The Queens of Scotland (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852 edition. Excerpt: ... through divers factions among the principal noblemen, shortly thereafter contending among themselves for the government of the realm and the keeping of the Princess's person/' How pertinaciously the Queen-mother, Mary of Lorraine, struggled for the preservation of her maternal rights, in retaining the personal care of the new-born Sovereign, has already been fully related in her biography.1 The appointment of nurse to the infant Majesty of Scotland, an office both honourable and important, was bestowed by the Queen-mother on Janet Sinclair, the wife of John Kemp of Haddington--Janet having previously attended on the deceased Prince James, Mary's eldest brother, in the like vocation. Both Janet and her husband were made recipients of Crown grants,2 and other testimonials of the Queen-mother's grateful sense of her services to her royal nursling; for Mary, though falsely reported to be sickly and unlikely to live, was a fair and goodly babe, and did ample credit to Mistress Janet's fostering care. She was, however, nursed under the watchful eye of the Queen her mother, and in her own chamber--the warmest, the most salubrious, and the safest, in that pleasant suite of apartments facing the lake. According to regal etiquette, this was indeed Mary's proper place--being the Sovereign's bedroom, situated between the presence-chamber and the royal closet or dressing-room. It was provided with a trap-door, masking a secret stair leading to an unsuspected place of concealment, in case of danger; and here tradition affirms that James III. was once enabled to escape the murderous pursuit of a party of his traitor nobles, through the self-possession and courage of his faithful consort, Margaret of Denmark. Mary--an unconscious infant on her nurse's...