Mary of Guise - Duchess of Longueville

Duchess of Longueville

Mary was born at Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine, the eldest daughter of Claude of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, head of the House of Guise, and his wife Antoinette de Bourbon, herself the daughter of Francis, Count of Vendome, and Marie de Luxembourg. Among her 11 siblings were Francis, Duke of Guise, Claude, Duke of Aumale, Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, and Louis I, Cardinal of Guise. Mary was tall and her mother mentioned in a letter that she suffered from bad colds and had greasy hair.

On 4 August 1534, at the age of 18, she became Duchess of Longueville by marrying Louis II, Duke of Longueville (born 1510), at the Château du Louvre. Their union turned out to be happy, but brief. On 30 October 1535, Mary gave birth to her first son, Francis, but on 9 June 1537, Louis died at Rouen and left her a widow at the age of 21. For the rest of her life, Mary kept the last letter from her bon mari et ami (her good husband and friend Louis), which mentioned his illness and explained his absence at Rouen. It can still be seen at the National Library of Scotland. On 4 August, Mary gave birth to their second son, who was named Louis after his deceased father. Louis died very young, but Francis wrote letters to his mother in Scotland; on 22 March 1545 he sent a piece of string to show how tall he was, and on 2 July 1546 he sent her his portrait.