Mary of Guise was the eldest daughter of Claude, first Duke of Guise, and sister of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. Widowed young, she married James V of Scotland in 1538, and their daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, was born days before the king’s death in December 1542. Mary of Guise sent her daughter to be raised in France and in 1554 became regent of Scotland herself.

At first she governed with caution, for she needed Protestant support for her daughter’s French marriage. When the bishops summoned John Knox to Edinburgh in 1556, the summons was withdrawn, and Knox wrote her a letter asking for toleration of Protestants. She dismissed it with contempt and grew less conciliatory.¹ In 1559, with French troops behind her, she moved to suppress the Reformed preachers. Knox returned from Geneva in May, preached at Perth, and the country rose.

The Protestant lords, called the Lords of the Congregation, deposed her as regent in October 1559, and the Treaty of Berwick brought English help in February 1560. Mary of Guise died in Edinburgh Castle on June 11, 1560. Within weeks the French and English agreed to withdraw from Scotland, and in August the Scottish Parliament adopted the Reformed confession of faith.

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