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Marie Courcelles
Marie Courcelles (fl. 1562 – fl. 1583) was a Scottish court official. She served as lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots. Life She arrived to Scotland from France in 1562 to become a lady-in-waiting to queen Mary. She was not the only French lady-in-waiting: nine accompanied the queen from France in 1561 under the supervision of her French chamberlain, Servais de Condé: Guyonne de Péguillon; Marie Pyerres (Madame de Briante), Joanne de la Reyneville ( Lady Creich), Isabelle Camp (Demoiselle de Cobron) and Suzanne Constant (Demoiselle de Fonterpuys), as well as seven maids-of-honour under a governess, Madamoiselle de la Souche. In May 1562 the queen bought Courcelles, described as one of her " chamber women" shoes, linen, black taffeta for a skirt, and a farthingale. In January 1563 she was described as a "maiden in the Queen's chamber" and given a black velvet gown with another farthingale. In June 1566 she was "maiden and ''femme''" in the Queen's chamber and was given s ...
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Mary, Queen Of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when her father died and she inherited the throne. During her childhood, Scotland was governed by regents, first by the heir to the throne, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and then by her mother, Mary of Guise. In 1548, she was betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin of France, and was sent to be brought up in France, where she would be safe from invading English forces during the Rough Wooing. Mary married Francis in 1558, becoming queen consort of France from his accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland in August 1561. Following the Scottish Reformation, the tense religious and political climate that Mary encountered on her return to Scotland was further agitated ...
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Servais De Condé
Servais de Condé or Condez (employed 1561-1574) was a French servant at the court of Mary Queen of Scots, in charge of her wardrobe and the costumes for masques performed at court. Varlet of the Wardrobe He was usually referred to as Servais or Servie in Scottish records. Although he is sometimes described as Mary's chamberlain, records call him a varlet, "virlote in her grace chalmer". He was also paid for his role as a "varlet of the wardrobe", and managed the queen's stock of rich silks and fabrics used for costume and interior decoration. The other varlets were Toussaint Courcelles and John Balfour. Servais de Condé worked in Holyrood Palace in September 1561 lining a cabinet room for the queen with 26 ells of a fabric called "Paris Green". The Italian cloth merchant and financier Timothy Cagnioli advanced £500 Scots for the project. The English diplomat Thomas Randolph mentions this cabinet as a space to which he was not admitted, where the queen withdrew to write lette ...
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Marie Pieris
Marie Pieris, Lady Seton (circa 1520–1576) was a French lady in waiting at the Scottish court. She was the daughter of René Pierres, Seigneur du Plessis-Baudouin and Antoinette d'Hommes. The French Pierres family claimed to have descended from the Percy family of Northumberland. Scotland Marie Pieris joined the household of Mary of Guise when she married James V, King of Scotland. Soon after coming to Scotland, she married George Seton, 6th Lord Seton. Their handfasting was held at Falkland Palace in February 1539. Her father wrote from Plessis-Baudouin to Mary of Guise to thank her for arranging the marriage, and he promised that after his death Marie would have her inheritance from him. René Pierres was improving his home at this time with a new drawbridge and a chapel at the parish church of Joué-Étiau in Maine-et-Loire. In early modern Scotland married women did not change their surnames. Her children included Robert Seton of Greendikes, James, and Mary Seton, the wel ...
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Robert Beaton Of Creich
Robert Beaton of Creich (died 1567) was a Scottish landowner and courtier. He served as a Master of Household to Mary, Queen of Scots. Robert Beaton was a son of John Beaton of Creich, keeper of Falkland Palace and Janet Hay. He went to France with Mary, Queen of Scots in 1548. His homes in Scotland included Creich Castle and the Place of Dunbog. He was extremely well-connected through his sisters and aunts. Robert's older sister, Janet Beaton married James Crichton of Cranston Riddel, and secondly Simon Preston of Craigmillar Castle. In 1543 she divorced him to marry Walter Scott of Buccleuch. He was killed in a feud on Edinburgh's High Street in 1552, and she was later associated with the Earl of Bothwell. Another sister, Margaret Beaton, married Arthur Forbes of Reres (d. 1586), and was known as "Lady Reres". She was also a companion of the queen. Rires Castle was in Kilconquhar, Fife. Another sister, Grisel Beaton, married William Scott, younger of Buccleuch, and secondly ...
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Chamberer
A chamberer was a female attendant of an English queen, queen consort, or princess. There were similar positions in aristocratic households. Chamberers at court At court, the position was similar to a male groom of the privy chamber. The names of ten women who served Elizabeth I as chamberers are known. They were daughters of landowning gentry families. Duties could include some domestic labour, embroidery, and administration, as well as attendance on the queen. The details of the distinctions between women of the chamber and hierarchy can be obscure. Other servants present in the royal lodging who carried out laundry work were of lower status than chamberers, and were called "lavenders". Chamberers would embroider and launder some linen items, especially ruffs. In Scotland, Elizabeth Gibb, took on this role for Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of James VI and I, in 1590, making and looking after ruffs and other garments. Usually the queen was served by four chamberers at any on ...
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Farthingale
A farthingale is one of several structures used under Western European women's clothing in the 16th and 17th centuries to support the skirts in the desired shape and enlarge the lower half of the body. It originated in Spain in the fifteenth century. Farthingales served important social and cultural functions for women in Renaissance Europe as they were used, primarily by court women, to show their high social position and wealth. Spanish farthingale The Spanish ''verdugado'', from which "farthingale" derives, was a hoop skirt originally stiffened with esparto grass; later designs in the temperate climate zone were stiffened with osiers ( willow withies), rope, or (from about 1580) whalebone. The name ''verdugado'' comes from the Spanish ''verdugo'' ("green wood", or the more modern meaning of "executioner"). The earliest sources indicate that Joan of Portugal started to use verdugados with hoops in Spain. Joan had provoked much criticism as she allegedly wore dresses t ...
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James Balfour Paul
Sir James Balfour Paul (16 November 1846 – 15 September 1931) was the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the officer responsible for heraldry in Scotland, from 1890 until the end of 1926. Life Paul was born in Edinburgh, the second son of the Rev John Paul of St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh and Margaret Balfour (granddadughter of James Balfour of Pilrig), at their home, 13 George Square, Edinburgh. His great-grandfather was Sir William Moncreiff, 7th Baronet. He was educated at Royal High School and University of Edinburgh. He was admitted an advocate in 1870. Thereafter, he was Registrar of Friendly Societies (1879–1890), Treasurer of the Faculty of Advocates (1883–1902), and appointed Lord Lyon King of Arms in 1890. He was created a Knight Bachelor in the 1900 New Year Honours list, and received the knighthood on 9 February 1900. Among his works was '' The Scots Peerage'', a nine-volume series published from 1904 to 1914. He tried two interesting heraldic ...
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Michel De Castelnau
Michel de Castelnau, Sieur de la Mauvissière (c. 1520–1592), French soldier and diplomat, ambassador to Queen Elizabeth. His memoirs, covering the period between 1559 and 1570, are considered a more reliable source for the period than many others. Life He was born in La Mauvissière (now part of Neuvy-le-Roi, Indre-et-Loire), Touraine about 1520. He was one of a large family of children, and his grandfather, Pierre de Castelnau, was Equerry (Master of the Horse) to Louis XII. Endowed with a clear and penetrating intellect and remarkable strength of memory, he received a careful education, capped off with travels in Italy and a long stay at Rome. He then spent some time in Malta and afterwards entered the army. His first acquaintance with war was in the campaigns of the French in Italy. His abilities and his courage won him the friendship and protection of the Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, who took him into his service. In 1557 a command in the navy was given to him, a ...
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Lochleven Castle
Lochleven Castle is a ruined castle on an island in Loch Leven Loch Leven may refer to: ;Bodies of water in Scotland * Loch Leven (Kinross), a freshwater loch in Perth and Kinross ** Loch Leven Castle, a fortress on the loch ** William Douglas of Lochleven, later the 6th Earl of Morton * Loch Leven (Highlands) ..., in the Perth and Kinross local authority area of Scotland. Possibly built around 1300, the castle was the site of military action during the Wars of Scottish Independence (1296–1357). In the latter part of the 14th century, the castle was granted to William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas, by his uncle. It remained in the Douglases' hands for the next 300 years. Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned there in 1567–68, and forced to abdicate as queen, before escaping with the help of her gaoler's family. In 1588, the queen's gaoler inherited the title of Earl of Morton, and moved away from the castle. In 1675, Sir William Bruce (architect), William Bruce, an architect, b ...
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Mary Seton
Mary Seton (1542 – 1615) was a Scottish courtier and later a nun. She was one of the four attendants of Mary, Queen of Scots, known as the Four Marys. She was a sister at the Convent of Saint Pierre les Dames in Reims at the time of her death. Sent to France Mary Seton was the daughter of George Seton, 6th Lord Seton, and his second wife Marie Pieris or Pierres, a daughter of René Pierres, of Plessis Baudouin, and Antoinette d'Hommes. Marie Pierres was a lady-in-waiting to Mary of Guise, the wife of King James V of Scotland. The French Pierres family claimed to have descended from the Percy family of Northumberland. As a child, Mary Seton became a lady-in-waiting to the young Mary, Queen of Scots, along with three other girls of similar age and of a similar standing in Scots society. They were famously known as "The Four Marys": she and Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston. The Four Marys accompanied Queen Mary in France, where she later married the Dauphin, Fr ...
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Jane Kennedy (courtier)
Jane, Janet, or Jean Kennedy (died 1589) was a companion of Mary, Queen of Scots, during her captivity in England. Jane was perhaps a daughter of Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis. Servant of the captive queen After the battle of Carberry Hill, Jane waited on Mary at Lochleven Castle where Mary was confined and signed abdication papers. Varying accounts mention her jumping from a wall while practising for the Queen's escape, or leaping from a window to join the Queen as she fled the island, and helping row the boat to Kinross. Stories of Kennedy's role at Lochleven were publicized by Nicolas Caussin in ''La Cour Sainte'' (Paris, 1664). In England, Jane was listed as a "maid" in Queen Mary's household at Tutbury Castle in October 1569, her name recorded by a French scribe as "Gin Cannate." At Sheffield Castle, in 1571, she was listed as a "maid of the chamber." The Earl of Shrewsbury wrote to William Cecil about a suspected servant called Martin, mentioning he seemed ...
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Sheffield Castle
Sheffield Castle was a castle in Sheffield, England, constructed at the confluence of the River Sheaf and the River Don, possibly on the site of a former Anglo-Saxon long house, and dominating the early town. A motte and bailey castle had been constructed on the site at some time in the century following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. This was destroyed in the Second Barons' War. Construction of a second castle, this time in stone, began four years later in 1270. Mary, Queen of Scots was held prisoner in this castle and its associated estates at various times during the 14 years between 1570 and 1584, alternating with other properties of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. The castle was held by Royalist forces for part of the English Civil War, and was surrendered to the Parliamentarians in 1644 following a short siege. Its demolition was ordered soon after, and the castle was razed. There are no known surviving drawings or plans of the castle, but excavations in th ...
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