A Remembering

Alas what am I? What use has my life?
I am but a body whose heart's torn away,
A vain shadow, an object of misery
Who has nothing left but death-in-life.
O my enemies, set your envy all aside;
I've no more eagerness for high domain;
I've borne too long the burden of my pain
To see your anger swiftly satisfied.
And you, my friends who have loved me so true,
Remember, lacking health and heart and peace,
There is nothing worthwhile that I can do;
Ask only that my misery should cease
And that, being punished in a world like this,
I have my portion in eternal bliss.

Mary, Queen of Scots was born on December 8, 1542, daughter of King James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise. Her father died just a week after her birth. She was betrothed to the Dauphin of France and educated at the French Court. Her husband, who succeeded as Francis II, died within a year of his accession and Mary left France in 1560 never to return. She married Henry, Lord Darnley, son of Margaret Stewart, Countess of Lennox, in 1565 and had one son who became King James VI of Scotland and I of England. After Darnley's mysterious murder she married James, Earl of Bothwell but divorced him after a short time. A fervent Roman Catholic and a claimant to the English Crown, Mary was a great danger to Elizabeth I.
She was captured in 1568 and after 19 years of confinement, executed at Fotheringhay Castle on February 8, 1587. She was first buried in Peterborough Cathedral with great solemnity by Elizabeth's orders but James I brought the remains to Westminster in 1612. He had erected a magnificent marble tomb for her in the south aisle of the Lady Chapel on which there is a fine white marble effigy under an elaborate canopy. She wears a close-fitting coif, a laced ruff, and a long mantle fastened by a brooch. At her feet is the Scottish lion crowned. The sculptors were William and Cornelius Cure. So the two queens rest opposite one another in the aisles of Henry VII's chapel. Next to Mary is the tomb of Margaret, Countess of Lennox on which is a kneeling figure of Lord Darnley.
Translation of the Latin inscriptions on her tomb:
“To God, the best and greatest. To her good memory, and in eternal hope. MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS, Dowager Queen of France, daughter of James V of Scotland, sole heir and great granddaughter of Henry VII, King of England, through his elder daughter Margaret, (who was joined in marriage to James IV of Scotland): great-great-granddaughter of Edward IV, King of England through his eldest daughter of Elizabeth [of York]: wife of Francis II, King of France: sure and certain heiress to the crown of England while she lived: mother of James, most puissant sovereign of Great Britain. She was sprung from royal and most ancient stock, linked on both paternal and maternal side with the greatest princes of Europe, abundantly endowed with most excellent gifts and adornments both of soul and body; yet, such are the manifold changes of human fortune, that, after she had been detained in custody for more or less twenty years, and had courageously and vigorously, (but vainly), fought against the obloquies of her foes, the mistrust of the faint-hearted, and the crafty devices of her mortal enemies, she was at last struck down by the axe (an unheard-of precedent, outrageous to royalty) and, despising the world, conquering death (the executioner being wearied), commending to Christ her Saviour the salvation of her soul; to James he son the hope of a kingdom and posterity, and to all who witnessed her unhappy murder an ensample of endurance, she piously, patiently and courageously submitted her royal neck to the accursed axe, and exchanged the fate of a transitory life for the eternity of an heavenly kingdom, on 8 February, year of Christ 1587, in the 46th year of her age.
"Love"

Marie and Francois had been informally betrothed when she was five and he was four. He was an object of ridicule and pity. He had a sallow complexion, distorted posture and a constantly runny nose. He was small for his age and dominated by his mother, the redoubtable Catherine de’Medici.

Marie, on the other hand was very tall and, by the time of their wedding, was nearly six feet in height. Her ivory complexion and striking coloring were legendary. She was a notable beauty long before she was a bride. They were a physical mismatch, but in spite of it, they were soul mates.

A poem Mary wrote after Francis's death..

 

 shall cease my song now
My sad lament shall end
Whose burden aye shall show
True love can not pretend
And, though we are apart
Grows no less in my heart.