MARY (1496-1533), queen of France, daughter of Henry VII. of England and Elizabeth of York. The treaty of Calais (Dec. 21, 1507) arranged for her marriage with Charles of Austria (Charles V.) when the prince reached the age of and the wedding was celebrated by proxy in 15o8. The contract was renewed (1513) by Henry VIII., but the emperor Maxi milian I. was now in treaty for a marriage with Renee of France (with Brittany as a dowry) for his son, and evinced an intention to withdraw from the contract. He was forestalled by Wolsey, who arranged, by the peace of 1514, the marriage of Mary with Louis XII. of France. The marriage was celebrated at Abbeville on Oct. 9. The bridegroom was a broken man of fifty-two ; the bride a beautiful, well-educated and charming girl of eighteen, whose heart was already engaged to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, her future husband. The political marriage was, how ever, no long one.
Mary was crowned queen of France on Nov. 5, 1514; on Jan. 1 following King Louis died. Mary had only been induced to consent to the marriage with Louis by the promise that, on his death, she should be allowed to marry the man of her choice. But the dukes of Lorraine and Savoy were mentioned as possible suitors, and meanwhile the new king, Francis I., was making
advances to her. Suffolk himself was at the head of the embassy which came from England to congratulate the new king, and he used the opportunity to win the hand of the queen. Mary feared opposition, and, in spite of Suffolk's promise to the king to delay any action until after his return, she persuaded him to marry her secretly before he left Paris. Suffolk was ultimately pardoned through Wolsey's intercession, on payment of a heavy fine and the surrender of all the queen's jewels and plate. The marriage was solemnized at Greenwich on May 13, 1515. Mary died on June 24, 1533. By the duke of Suffolk she had three children: Henry, born on March 11, 1516, created earl of Lincoln (1525), who died young; Frances, born on July 16, 1517, the wife of Henry Grey, marquess of Northampton, and mother of Lady Jane Grey (q.v.) ; and Eleanor.
See Lettres de Louis XII. et du cardinal Georges d'Amboise (Brussels, 1712) ; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. (Cal. State Pap.) ; M. A. E. Green, Lives of the Princesses of England (vol. v., ; Life by James Gairdner in Dict. Nat. Biog.