The Four Marys

The Four Marys

 

 

A most enjoyable visit to Linlithgow on Thursday catching up with some other members of the Society, including two our London members in Scotland for the New Year celebrations.

 After walking round and admiring (yet again) the splendour of the Palace where Mary was born, a meal in the 'Four Marys' restaurant in the High Street which much enjoyed.

 
Needless to say some discussion as to the identity of the four Marys and what became of them. Agreed these were;

 1. Mary Seton who never married  and the only one of the four to accompany Mary into captivity. Because of declining health she was released from service in 1583 and retired to France  living in the convent of St. Pierre at Rhiems. Nevertheless she survived until at least 1615

 2. Mary Beaton daughter of Robert Beaton of Creich and nephew of Cardinal Beaton. Regarded as the most classically beautiful of the four. Married Lord Ogilvie of Boyne and died sometime before 1599.

 

3. Mary Livingston - known as 'Lusty' - married John Semple of Belries son of Lord Semple. May be buried in Linlithgow Churchyard.

 

4 Mary Fleming  - married William Maitland of Lethington. On his death following the fall of Edinburgh Castle in 1573 she married George Melrum of Fyvie.

 Needless to say we then tried to make sense of the traditional Scots ballad the  "Four Marys".

 

"Yestreen the Queen had Four Maries

The nicht she'll have but three

There was Marie Seton and Marie Beaton

and Marie Carmichael and me"

 

  While there was a Mary Carmichael, daughter of John Carmichael of that ilk who was for a while warden of the west marches there is no record of her ever serving  at Court.

 Who then is the "Me?

 It is believed that this may refer to a Mary Hamilton who has absolutely no connection with Mary or her period. but a Mary Hamilton who was executed by Czar Peter the Great in Russia in 1719. This Mary Hamilton was lady in waiting to the Czar's second wife the Empress Catherine (with whom it is recorded she insulted over  her looks) was a favourite of the Czar and was married to a Minister of State. She had an affair with an officer of the guard and a babe was found wrapped in a Court napkin. Under torture Mary admitted not only to the murder of this child but also previously of another two and was condemned to death. After the execution the Czar picked up the severed head and kissed the still quivering lips.

A ballad was written in Russia about the death and it is believed this found its way to Scotland and adapted to suit a Scottish audience

 

 

Callander House, Falkirk

 

Visited Callander House in Falkirk yesterday.

Purpose of the visit not involving Mary at all although the house is one with very many Marian connections.

The is very little of the house which Mary would know remaining but rebuilt as a fine Georgian House built in the French chateau style and well worthy of a visit.

The house is now a museum and art gallery with perhaps the main attraction for many being the fine restored and working Georgian kitchen.

Nonetheless a House very closely interwoven in Marian history.

In Mary’s time owned by Alexander, Fifth Lord Livingston who accompanied Mary’s father James V on his journey to France for the marriage to Princess Magdalene.

Shortly after her birth, Mary was betrothed to the future Edward V1 of England by the Treaty of Greenwich, a union initially promoted by the Regent of Scotland, the Earl of Aran but opposed by others.

It was a Callander House that the two parties became reconciled and determined to resile from the Treaty thereby incurring the wrath of the English King Henry V111 and setting in train the ‘Wars of the Rough Wooing’

Lord Livingston’s daughter was one of the ‘Four Marys ‘ who accompanied Mary to France (although not mentioned in the well-known song of the same title). Lord Livingston and his wife were also in the party and Lord Livingston was to die there in 1552.

His son, Lord William Livingston, although he had converted to Protestantism, played a prominent role in effecting Mary’s return as monarch in 1561.

Mary visited Callander House on several occasions, including in 1565 for the marriage of Mary Livingston to Lord Semple and later for the baptism of one of Lord Livingston’s children.

Mary also stayed at Callander on her return from Glasgow accompanied by Lord Darnley immediately before returning to Edinburgh. It was at Callander that the decision was taken than Darnley should not recuperate at Craigmillar Castle as would appear to have been intended but at the ill fated Provost’s Lodgings at Kirk o’ Field.

How and by whom this decision came to be made and the logistics of getting the house ready and what preplanning would have been required for the packing of the cellars of the house with gunpowder has long been debated and no doubt will again arise when the matter is the subject of the address by John Addiman at out Annual Gathering in April.

Ronald Morrison