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Mary Fleming, one of the Four Marys
(1543 - after 1584)
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Mary Fleming was one of the “Four Marys”, the girls chosen to grow up with Mary, Queen of Scots, in France. She remained one of the queen’s closest companions, married her Secretary of State, William Maitland of Lethington, and stayed loyal to her through civil war and imprisonment.
The Four Marys
Mary was born in 1543, the youngest child of Malcolm, 3rd Lord Fleming, and Janet Stewart, half-sister of King James V. She was therefore a first cousin of the infant queen. In 1548, when Queen Mary was sent to France for safety, four girls of her own age and name went with her: Mary Fleming, Mary Beaton, Mary Seton and Mary Livingston. Mary Fleming’s mother went too, as the queen’s governess.
In 1549 the four Marys were sent to a convent at Poissy so that the young queen would be more fully immersed in French language and culture.
At the Scottish court
The Marys returned to Scotland with the queen in 1561. At the Twelfth Night celebrations of 5 January 1563 Mary Fleming was “Queen of the Bean”, the queen for the day, splendidly dressed in the queen’s own jewels. That February, after a French poet was found hiding in the queen’s bedchamber, Mary Fleming shared the queen’s bed each night for security. The queen gave her gowns and remembered her in her will of 1566.
Marriage to Maitland
From 1564 Mary was courted by William Maitland of Lethington, the queen’s Secretary of State, who was much older than her. They married in January 1567 and had a son, James, and a daughter, Margaret. After the queen’s imprisonment in Loch Leven Castle in 1567, Mary sent her a ring engraved with the fable of the lion and the mouse, a reminder that the weak may one day help the strong.
Civil war
Maitland eventually joined the queen’s party and held Edinburgh Castle for her with Kirkcaldy of Grange. Mary signed an inventory of the royal jewels in the castle, and in 1571 Parliament ordered her to return a chain of diamonds and rubies the queen had given her. When the castle fell in May 1573, Maitland was taken prisoner and died at Leith soon afterwards, probably by his own hand.
Later life
In 1581 Mary attended the imprisoned queen at Sheffield as a lady-in-waiting. In May 1584 the king and Parliament granted her and her children the pacification and restoration of their property. She died some time after 1584.