She was frail from birth, and grew up in the warm and temperate Loire Valley region of France, rather than at Paris, as her father feared that the cold would destroy her delicate health.

Together with her sister, Margaret, she was raised by her aunt, Marguerite de Navarre until her father remarried and his new wife, Eleanor of Austria, took them into her own household.

[2] Three years before Madeleine's birth, the Franco-Scottish Treaty of Rouen was made to bolster the Auld Alliance after Scotland's defeat at the Battle of Flodden.

[3] In April 1530, John Stewart, Duke of Albany, was appointed commissioner to finalize the royal marriage between James V and Madeleine.

King James travelled to France in 1536 to meet Mary of Bourbon, but smitten with the delicate Madeleine, he asked Francis I for her hand in marriage.

Fearing the harsh climate of Scotland would prove fatal to his daughter's already failing health, Francis I initially refused to permit the marriage.

[19] In February the couple moved to Chantilly, to Senlis and Compiègne, where James received the Papal gift of hat and sword.

According to John Lesley the ships were laden with her possessions;"besides the Quenes Hienes furnitour, hinginis, and appareill, quhilk wes schippit at Newheavin and careit in Scotland, was also in hir awin cumpanye, transportit with hir majestie in Scotland, mony costlye jewells and goldin wark, precious stanis, orient pearle, maist excellent of any sort that was in Europe, and mony coistly abilyeaments for hir body, with mekill silver wark of coistlye cupbordis, cowpis, & plaite.

James V had written to Francis I asking him to send the physician Master Francisco, and Madeleine wrote that he was now needed only to perfect her cure.

[arkis = arches]* * * * * *Thou mycht have sene the preparatiounMaid be the Thre Estaitis of ScotlandIn everilk ciete, castell, toure, and town* * * * * *Thow saw makand rycht costlie scaffaldingDepaynted weill with gold and asure fyne* * * * * *Disagysit folkis, lyke creaturis devyne,On ilk scaffold to play ane syndrie storieBot all in greiting turnit thow that glorie.

[greiting = crying: thow = death][46]Epitaphs in Latin were composed by the French writers Etienne Dolet, Nicolas Desfrenes, Jean Visagier, and an anonymous poet.

She had attended his wedding to Madeleine, and perhaps her uncle, Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine, suggested her to Francis I as a bride for the Scottish king.

[48] Twenty years later, listed amongst the treasures in Edinburgh Castle were two little gold cups, an agate basin, a jasper vase, and crystal jug given to Madeleine when she was a child in France.