Henry VIII,the Reign

​Francis Valois

19 January 1544 – 5 December 1560
Betrothed to Mary, Queen of Scots 
27 January 1548
King Consort of Scotland
1558 -1560
King of France
1559 to 1560

​Francis Valois Profile

Francis II  was a monarch of the House of Valois-Angoulême who was Ki. He was also King consort of Scotland as a result of his marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1558 until his death in 1560.

He 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.

Although the royal age of majority had been set at fourteen, 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. They were unable to help Catholics in Scotland against the progressing Scottish Reformation, however, and the Auld Alliance was dissolved.
Francis was succeeded by two of his brothers in turn, both of whom were also unable to reduce tensions between Protestants and Catholics.

Francis was named after his grandfather, King Francis I. He was at first raised at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Francis 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 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.
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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 brought up at court until the marriage.