Hello,
My name is Rachel. I am doing a school project on Mary Queen of
Scots.
Could you help me by describing men and womens fashion in your day?
Did you wear a lot of make up? What style did you wear your hair in?
Thank You!
Hair warn tight to the head, high collars and warm clothing. Strong colours and the Tartan prominent.
At the time of Mary's execution she wore a Red haired Wig as she had lost her hair which had turned grey.
Some of Mary's have a very strong French influence because she was Queen of France before becoming their Widowed Queen and returning to Scotland. Scotland was a Protestant nation led by a new Catholic Queen!
HenryR
For our school subject on Mary Queen of Scots we need to know the following:
What did Mary wear?
What was Mary’s bedroom like?
Why did she have a private chapel?
What duties did Mary carry out as queen of Scotland?
Who were servants to the Queen?
What were they eating for dinner?
What was her supper like?
A young 5 yrs old Princess Mary Stewart (Not Stuart Yet!) was sent to France by sea to be Educated in the Catholic French Court with a possibility of becoming the next Queen of France my marriage. She had with her four companions, all girls and all called Mary too, they became her like long friends and closest sympathisers. Their names were:
Mary Fleming ; Mary Livingstone ; Mary Beaton and Mary Seton.
Princess Mary did become Queen of France and changed her name from Stewart to the French version Stuart, from them on this was the Stuart’s proper name. Now remember that Europe was changing in it’s religion, the people were sick of being robbed by the Papal Catholic system which was very corrupt and a new Religion was sweeping across for the people. Started by Martin Luther who Protested about the corruptness of the Roman Catholic Church, the new Protestant church was formed where each country had its own leader but the people had direct access to it. Scotland became a Protestant country whilst Mary was in France, the trouble was France remained Catholic whilst she was there, so Mary was a Roman Catholic. The King of France died and Mary became the dowager Queen of France, the Scottish King died and Mary was to be their new Monarch. She accepted and the people welcomed her back, a beautiful red haired woman of high standing, her religion accepted in the privacy of her court.
At this stage the answer to your question of her Chapel is clearly seen, She worshipped privately with her catholic Priest in a Protestant Country that she ruled.
The Scottish court was divided into Protestants and Catholics here are the Names of her court, just see how they were divided:
The Protestant Lords:
Argyll; Arran; Bothwell; Boyd; Chatelherault; Crawford; Fleming; Glencairn; Herries; Huntly; Lennox; Lindsay; Livingstone; Maitland; Mar; Moray; Morton; Ochiltree; Rothes; Ruthven.
The Catholic Lords:
Atholl; Caithness; Eglington; Home; Huntly; Seton.
The coloured ones were the families of her best friends from the time in France.
Queen Mary’s bedroom had a French influence because of her love of the French may of life, here are pictures of her actual bedroom at Borthwick Castle.
Mary’s clothing was formal but heavily influenced by French love of bright colours.
The food for Royals was similar throughout Europe, lots of selection. Sometimes books misrepresent the number of courses that was eaten during a banquet, actually only one course was eaten but maybe 20 choices on the centre table. We call it a buffet nowadays, buffeters would look after the food and serve each person with what they wanted. Buffeters are now called Beefeaters. Supper came from the Roman word Supra, which means a stew which could be soaked into bread, when it is very thin it is called soup.
Mary’s Supper would be a stew made from left-overs from the dinner. The stew from a Pot was a common way of re-using food.
The Queen’s servants were a standard throughout Britain, a Councillor for legal advice, Courtiers of the stool they would look after Mary in her bathroom and toilet, lady’s in waiting would be her close companions but still her personal servant even thought they were from noble blood.
I hope I have covered all your questions enough for your school, even though you wrote to Mary all her emails are re-routed to me, King Henry VIII so I can decide which website they will appear in.
Thank you for your questions they were good ones.
Henry Tudor
© The Website of Mary Queen of Scots