Chapter 1:

"Mary!" an exasperated nursemaid called out. "Ye ur th' most mischievoos lass if ever I saw one. How ye manage tae wander aff is beyond me."

I gave her a toothy grin and resigned myself to being picked up by the current nursemaid that had the misfortune to be watching me. It wasn't like anyone was doing anything interesting today anyway. The current court plot was that the regent James Hamilton the 2nd Earl of Arran and the English ambassador Ralph Sadler were planning to marry me off to the English crown heir, Edward Tudor the Prince of Wales. But this was not a concern; I knew that the deal would never go through. Too many were in favor of the Auld Alliance with France and hated the English. Besides he was going to die young at 15. Even if I was forced to wed him the most I was going to be stuck with him was 6 or 7 months.

My mother was working tirelessly against the deal and to gain power as regent. I would be confident in her success even without my future knowledge confirming it. Really what was James Hamilton thinking? The Scottish and English despised each other. Perhaps it would have worked if there weren't the additional issue of Prince Edward being a Protestant, but with the state of things it was the death stroke for a marriage alliance between the English and Scottish crowns.

Finding myself back in the nursery, I huffed and pouted. It was no fun in here. There weren't even books to "pretend" to read in my age imposed prison. I did not want to be here. Sulking, I buried my head in my nursemaid's shoulder. "Come now love, dinnae be like 'at. There is a man 'at would like tae meet ye," my nursemaid gently chastised me.

Curious, I poked my head up and saw a strange man dressed in fine black clothes and holding some sort of bag. He had steel grey hair and appeared to be in his fifties. He lacked a white collar, which indicated that he wasn't a member of the clergy. Who could possibly be visiting me? I narrowed my eyes and demanded "Who?"

"My name is William Manderstown, and I traveled a very long way to meet you, your majesty," the strange man in black said with a sweeping bow.

I narrowed my eyes. The name William Manderstown was not familiar. I called out "Why?"

"I had heard that your majesty was born, but was weak and sickly. I came to render my services to my queen to see if I would be able to help restore her health," Manderstown said gently.

I paled at his words. He was a physician, which was bad news for me. I knew I was perfectly healthy, but these were the days that they thought regular bloodletting was necessary to continue good health. Much to my distress my nursemaid passed me over to the misinformed physician. I decided that now was a good time to act my age and throw a tantrum. "No!" I screamed. The adults winced at the high-pitch of my distressed voice. I wiggled and struggled in the physician's grasp. Unfortunately, he failed to drop me like I wanted. I continued to screech "No! No! No! No! No!" I beat my tiny fists against the man's chest. To my immense displeasure, the man was not put off from my display. He even had the gall to laugh at me.

"Well I am glad to see that those rumors of your ill health appear to be false. Your lungs definitely seem to be in working order, and your muscles are developing properly," the man teased. I glared at him in response.

He walked over and placed me down on a low cot. Sensing my opportunity for freedom, I scrambled back and away from him. I quickly looked around for an escape route. My nursemaid, anticipating my failed cooperation, had already moved to block the door, the traitor. I was still too little to access the windowsills, but the nursery wasn't on the ground floor anyway. I was trapped. Fine, whatever, I still wasn't going to go willingly. I ran to the trunk that contained all the toys that I ignored. Throwing it open, I grasped the toys and started throwing them at the man. Finally these baby toys were of some use.

The man covered his face, and took a few steps back. "Mary!" my nursemaid yelled in dismay at my behavior. She rushed towards me, leaving the door unguarded. Bingo. I dodged my nursemaid's attempt to pick me up and spun past her. I sprinted with all my might towards the door. I reached the doorway and could almost taste my freedom when I felt myself being scooped up from behind. I struggled against my captor, flailing my limbs. I smirked with grim satisfaction when I heard the "oomf" of air being knocked out of my captor when I landed a knee to the gut.

Suddenly my nursemaid was in view and taking me back up into her arms. "I am sae sorry, Mister. I dah know what has gotten intae 'er. She has always bin a spirited lassie, but she has ne'er bin sae naughty," my nursemaid apologized. Defeated, I swooned in her arms, making my body dead weight. She grunted as her knees buckled slightly under my weight.

"That's quite all right Miss. It's not the worse I've been subjected to when treating small children," the man said. He wiped his brow with a handkerchief and picked his bag up again. "Can you please hold her still on the cot while I examine her?"

"Ay coorse," my nursemaid responded. She then sat down on the cot her back against the wall with me on her lap. She restrained both of my arms by linking her elbows underneath my shoulders, and she threw a leg over my ankles to trap my legs. Pouting, I glared again at the man.

"Now, Queen Mary," the man said, "there is no need to be like this. I am here to help you." He came over to me and felt my brow. "You are balanced in both hot and cold, as well as wet and dry. Your urine was also the faintest shade of yellow, thin and did not smell fetid. All of this indicates good health." He caught one of my wrists and felt my pulse. "Slightly elevated pulse, which indicates too much of the blood humor. This is to be expected, as you have not previously had your humors monitored and appropriately adjusted. Typically the blood humor needs to be lessened at least once a year to keep the balance in check. Overabundance of the blood humor is likely responsible for your ill-tempered behavior."

I glared and wiggled in my nursemaid's grasp as the man rambled off his self-important monologue. Of course my pulse was "slightly elevated" I just exerted myself. It had nothing to do with any "excess blood humor". I knew what was coming next as the man set his case on my bed and opened his bag, which had a variety of knives and saws strapped down in cases. "Bad!" I began chanting, "Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!" The man ignored me and selected one of the smaller knives, and then he pulled a bowl out of the bag. "No!" I screamed as he placed the bowl under my left foot.

The man talked over me, informing my nursemaid, "I am going to blood let Queen Mary, thereby relieving her of excess blood humor. This will involve me making a small incision on the bottom of Queen Mary's foot and draining some of her blood. I have already received permission from her Lady Mother to carry out the procedure."

"I understand Mister. Ye ur daein' me an' th' other nursemaids a favor. Th' lass wulnae be able tae rin aff while th' cut heals. It will give us aw a few days o' rest," my nursemaid replied.

The man nodded, acknowledging my nursemaid's agreement. I continued to chant "No! No! No! Bad! Bad! Bad! NOOO!" as the man took the knife to my foot. I ceased my struggling though; no need for him to accidently cut more than he should when he did the vile procedure. I winced and cried as he cut across the underside of my foot along the left ridge from the ball of my foot to my heel. He then squeezed my foot, my blood ran down his hand and pooled into the bowl. After an indiscriminate amount of time he let go of my foot, pulled out a handkerchief, wiped his hands, and then pulled boiled bandages from his bag. He wiped my foot with his handkerchief before wrapping it in bandages.

When the man finished bandaging my foot, he wiped his knife clean before replacing it in his bag, and poured my blood into the chamber pot. He stated, "It is done. I shall inform her Lady Mother myself of the examination along with my advice to have Queen Mary checked upon annually to ensure the balance of her humors are properly maintained." With a nod towards my nursemaid the man exited the room.

I lay weak against my nursemaid feeling woozy and light-headed. "Weel lass, 'at was nae sae bad, was it?" my nursemaid said while sitting me up and extracting herself from me. I sighed and fell back onto the cot.

"Traitor" I murmured as I nuzzled myself against the pillow and blankets on the cot.

Naethin' o' th' sort. It looks like its naptime. Sweet dreams lass," my nursemaid tittered as I blurrily stared at her. I felt a blanket being pulled over me as I drifted off to sleep.

The next day I had once again escaped from the nursery. I was using a toy scepter as a cane as I limped around the castle. I cursed the physician under my breath. This was all his fault. I hid behind a column as I listened to the servant's gossip about the physician. One of them was going to clean his chambers in one of the west side of the King's Old Building. Now that I knew where the physician was I was going to hide out in the library until the evening meal when I knew the rooms would be empty. Then I would sneak into his rooms and see if he had anything useful or interesting.

Once in the physician's chambers I determined which trunk contained his letters and books. I then carefully rifled through it making sure everything was returned to its exact original position. There wasn't anything remarkable in the physician's correspondence. He was consulting on treatment of Prince Francis, but that wasn't surprising. I knew that Prince Francis was a sickly child. He was also the rector of the University of Paris, which was interesting. Knowing him could prove useful in the future.

I went through his books next. Unsurprising he had works from Avicenna and Galen. I wrinkled my nose at those; those ancient medical texts were filled with so much error that they were useless at best, dangerous at worst. Surprisingly, he had a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's pamphlet Canon of Proportions. That was unexpected and rather progressive of him. I definitely wanted to read that. He also had an English edition of The Great Surgery by Paracelsus. Flipping through it, the book contained justification for herbal remedies as well as what looked like more modern medical practices. This was promising; I also wanted to read it. The last interesting book I came across was a book on the uses of plants. I hoped it included healing remedies, maybe even poisons too, if I was lucky. Unfortunately, it was in Latin, which I had yet to learn.

I wanted to read the da Vinci pamphlet, Paracelsus's book and the plant book; however, I could only carry one of the books. I decided to take the pamphlet by da Vinci and the book by Paracelsus. They were both English translations, so I could read those first. When I came back to return these items to the trunk I would take the plant book. I would keep that one hidden and would read it when I learned Latin. Pleased with myself, I placed everything back to the way it was before padding out of the room with my prizes.

I hid the stolen items at the bottom of the trunk containing my unused toys. Nobody, not even my nursemaids went through it, which made it the perfect hiding place. I couldn't be seen reading, so I was restricted to only doing so at night. Even then I could only do it when it was old Gallis's turn to stay with me during the night. She could sleep through anything, including the candlelight I needed to read by. I hated the strain on my eyes that came with reading by candlelight, and I longed for the electricity that I had taken for granted in the past. I couldn't wait until I was old enough that it wouldn't be shocking for me to read during the day to avoid this unpleasantness altogether.

At the end of two weeks I was able to read through my stolen plunder and was ready to sneak it back into the physician's trunk. Hopefully the man never realized that they were missing. Like before I snuck into the physician's chambers during the evening meal. I placed the book and pamphlet into the trunk in the same area in which I found them, and then removed the plant book. I turned towards to leave with my bounty, and froze as I saw the physician standing in the doorway. In my surprise I accidently dropped my scepter, which still served as my makeshift cane.

"I was wondering who pinched my book. But I was not expecting it to be you Queen Mary," the man said.

Scared, I scrambled to pick up my scepter and hobbled towards to the closest window a foot away. Luckily, there was a stool underneath the window, which I clambered to stand upon. I quickly pushed the book and scepter onto the windowsill before attempting to pull myself up. We were on the ground floor, so if I was fast enough I might be able to escape outside with my prize. I doubted that he would follow me out the window. I should then have enough time to hide the book before he was able to catch me after exiting the building from a proper door. I would be in trouble still, but I might be able to keep the book.

The man was faster than he looked. He was able to pick me up just when I had successfully lifted myself up onto the windowsill. "Just where do you think you are going, Queen Mary? And why do you want that book?" the man questioned.

Drat, I was caught. At least I couldn't get into too much trouble between being the queen and my status as a wee babe that couldn't possibly know what she is doing. I slumped against him and looked up giving him a toothy grin. He set me down on the floor. I took the opportunity to place the book on the floor and begin paging through it intently. Maybe if I were adorable enough he wouldn't tell the nursemaids what I was doing when he brought me back. Or at the very least not tell my mother that I was steeling books and attempting to climb out windows. I'm not even sure what she would do to me in response to such an accusation.

"You really do like books don't you, your majesty?" the man asked.

I looked up at him and nodded while still paging through the book.

"Would you like me to read to you?"

I looked up at him, cocked my head to the side, and nodded again.

"Alright, why don't we go to the library and pick out a more suitable choice."

I shook my head and replied, "No, this one."

"If you're sure. I don't think you would find a book on plants very interesting.

I nodded again, smiling. "Sure!" I squealed.

"Alright then. Why don't I take a look at your foot and then we can get started."

I sat patiently as he rewrapped my foot in fresh bandages and said, "It is healing nicely. The cut should be completely gone in the next few days. It might have healed sooner if you didn't walk around on it."

I stared at him, unimpressed. "Read, now!" I demanded.

"Alright, alright, lets see." He picked the book and me up and sat down in a chair with me in his lap. He proceeded to describe the plants in the pictures. It was definitely simplified paraphrasing of the Latin inscriptions, but I appreciated the sentiment nonetheless. When it grew too dark to read he placed the book on the table before picking me up with my scepter and carrying me back to the nursery. Once there he passed me into the frantic nursemaid's arms. "I found this one wandering around The King's Old Building.

Thenk ye Mister. She is a wee trooblemaker always wanderin' abit. I hope she wasnae much trooble," my nursemaid crooned. I hid my face in the nape of her neck. Here it comes; I was at least going to get a spanking for this. My mother would endorse it for my very bad behavior.

"No trouble at all," the man replied. "In fact she expressed an interest in books and learning. I would be willing to encourage this by reading to her after the evening meal for the remainder of my stay. Would you like that, your majesty?"

Surprised, I looked at him and nodded.

"Very well," The man said. "If you could bring Queen Mary to the library after tomorrow's evening meal and then pick her up at dusk, I would be most obliged. For now I will take my leave. Good evening, Miss, Queen Mary."

From that night onward the physician read to me an hour or two every evening for the remainder of his stay. He first read through the plant book, before moving on to his other medical texts. I kept pushing the books by Avicenna and Galen out of his hands and onto the floor until he eventually gave up on those and turned to more modern texts. He read to me about recent medical innovations before moving onto new inventions.

Four weeks later, the physician departed for Paris, but not before enquiring on whether I would like to continue learning. I agreed readily. Then two weeks later Cardinal Beaton took over my instruction much to my surprise. He was apparently more than glad to take up a cushy posting at Stirling Castle, which currently housed the Queen of Scotland and the reagent Lady Mary of Guise. He also treasured the opportunity to influence me through my education.

At first he was extremely dull and read the Bible to me and lectured me on Catholicism. When I was four, I convinced him to teach me how to read, which I picked up very quickly to his delight. According to him it was clearly because he was such a great instructor. From there he began teaching me Latin as well as the famous theologians over the ages. It was all much more interesting than I thought it would be. Or maybe anything seemed more interesting after being a small child whose intellectual stimulation was limited to the Bible for years. Either way, I enjoyed it and learned a lot of interesting theological arguments, which may prove useful if I had a run-in with the Vatican in the future. I could only hope that the Vatican wasn't so corrupt at this point that they would turn down solid theological theory in favor of their worldly interests.

Overall, I was content with my life until my mother informed me that I was engaged to Prince Francis and was going to shortly departing to live in France. It wasn't like I didn't expect this development. I was waiting for this to happen ever since I turned six, but I still didn't like it. I was comfortable here, whereas the French Court was full of uncertainty. It certainly would be more treacherous there than it was here. On the plus side, I guess I was supposedly going to be safer in France due to the greater distance from England and the protection from the Auld Alliance. I still doubted that I would actually be any safer in France.

Despite my misgivings, I knew that I had no choice in the matter. I had a destiny to face and uphold whether I liked it or not. As much as I hated the fates it appeared that I remained subjected to them, at least until I came into my majority.

Note:

William Manderstown was a Scottish physician in the 16th century. He was born in Scotland and educated in France where he eventually became the rector of the University of Paris. There is nothing to indicate that Queen Mary ever met William Manderstown, but I thought it wouldn't be too unreasonable.

Cardinal Beaton was imprisoned by the Scottish regent James Hamilton and later freed in 1543. He then went on to persecute Protestants. He had a penchant for over-stepping his authority, and I would think that he would have liked the opportunity to influence the Queen of Scotland if given the chance. Also due to tutoring Mary, he was not able to be as active in the persecution of Protestants. This led to a quieting of the plots to kill him resulting in an extension of his life. It also prevented the English and Scottish relations from deteriorating as much as they did in reality and staved off one of the English invasions, which was encouraged by Cardinal Beaton's actions.