Unique account of Mary Queen of Scots' life put up for auction
A DOCUMENT signed by a teenage Mary Queen of Scots to certify her annual accounts is expected to fetch up to £15,000 at auction this week.
A document signed by a teenage Mary Queen of Scots is set to fetch £15,000 at auction
Mary signed the document “Marie”, as Queen of Scots and Dowager Queen of France, at the Palace of Fontainebleau, near Paris, on February 23, 1561.
Written in French on vellum, it certified her annual accounts for the previous year to the sum of “44,828 livres, 13 sols and 9 deniers” and instructed her secretary and comptroller general to sign off the expense.
The sheet, the final page of Mary’s 97-page account book, will go on sale at Christie’s in London on Wednesday and is expected to fetch £10,000-£15,000.
The letter is signed and dated on February 23, 1561
This is an absolute turning point in her life
Thomas Venning, Christie’s head of books and manuscripts, said: “On the face of it, this is rather an impersonal document as she is signing off her accounts, but this is an absolute turning point in her life.
“The year covered by these accounts had seen the deaths of both her mother, Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland, whom she had not seen since she was eight, and her husband, Francois II.”
In 2012 another letter by the Mary went up for auction at £3,000
He added: “In January 1561, her Guise uncles attempted to arrange a match for Mary with Don Carlos, the eldest son of Philip II of Spain, but this was blocked by Catherine de’ Medici in April.
“The subsequent months were filled with negotiations for Mary’s return to Scotland on August 19, 1561. She was 18 and had not seen her native country since her departure as a five-year-old in August 1548.”