Mary, Queen of Scots
On a clifftop fortress during the winter of 1543, an infant girl was anointed Queen of Scotland. The crown was held above her head, for its weight would have crushed the child. Her mother, the widowed Mary of Guise, had secured an impenetrable castle to house her, lest Henry VIII abducted her daughter - the King wanted her to wed his son. Though Mary Stuart was only a baby, the question of who she would marry affected relations between several countries. The solution was found by sending the child to France, where betrothed to the heir apparent of the throne of France, she was raised in the royal household. It was not a solution that lasted, for sixteen years later, with her husband dead, young Mary was
