2-368-295 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mary Stuart, Queen Consort of Francis II of France, c1560 (1882-1884). Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) married Francis, then Dauphin of France, in 1558. He became king the following year but died in 1560. Mary returned to Scotland but in 1567 was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favour of James, her one year old son by her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and fled to England. As a Catholic with a claim to the throne of her cousin, Elizabeth I, Mary became a focus for plots, and was eventually imprisoned and executed. From a miniature in the collection of Gaignieres, Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliotheque Nationale. A print from La France et les Français à Travers les Siècles, Volume III, F Roy editor, A Challamel, Saint-Antoine, 1882-1884.