Born #OTD 1520: Madeleine of Valois, a Summer Queen of fleeting reign. A teenage French princess who ascended to Scotland’s throne through an arranged marriage, only to succumb to illness almost immediately

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Madeleine of Valois was born on 10 August 1520, the daughter of King Francis I of France. Nurtured in the gentle embrace of the temperate Loire Valley, under the watchful eye of her aunt Marguerite, the young princess fell prey to the insidious grasp of consumption at the tender age of 16. Yet, fate decreed a different path. The Treaty of Rouen, forged between France and Scotland, promised a princess to wed King James V. With ardent pleas, James won the heart of Francis, who entrusted his fragile daughter to him. Alas, the king's fears for his daughter’s health proved prophetic, for the harsh winds of Scotland were unkind to Madeleine's delicate frame. In the arms of her grieving husband, she yielded to death's cold embrace on 7 July 1537. The gentlewoman Madame de Montrueil penned her sorrow, describing Madeleine’s plight: (she) ‘had no good days after her arrival there [in Scotland], but was always sickly with a catarrh which descended into her stomach, which was the cause of her death’.

A cruel twist of fate befell her mortal remains, for 239 years after her passing, desecrators plundered her tomb at Holyrood Palace, stealing her head—which, according to legend, was allegedly untouched by the hands of time and still ‘beautiful’. Despite my admittedly brief research, it appears that her head was never found, and her stolen beauty remains lost to the world. A tragic end for a Summer Queen, yet her spirit, like a star, verily endures in the celestial expanse.

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