Wardrobe of Mary, Queen of Scots

[5] In 1548 her mother, Mary of Guise, asked her envoy Henri Cleutin to buy cloth of gold for a gown for her, from René Tardif and Robert Fichepain, merchants of the "argenterie" who served the French court.

[13] In 1560, a courtier, Florimond Robertet, wrote of his plans to give Mary two pairs of long Granada silk stockings of the best kind, one of red or pink (incarnate) and another turquoise (bleu turquin) of an azure shade.

[42] In September 1561 tailors and "boys" made black mourning "dule" riding cloaks and skirts for Mary, Queen of Scots, and her 15 ladies to wear at her Entry to Edinburgh.

[54] Her costume and its solemn removal was described by Thomas Randolph in a letter to the Earl of Leicester:She had on her backe the greate murning gowne of blacke, with the greate wyde murning hood, not unlyke unto that whiche she woore the deulfull daye of the buriall of her husbonde ... there [in her chamber] beinge required according to the solemnitie to off her care, and leave asyde these sorrowful garments ... she suffreth them that stood by, every man that could approve, to tayke owte a pyne, and so being committed unto her ladies, changed her garments.

Servais de Condé, a valet of the chamber, assisted by Angell Marie, the varlet of the wardrobe, kept a written record in French tracking the use of the more expensive fabrics.

[68][69] In December 1563 the tailor and valet of the wardrobe Jacques de Senlis reworked an old black velvet skirt that had belonged to Mary of Guise into a new style for the queen.

[73] The accounts also mention furnishings and beds, and a variety of accessories including velvet collars for the queen's little dogs, "les petitz chiens de la Royne".

[112] In Randolph's words:[113]The Queen of the Bean (Mary Fleming) that day was in cloath of silver, her head, her neck, her shoulders, the rest of her body, so besett with stones, that more in our whole jewell house wer not to be found.

[127] She had compared herself to a "bourgeois wife" in February 1565 while staying in a merchant's house in St Andrews, keeping a small household with little ceremony, and no cloth of estate, the canopy used above a throne.

[130][131] During the masque the queen's ladies, "cled in men's apperrell", presented 8 Scottish dirks or daggers to the French guests, with black velvet scabbards embroidered with gold.

And upoun the ellevint day of the said moneth, the king and quene in lyikmanner bankettit the ambassatour; and at evin our soveranis maid the maskrie and mumschance, in the quhilk the quenis grace, and all hir Maries and ladies wer all cled in men's apperrell; and everie ane of thame presentit ane quhingar, bravelie and maist artificiallie made and embroiderit with gold, to the ambassatour and his gentilmen, everie one of thame according to his estate.

[136] Mary went to Alloa Tower about a month after the birth of Prince James, and was said to have danced around the Market Cross of Stirling "abandoning herself to riotousness" while "arrayed in homely sort".

[147] On the night that Lord Darnley was killed by an explosion at the Kirk o'Field, Mary attended the wedding banquet and masque for her servant Bastian Pagez and Christily Hog.

After the murder of Lord Darnley, when Mary seemed likely to marry the Earl of Bothwell, William Kirkcaldy of Grange wrote to the Earl of Bedford, an English diplomat, that Mary did not care if she lost France, England and Scotland for Bothwell's sake, and she had said she would go with him to the world's end in a white petticoat;sho caris not to lose France Ingland and her owne countrie for him, and sall go with him to the warldes ende in ane white peticote or she leve him.

[157] An English soldier and border official, William Drury, heard another description of Mary's costume at this time, that she was dressed at the field of battle, "after the attire and fashion of the women of Edinburgh, in a red petticoat tied with points, a partlet, a velvet hat, and muffler".

According to John Lesley, "in the night privily she was conveyed, and with haste, in disguised apparel, to the strong fort of Lochleven, and after a few days, being stripped out and spoiled of all her princely attirement, was clothed with a coarse brown cassock".

[169] Mary also wanted camerage (cambric) and linen, and two pairs of sheets with black thread for embroidery, and needles and a mould (cushion) for net-work or lace called "rasour" or "réseau" (réseuil), a bed cover, and dried plums and pears.

[178] An Italian account of the escape says that Mary wore the clothes of the elder of her two chamberers or maids, "s'era messe le vesti della maggior di due cameriere".

[190] The Spanish diplomat, Guzmán de Silva, seems to have reported this particular gift to Phillip II as an unsuitable present for a queen comprising two old chemises, some black velvet, and a pair of shoes.

[193] Mary received her portable sounding alarm clock or chiming watch from Lochleven, kept in a purse of silver and grey réseau work which she may have made herself.

[210] In January 1576, the French ambassador Michel de Castelnau asked Elizabeth I to allow four trunks of French-made clothes to be delivered to Mary at Sheffield Manor by her tailor's servants.

[231][232][233] Presumably hopeful of an audience at the English court, in July 1574, Mary asked the Archbishop of Glasgow, her contact in Paris, to send coifs embroidered with gold and silver and the latest fashion in Italian ribbons and veils for her hair.

Mary asked Elizabeth if she would send the pattern of the high necked bodice she wore, "un patron d'un de voz corps à haut collet" for her to copy.

[255] There were items of costume from court revelries and masques including feathers, golden shields, headdresses of silver, and "Egyptian" hats made of red and yellow fabrics.

[256] Accessories included; "huidis, quaiffis, collaris, rabattis, orilyeitis (fronts of hoods), napkins, caming cloths, covers of night gear, hose, shoes, and gloves".

[269] A cabinet room at Holyrood Palace had been fashioned for Mary by her valet Servais de Condé in September 1561, the walls lined with fabic called "Paris green".

One of her French administrators, Gilles, Seigneur du Verger, sent her a range of coloured silk thread in 1577, which she called "soyes de nuances pour mes ouvrages.

Some pieces, including the black velvet gown set with pearls were said to have been earmarked by Mary to be sold by her Master of Household, Andrew Melville of Garvock, to cover the expenses of the return of servants to Scotland.

[300] A narrative of Mary's execution by "R. W.", Robert Wingfield,[301] mentions her costume as she left her bedchamber; "her borrowed hair" a wig, and on her head she had a dressing of lawn edged with bone lace, a pomander chain and an "Agnus Dei" about her neck, a Crucifix in her hand, a pair of beads (a rosary) at her girdle, with a golden cross at the end of them.

Her kirtle was of figured black satin, her petticoat upperbody unlaced in the back of crimson satin,[302][303] and her petticoat skirt of crimson velvet, her shoes of Spanish leather with the rough side outward, a pair of green silk garters, her nether stockings of worsted were coloured watchet (sky blue),[304] clocked with silver, and edged on the tops with silver, and next by her leg, a pair of white Jersey hose.