Mary Fleming was the youngest child of Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming, and Lady Janet Stewart.
12 Facts About Mary Fleming
1.
2.
Mary Fleming was born in 1542, the year her father was taken prisoner by the English at the Battle of Solway Moss.
3.
Mary Fleming's mother was an illegitimate daughter of James IV of Scotland.
4.
Mary Fleming's father having died the previous year in the Battle of Pinkie, her mother had an affair with the French king, the product of which was a son, Henri d'Angouleme, born around 1551.
5.
In 1554, Mary, Queen of Scots played the Delphic Sibyl and Mary Fleming was the Erythraean Sibyl in a masque performed at the Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, written by Mellin de Saint-Gelais.
6.
Mary Fleming married the queen's royal secretary, Sir William Maitland of Lethington, who was many years her senior.
7.
When Mary was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle, Maitland and Mary Fleming sent her a gold jewel depicting the lion and mouse of Aesop's fable.
8.
Mary Fleming kept this jewel with her in England until her death.
9.
Mary Fleming was surrendered to Regent Morton and kept a prisoner in Robert Gourlay's House.
10.
Mary Fleming's husband was carried out of the castle on a litter because he was unable to stand or walk.
11.
Mary Fleming was allowed the benefit of a property Maitland had given her, Bolton in East Lothian.
12.
Mary Fleming had two children, a boy James, who later became a Catholic and lived in France and Belgium in self-imposed exile, and a daughter Margaret, who married Robert Ker, 1st Earl of Roxburghe.