Person Page 468

King Francis, II of France, was born on 19 January 1544.

Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, and King Francis, II of France, were married on 24 April 1558 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The services of Lady Fleming being no longer required about the person of the Queen, she returned to her own country in 1555, and most likely took up her residence at Boghall Castle, as assigned to her by her husband. Her daughter Mary, however, remained with the Queen as one of her maids of honour, and no doubt was present at all those amusements and festivities in which it is said the Queen so largely participated, during her abode in France. She would be one of her bridesmaids on the occasion of her marriage to the Dauphin, and she would be called on to condole with her when that young monarch was laid in a premature grave¹

King Francis, II of France, died on 5 December 1560 at age 16. Francis II died on 5 December 1560 of a middle-ear infection that led to an abscess in his brain. Mary was grief-stricken.[62] Her mother-in-law, Catherine de' Medici, became regent for the late king's ten-year-old brother Charles IX, who inherited the French throne.[63]²