One person was determined Henry would not get his hands on Mary or Scotland, Mary's mother. This portrait proclaims her status and her wealth, with her coat of arms and fabulous jewel she's wearing round her neck, but in reality she was intensely vulnerable. She knew that her daughter's hand in marriage was a high prize indeed and naturally it was to France that she looked for union, rather than England, and that would secure her position and that of her daughter. And if that meant sending her daughter away across the Channel then Mary of Guise would do it. In 1548, at just five years old, Mary was sent to France. Promised in marriage to Francis, the young heir to the French throne, her future seemed assured, but first she had to get there.


有个人不肯让他染指女皇或苏格兰，就是玛丽的妈妈。这幅画像显示她的地位和财富，看她的家族纹章、颈上的珠宝。但事实上，她的地位岌岌可危，她知道女儿是人人觊觎的配婚对象，但她希望与法国联婚，不是英格兰。这可以保障她们母女的地位，就算要把幼女送过海峡之外，玛丽德吉斯也心甘情愿。在1548年，年仅五岁的玛丽被送到了法国，承诺嫁给弗朗西斯，法国君王的继承人。她的未来似乎有了保证，但是首先她必须到达法国。