Francis II of France

Francis II became king of France in 1559 at the age of fifteen and was already married to Mary, Queen of Scots. His short reign was dominated by Mary’s Guise relatives, whose influence intensified religious and political opposition. The Amboise conspiracy exposed the depth of Protestant resistance, but Francis died from illness in December 1560 before a stable policy emerged. His death ended Mary’s position as queen consort of France and transformed the balance of power at court.

Francis appears in historical novels about Mary, Queen of Scots, including Jean Plaidy’s Royal Road to Fotheringhay and other fictional accounts of Mary’s French upbringing. He also features in novels about Catherine de’ Medici and the Guise family. Fiction often presents him as a frail, dependent boy, but his youth and the brevity of the reign leave little evidence from which to judge how he might have ruled independently.

In Jean Plaidy’s The Italian Woman, But Catherine is now the powerful mother of kings, who will do anything to see her beloved second son, Henry, rule France. Dorothy Dunnett’s Queens’ Play is set in 1548, Lymond enters the French court under disguise after Mary of Guise asks him to protect the young Mary, Queen of Scots. Other novels featuring Francis II of France include Dorothy Dunnett’s Checkmate.