend suspiciously large sums of money given their income.

During the Scottish marshal, it emerges that Marie-Marguerite had, for years, been living a double life as a highly successful property magnate. By lending funds to impoverished nobles on land collateral (and eagerly snatching their property if they defaulted), buying any available estates adjacent to her own, and managing her holdings with an iron fist, Marie-Marguerite has acquired even more financial weight than her critics suspected (see: Mademoiselle de Bourbon, only 30% less rich and 300% less obvious about it). When the Parliament of Scotland approved a 15,000-pound levy, the Queen mother, to their shock, easily matched it.

Marie-Marguerite knew, as any educated European of the time did, that there was virtually no way for Scotland to resist England independently. Even with the recent demographic and economic boom, England had 4 times Scotland’s population (3.6 million v. 900 thousand) and an economy to match. The best Marie-Marguerite could hope for was to stall the English so much with diplomacy and French aid that she could wait them out. King Henry II’s prompt shipment of money and artillery, along with promises of military support thus bolstered Marie-Marguerite’s morale. Feeling out all of her options, Marie-Marguerite also agrees to her cousin Mary Tudor’s clandestine requests for sanctuary from the Protestant regime. Although Mary was too proud to take her cousin up on the offer, its extension would be long remembered.

The English dithered for several months, planning a proper invasion force. The rapidly worsening health of the young king pushed the plan ahead much more quickly than the Earl of Somserset, a brilliant general for all his faults, wished for. King Edward VI began harboring obsession in his young cousin, and his focus on securing a Protestant succession grew paramount. A humiliating letter written by the young king to his cousin during a particularly bad fever brought the Young Queen to tears, referring to her as a “forgetful [of her loyalty to Edward] rebel”, a “follower of the anti-Christ”, a “wanton girl”, his “destined wife”, and “a virgin prize”, all of which horrified the young Queen. Marie-Marguerite, whose maternal rage drowned out her normal circumspection, formally ordered the expulsion of all Englishmen from Scotland. She also set a firm date for Mary’s removal to France - an action that she would soon come to regret.

Edward VI, after missing yet another Privy Council meeting on the Scottish invasion due to sickness, had the indignity to drop dead on the same day as his aunt Margaret Tudor, immediately launching all of Britain into chaos. The public reading of Edward’s will only worsens matters. Edward confirmed the illegitimacy of Mary and Elizabeth both and included a particularly vindictively written exclusion of Mary Stuart and her mother. However, despite refusing to recognize her legitimacy, Edward VI announced his Protestant older sister Elizabeth as his lawful heir in a mortifyingly backhanded clause. The will was written without any input from the women in question, and it immediately paralyzed the English body politic by virtually guaranteeing a civil war.

Princess (Queen?) Elizabeth, upon hearing the news, began screaming hysterically, bemoaning that she would be torn apart by wolves. Lady (Queen?) Mary Tudor goes to Mass, where her priest notes her weeping silently to herself before, during, and after the service. Queen Marie-Marguerite wordlessly clutches her daughter to her breast, rocking back and forth, for hours. Queen Mary Stuart, on a speaking tour against John Knox, collapses to the floor. The Earl of Somerset, sitting on a massive and well-equipped army with no king to command him, sees his opportunity to establish a permanent, protestant dynasty.

Four women, all removed from the succession at least once and all close kin, stood at odds:

One, queen by blood.
One, queen by right.
One, queen by faith.
And one, queen by merit.

 

[ArchMonarchist]

A first draft painting of Marie-Marguerite. The lips, eyes, and eyebrows are all too small. But it's good enough for you to get a general idea.

 

[ArchMonarchist]

This one is a major context-providing entry where the chronological timeline doesn't move very far, but trends that will endure for decades emerge. Two TL;DRs for those disinclined to read all the way through.

The English Interregnum of 1554:

TL;DR If you've been thinking "even for a wank, this timeline is pretty wank-y", here's your time to gloat.

Mary Tudor, humiliated by decades of disrespect from her father and brother, eagerly sees her chance. However, unlike OTL where Lady Jane Grey was a flimsy obstacle, the Queens Stuart and the Protestant pretendress loomed far larger. Imitating her cousin’s route in Scotland, Mary Tudor hunkers down, gathering support while writing to her uncle: the King Charles of Spain and Italy, Emperor of Germany. She also sends Margaret Douglas, Countess Lennox, to Marie-Marguerite as an envoy to entreat her support and dissuade her from taking up her daughter’s claim to the throne. Marie-Marguerite, facing significant obstacles at home (see below) suavely bluffs her cousin, not-so-subtly implying that she’d accept the role of Queenmaker if she could not be Queen. When the Young Queen catches word of this, she publicly takes her mother to task for gambling away her claim to the English throne without consulting her. Marie-Marguerite - who has fucking had it after working 12-hour-days, six-days-a-week for a decade supporting her daughter and her kingdom - glacially replies that the Regency exists precisely because lazy children cannot be trusted to correctly manage their estates. In response, the Young Queen coldly commands her mother to leave the royal presence, raising gasps of shock from both royal retinues.

Princess Elizabeth wastes no time disavowing her claim to the throne. A politique to the core, Elizabeth knew that she stood no chance against her older sister and her foreign cousins capable of fielding an army. The Earl of Somerset, however, had other plans. Descending on Hampton Palace in the dark of night, he awakened Elizabeth to announce his support of her. Despite supercilious claims of loyalty, the young lady’s hackles trilled - rightfully so. As the Earl pontificated, references proliferated to Elizabeth marrying a high-ranking Protestant who could support her claim, with no doubt as to who the said gentleman was. Elizabeth turned the charm to the max, and ordered the Earl to be feted. Staging - with almost no funds - a night of entertainments, her ultra-loyal household more than delivered. When the Earl was besotted with drink, the Princess took a brief reprieve to the privy chamber, where she collapsed in silent weeping.

Marie-Marguerite could stall no longer. Historians marked either Edward’s death as the end of her charmed period. Some even stated that were it not for her standing army and claim to the English throne, this would have been the beginning of her Anni Horribilli. It began with Marie-Marguerite using her daughter as a tool in her subtle war against Knox. To this end, the Queen Mother retooled her daughter’s curriculum, sending spies to every address John Knox gave, and centering her daughter’s education around them. His abundant spew of historical, biblical, and political references provided the Queen and her army of tutors a bevy of biographical, theological, political, foreign, and philosophical documents to draw from. Soon, a pattern emerged. As Knox toured Scotland, preaching hellfire and brimstone to excellent effect, his adolescent queen followed in his tracks, delivering charming addresses on reconciliation and community. Marie-Marguerite’s gamble, although not perfect, proved somewhat fruitful. Mary Stuart was (as OTL, but even more so) a beautiful young woman with an accomplished intellect and a talent for theater. The spectacle of the young girl nipping at the heels of a take-no-prisoners preacher old enough to be her grandfather amused contemporary observers and drove Dauphin Francis into a tizzy at the thought of his now-celebrity fiancée.

There, the good news ended for the Scots Queens. Marie-Marguerite, sensing an opening to pursue her daughter’s claim as an olive branch to the same, offered in the most oblique terms possible the idea of postponing her daughter’s marriage to Dauphin Francis. In that moment the French Ambassador, after many diplomatic attempts, finally unloaded on Marie-Marguerite. He shredded her plausible deniability, impugned her honor as a Princess of France, and pointedly accused her of being ungrateful and unkinsmanlike to the French monarchs. Marie-Marguerite flushed brilliantly, before swiftly changing the subject. The Queen Mother immediately sat her daughter down and had all the talks with her, including the “sex + what-exactly-is-a-mistress talk”, the “corruption is a fact of politics” talk, the “courtly love is meaningless” talk, the “make friends strategically” talk and the “Economics 101: Estate Management” talk. The young queen began to cry, stressed about the workload being placed on her. In response, her mother wordlessly pointed to a map of Britain hanging on the wall.


Marie-Marguerite, with her experience in Reformation-era England and Navarre, saw much better than her Catholic peers the nuanced danger of Protestant uprising. Despite her sizeable *ahem* gifts to Messieurs Maitland and Kilcaidy, Knox’s presence had blown Protestant sentiment far out of her control. Seeking to cut off a noble rebellion, the Queen Mother sent the Earl of Lennox to join his wife, Margaret Douglas, now the first cousin of every contender to the English throne. As an interest-pique, Marie-Marguerite offered to recognize Margaret Douglas-Lennox as heir to her father’s earldom of Angus, an act which would make the Lennoxes easily the most powerful of the Scottish Earls. This, to the Queen Mother’s dismay, deeply worsened her standing amidst resurgent Protestantism. It also marked the third consecutive failure in her negotiations, rattling her confidence on a personal level.

The elevation of the Earl and Countess Lennox aggravated the Hamiltons and their allies, who keenly resented the (weak) Lennox claim to the Scottish throne. Buoyed by the un-cowing of the second most powerful family in Scotland, the Earl of Glencairn, the Earl Morton (James Stewart’s uterine half-brother), Lord Lindsay, the 5th Lord Boyd, and William Keith (Earl Marischal) joined the Earl of Hamilton in promising to support the Protestant cause (i.e. to oppose Queen Mary’s marriage to the dauphin). Marie-Marguerite summoned all the said Protestant Lords to an air-clearing meeting with her and her daughter. The meeting ended in a standstill, with the statistically superior semblage of sententious seigneurs stalled by the serene and synchronized Scottish sovereigns. Both sides left unhappy, but the experience proved a valuable learning experience for the young Queen. Completing the reality-check hat-trick alongside her speaking tour against Knox, the reformist “Kirk Lords” (whose nickname directly mocked the Scottish Catholic clergy, AKA the actual Lords of the Church) declared their public support of Lady Elizabeth’s claim to the English throne against their own Queen’s. Both Scots Queens would ever after regard this action as an almost unforgivable treachery, effectively crippling their claim to the English throne.

The Scottish Protestant’s declaration of support deeply discomfited Elizabeth, whose status as Henry VIII’s daughter allowed her a degree of support no other Protestant could claim. With all three other claimants to the throne Catholic, her claim attracted the singular attention of the Reformist cause. The Earl of Somerset seized his chance and effectively took Elizabeth captive, intercepting her almost pathetically submissive letters to the Queens Stuart and her elder sister. After nearly a week of thinly veiled intrigue, matters came to a head when Elizabeth directly asked Somerset what he intended to do. Somerset replied with the obvious: a long Protestant marriage and a long Protestant reign. Elizabeth informed Somerset in no uncertain terms that she had no intention of marrying him and that he was an absolute fool for thinking he could hope to prevail against the Catholic coalition assembling against him. If Mary Tudor won, they were both dead. If Mary Tudor lost, and Marie-Marguerite managed to get her daughter to France, Elizabeth would face a two-front war. If Marie-Margeurite and Mary Tudor declared an alliance, the Reformed faith in Britain would be history. Hell, Marie-Marguerite had a strong enough bloodline and menstrual cycle to create a new dynasty even if her daughter’s claim was thwarted. When Somerset referenced supporting Edward’s will and Henry VIII’s Reformation, Elizabeth retorted that “they are dead fools, and we are neither.” While Elizabeth’s words failed to reach Somerset, her absolute refusal to advocate for war and inability to pay for any such enterprise, trickled down through the ranks. Despite this, she still accepted in person the well-wishes of the Scottish nobles - an action the Stuarts believed belied her claims to neutrality.

Without an agreement for supply for Parliament, Somerset could not sustain his army nor entrench Elizabeth as Queen. Her sister remained at her Anglian estates, gathering support, but was too afraid to act without the explicit support of the King of Spain. And, while the Privy Council had agreed to recognize Elizabeth as Queen, her resolute refusal to be crowned or declare herself as such fundamentally spoiled their plan. While Somerset could undercut Elizabeth by having Parliament recognize her as Queen without consulting her, effectively imprisoning her on the throne, summoning Parliament would gamble that they ruled against Elizabeth’s place in the succession entirely. However, time was running out. Mary Stuart was set to go to France on June 28th, 1554 (her mother’s 39th birthday).

On the 19th of June, 1554, Mary Tudor formally proclaimed herself as queen and her throng of supporters as an army. Her declaration proved to be popular, particularly in rural areas. Strong pockets of Protestant support emerged for Elizabeth in London and its surrounding Hinterlands. Meanwhile, the Northern Earls of England sent a surprisingly public embassy to Marie-Marguerite, who they had known as an excellent ally and trading partner ever since the Pilgrimages of Grace two decades prior. In response to Mary Tudor’s declaration, Somerset set forth from Hampton to confront her. Meanwhile, in Scotland, the tearful departure between mother and daughter at Leith port saw the young Stuart Queen sent to France, at almost exactly eleven and a half years old. The Scots queen went to France with a brilliant education, assertive self-advocacy and immersion in politics . . . all of which made her distinctly unsuitable for status as a ceremonial French consort.

TL;DR: The Scottish Reformation has started in earnest, Elizabeth Tudor is a virtual captive, Mary Stuart goes to France 6 years later than OTL, Mary Tudor waits much longer than OTL to declare herself Queen, and the Lords of both England and Scotland are seeking chances for advancement.