Navarre, France 1 liard (Francis & Mary) 1558-1560 

• 1559 
• France 
• 1 liard 
• France - Royaume (1328-1589) 

7102101

Coins

Navarre, France 1 liard (Francis & Mary) 1558-1560

1559

Francis II, King of France & Scotland (1558-1560), François II of France (1559-1560), Henri II of France (1547-1559)

Crosses, Crowns, Monograms

0.7

18

FM FRAN. ET. MA. D. G. R. R. SCOTOR. VIEN

Obv; FM monogram crowed, above shield of Navarre Rev; chain-like cross, with mini-dolphin-links With Henry VIII of England determined to encompass Scotland under English control, he had proposed that his son Prince Edward should marry the infant Mary Queen of Scots. He reinforced this with a series of punitive expeditions into southern Scotland, known as the "Rough Wooings", causing a great deal of damage. With the Scots having no military means to defend themselves, Henry II of France offered to liberate Scotland, if Mary would become betrothed to his son, the infant "Dauphin" Francis. He sent his personal galley from France to collect her. On 29 July 1548, aged five years and eight months, Mary boarded it at Dumbarton and, after eighteen stormy days at sea, landed at St. Pol de Leon on the Brittany coast. Francis II (19/1/1544-5/12/1560) was a King of France of the House of Valois-Angoulême from 1559 to 1560. He was also King consort of Scotland as a result of his willing marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1558 until his death in 1560. Francis ascended the throne of France at the age of fifteen after the accidental death of his father, Henry II, in 1559. His short reign was dominated by the first stirrings of the French Wars of Religion. Born eleven years after his parents' wedding, Francis was named for his grandfather, King Francis I and uncle. The long delay in producing an heir may have been due to his father's repudiation of his mother in favor of his mistress Diane de Poitiers, however this repudiation was negated by Diane's insistence that Henry spend his nights with Catherine. Francis was at first raised at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was baptized on 10 February 1544 at the Chapelle des Trinitaires in Fontainebleau. His godparents were Francis I (who knighted him during the ceremony), Pope Paul III, and his great-aunt Marguerite de Navarre. He became governor of Languedoc in 1546, and Dauphin of France in 1547, when his grandfather Francis I died. King Henry II, his father, arranged a remarkable betrothal for his son to Mary, Queen of Scots, in the Châtillon agreement of 27 January 1548, when Francis was only four years old. Mary had been crowned Queen of Scots in Stirling Castle on 9 September 1543 at the age of nine months following the death of her father James V. Besides being the queen of Scotland, Mary was a granddaughter of Claude, Duke of Guise, a very influential figure at the court of France. Once the marriage agreement was formally ratified, the six-year-old Mary was sent to France to be raised at court until the marriage. Although Mary was tall for her age and eloquent, while her betrothed Francis was abnormally short and stuttered, On 24 April 1558, the 14-year-old Dauphin (heir apparent) married the Queen of Scots in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It was a union that could have given the future kings of France the throne of Scotland and also a claim to the throne of England through Mary's great grandfather, King Henry VII of England. Until his death, Francis held the title King of Scotland. Mary and Francis were to have no children during their short marriage. Although the royal age of majority had been set at 14, his mother, Catherine de' Medici, entrusted the reins of government to his wife's uncles from the House of Guise, staunch supporters of the Catholic cause.