圣十字架宫5

One person was determined Henry would not get his hands on Mary or Scotland,Mary's mother.

This portrait proclaims her status and her wealth,

with her coat of arms and fabulous jewel she's wearing round her neck,

but in reality she was intensely vulnerable.

She knew that her daughter's hand in marriage was a high prize indeed

and naturally it was to France that she looked for union,rather than England,

and that would secure her position and that of her daughter.

And if that meant sending her daughter away across the Channel then Mary of Guise would do it.

In 1548, at just five years old, Mary was sent to France.

Promised in marriage to Francis, the young heir to the French throne,

her future seemed assured, but first she had to get there.