How Old Was Queen Mary When She Married Francis?

Mary, Queen of Scots, was 16 years old when she married Francis who was 15 years old at the time.

Their joining took place when Henry II died on 10 July 1559, from injuries sustained in a joust.

Mary’s claim to the English throne was a perennial sticking point between herself and Elizabeth.

During Mary’s childhood, Scotland was governed by regents, first by the heir to the throne, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and then by her mother, Mary of Guise.

In 1548, she was betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin of France, and was sent to be brought up in France, where she would be safe from invading English forces during the Rough Wooing.

Mary married Francis in 1558, becoming queen consort of France from his accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560.

Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland in August 1561. Following the Scottish Reformation, the tense religious and political climate that Mary encountered on her return to Scotland was further agitated by prominent Scots such as John Knox, who openly questioned whether her subjects had a duty to obey her.

The early years of her personal rule were marked by pragmatism, tolerance, and moderation.

She issued a proclamation accepting the religious settlement in Scotland as she had found it upon her return, retained advisers such as James Stewart, Earl of Moray, and William Maitland of Lethington, and governed as the Catholic monarch of a Protestant kingdom.