Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: by seeking a renewed alliance with France. He took to his second wife, Mary of Guise, the widow of the Duke of Longueville,1 and by her he became the father of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. In neither of these marriages had James sought the advice or consulted the feelings of his imperious uncle; and not only was Henry offended, but he did not care to conceal his dissatisfaction. Politically each of these alliances had been unpalatable, but the second was personally offensive. He himself had been a suitor for the hand of the widowed Duchess; but she had laughingly rejected the advances of her corpulent admirer, that she might give her hand to a younger and gayer suitor. To a man of Henry's temperament such a slight as this was an offence not easily forgotten, and never forgiven.2 1 She arrived at Crail, 10th June 1538. 1 From a letter addressed to M. de Chatillon by Francis I. (23 Jan. 1538), we learn that at this time Henry, with his accustomed want of delicacy, pressed his marriage with the Duchess of Longueville, and that his suit was rejected, upon the plea that she had already been promised to the King of Scotland.; See again under 3 May. At the same time Francis declared that he esteemed James as his own son. MS. Bodley, Carte 82. The terms of the marriage had been arranged by the future Cardinal Beton, who describes the duchess as "stark and well complexioned, and one who may endure travail." B. M. Addit. MS. 19, 401, fol. 39. This second alliance was all the more disagreeable to Henry from another reason; in Mary of Guise the Papacy and France had an advocate ever ready not only to plead their claims, but also to caution her husband against the wicked designs which his uncle was planning against both. It was no secret that for long Henry had sought to streng...