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The four Marys, as they became known, were the companions and ladies-in-waiting of Mary, Queen of Scots: Mary Seton, Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston. In 1548, the four Marys joined their Queen at Inchmahome Priory in preparation for their journey to France.
This is an ancient and tragic ballad of what happened at the Edinburgh court of the young Mary Queen of Scots. The Queen’s Four Maries as widely sung has only a few verses set in Edinburgh, in which Mary Hamilton laments that she is to die, without explaining why.
She and the Four Maries lived in France from 1547 to 1560, where Mary was dauphine and then queen as the wife of King Francis II. Mary later returned home to Scotland (keeping the French spelling of her surname, Stuart).
The four ‘Maries’ accompanied Mary Queen of Scots as a child to France in 1548 and remained her closest lifelong friends. Mary Beaton was the daughter of the head of Mary’s household, who accompanied her, and the others were the daughters of the three noble families closest to the Stewart Court.
So runs the old ballad, remembering the four friends and companions of a fifth Mary – Mary Stuart, the romantic and ill-fated Queen of Scots. The Queen’s fate is well-known, but who were her four Marys and what happened to them?
Mar 6, 2017 · Who Were the Queen's Maries? Mary, Queen of Scots , was five years old when she was sent to France to be raised with her future husband, Francis, the dauphin. Four other girls about her own age were sent as maids of honor to keep her company.
The four Marys went everywhere with the Queen, even accompanying her to Parliament in 1563. They had stools in her chamber, when to sit in the presence of the monarch was an extraordinary honour; they waited on her at table and they took leading roles in the lavish court entertainments so important to sixteenth century monarchy.
