Marie Pieris, Lady Seton ( 1520–1576)Rosalind K. Marshall, 'In Search of the Ladies-in-Waiting and Maids of Honour at the Court of Mary, Queen of Scots', Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2014), pp. 212, 221: Rosalind K. Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends and Enemies of Mary, Queen of Scots (Edinburgh, 2006), p. 157. was a French lady in waiting at the Scottish court.
She was the daughter of René Pierres, Seigneur du Plessis-Baudouin and Antoinette d'Hommes. The French Pierres family claimed to have descended from the Percy family of Northumberland.Nicolas Viton de Saint Allais, Nobiliare universel de France, vol. 1 (Paris, 1814), pp. 147, 150.
Scotland
Marie Pieris joined the household of Mary of Guise when she married James V, King of Scotland. Soon after coming to Scotland, she married George Seton, 6th Lord Seton.Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary of Guise (London: Collins, 1978), p. 72.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), p. 46. Their handfasting was held at Falkland Palace in February 1539.Marguerite Wood, Foreign Correspondence of Marie of Lorraine, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1923), p. 245.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 140. Her father wrote from Plessis-Baudouin to Mary of Guise to thank her for arranging the marriage, and he promised that after his death Marie would have her inheritance from him.Marguerite Wood, Foreign Correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1923), p. 245. René Pierres was improving his home at this time with a new drawbridge and a chapel at the parish church of Joué-Étiau in Maine-et-Loire.Archives départementales du Maine-et-Loire: G 537
In early modern Scotland married women did not change their surnames.Jenny Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community (London, 1981), p. 30.History Workshop, What's in a Surname? Rebecca Mason Her children included Robert Seton of Greendikes, James, and Mary Seton, the well-known companion of Mary, Queen of Scots.Richard Maitland, The History of the House of Seytoun to 1559 by Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington continued by Alexander Viscount Kingston (Maitland Club, 1829), p. 42. Little is known of Robert and less of John.George Seton, A history of the family of Seton during eight centuries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1896), p. 151
Her colleague in the queen's household, Jeanne Delareynveil, married Robert Beaton of Creich in 1539, and their daughter Mary Beaton was another of the celebrated four Marys.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie (Edinburgh, 2005), pp. 46, 240.
War with England After the death of James V, Scotland was ruled by James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran as "Regent Arran". The infant queen remained in the care of her mother, Mary of Guise, at Linlithgow Palace and then at Stirling Castle. A proposal from Henry VIII that the infant queen Mary should marry his son Prince Edward, led to a war, now often known as the Rough Wooing.Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (Tuckwell: East Linton, 2000), pp. 83-163.
Marie Pieris wrote to Mary of Guise from Niddry Castle, warning her that Lord Seton had heard of a plot by Regent Arran to kidnap the infant Mary, Queen of Scots. As she mentions that she has discussed the plot with Cardinal Beaton, the letter may date from 1543, when the Cardinal was held in Lord Seton's custody.Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland, David Beaton (Edinburgh, 1986), p. 162. She signed the letter "Marye Pyerres".Marguerite Wood, Foreign Correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1923), p. 247.
The couple were given a new charter of the lands of Winchburgh and "West" Niddry Castle on 27 June 1548.John Maitland Thomson, Register of the Great Seal: 1546-1580 (Edinburgh, 1886), p. 54 no. 222. During the siege of Haddington the family lived at Culross in Fife. Lord Seton died in July 1549 and was buried in the quire of Culross Abbey. When the war was over, Marie Pieris had his body reburied at Seton Collegiate Church next to his father.History of the House of Seytoun (Glasgow, 1829), p. 42.
The Seton family and the Hamiltons were reconciled by August 1550 when her step-son George Seton, 7th Lord Seton married Isobel Hamilton, daughter of Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar, who was Captain of Edinburgh Castle for his kinsman Regent Arran.History of the House of Seytoun (Glasgow, 1829), p. 43: Register of the Great Seal: 1546-1580 (Edinburgh, 1886), p. 115 no. 497. The wedding was celebrated on 12 August with a feast at Edinburgh Castle.Michael Pearce, 'A French Furniture Maker and the 'Courtly Style' in Sixteenth-Century Scotland', Regional Furniture, vol. 32 (2018), pp. 131-2, citing NRS E32/10. William Hamilton is said to have organised repairs to Seton Palace which had been damaged by the English army following the sack and burning of Edinburgh in May 1544.History of the House of Seytoun (Glasgow, 1829), pp. 37, 39, 42-45.
Second marriage In 1554 Lady Seton married Philippe Pierre de Cluys, Seigneur de Briantes (d. 1558), whose name is usually given as "Pierre de Clovis" or "Cluise".Rosalind K. Marshall, 'In Search of the Ladies-in-Waiting and Maids of Honour at the Court of Mary, Queen of Scots', Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2014), p. 221.Patrick Forbes, A Full View of the Public Transactions of Queen Elizabeth, 1 (London, 1739), p. 225 A drawing of his portrait from the studio of François Clouet is in the collection of Musée Condé at Château de Chantilly.
Cluys attended Mary of Guise during her visit to England in 1551.John Roche Dasent, Acts of the Privy Council, 3 (London, 1891), p. 396. In 1554, he came to Scotland bringing a letter from the accountant Jehan Bougouin about Mary Queen of Scots' French household.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1925), p. 226. He was a nephew of Jacques de la Brosse a former French diplomat in Scotland and soldier at the Siege of Leith.Rosalind K. Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends and Enemies of Mary, Queen of Scots (Edinburgh, 2006), p. 157. They had no children. Marie Pieris was occasionally known as "Madame Briant", but also used her title "Lady Seton".Accounts of the Treasurer: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), p. xxvi.
Mary, Queen of Scots: in Scotland and England With Jeanne Delareynveil and Marie Courcelles she joined the household of the widowed Mary Queen of Scots when she returned to Scotland in 1561.Rosalind K. Marshall, 'In Search of the Ladies-in-Waiting and Maids of Honour at the Court of Mary, Queen of Scots', Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2014), p. 221. Mary gave "Ladie Seitoun" white and red silk taffeta in November 1561, possibly for a gown.Accounts of the Treasurer: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), pp. 86-7. Marie seems to have done sewing for the queen, and in January 1564 was given Holland linen to line sleeves for the queen or her ladies.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 144.
A grant from Mary, Queen of Scots to Lady Seton in 1565 was addressed to "Dame Marie Pier, Lady Seytoun and Brieane."Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 5 part 1 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. 644 no. 2245. Payments to "dame Marie Pierre, Lady Seyttoun" occur in the accounts of Mary, Queen of Scots.Gordon Donaldson, Thirds of Benefices (Edinburgh, 1949), p. 186.Andrew Lang, "Household of Mary Queen of Scots in 1573", Scottish Historical Review, 2:8 (1905) p. 349. Mary gave "Madame Briant" a hat in March 1565.Accounts of the Treasurer: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), pp. l, 349. Before the wedding of Mary and Darnley, "old Lady Seton" and David Rizzio were with the couple when they walked in disguise or masque costume on Edinburgh's High Street.Joseph Stevenson, Selections from unpublished manuscripts illustrating the reign of Mary Queen of Scotland, pp. 119–120.
When Mary was pregnant, in May 1566 she made a will bequeathing her jewels, and if she had died "Madame de Briante" would have a pair of bracelets studded with amethysts.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 106. At Easter 1567, with the rest of the household, she was given linen and was listed as "Madame de Briande".Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1566-1574, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 400. The occasion was a Maundy Thursday, or "Skyris Thuriday", ceremony when the queen washed her ladies' feet.Rosalind K. Marshall, 'Prosoprographical Analysis', Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2014), p. 224: Accounts of the Treasurer: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), pp. xxxiii, 491, the account of the 1566 event does not name the ladies.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. cccii-cccv.
The day after the death of Lord Darnley at the Kirk o' Field, the servant known as "French Paris" came to queen's bedchamber at Holyrood Palace to hang her bed with mourning black and light candles in the "ruelle", a space between the bed and the wall. "Madame de Bryant" gave him a fried egg for his breakfast.Rosalind K. Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends and Enemies (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), p. 157.Teulet, Lettres de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1859), p. 102. He noticed her speaking privately with the Earl of Bothwell concealed behind a curtain.George Seton, History of the family of Seton during eight centuries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1896), p. 128: Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials (Edinburgn, 1833), p. 509.
Mary, Queen of Scots was deposed in 1567 and was taken to Lochleven Castle. She escaped and first made her way to safety at Niddry. In 1568 she went to England and Marie's daughter Mary Seton joined her. In August 1570 Mary Pieris was at Blair Castle with the Countess of Atholl and heard her daughter was ill in England. She wrote from Dunkeld to Queen Mary to ask if she could come home.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. 313-5. The messenger carrying the letters, John Moon, was captured. On 29 August "dame Marie Pier" and her son Robert were arrested for passing letters to Moon for Mary, Queen of Scots.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1566-1574, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 216. They were put on trial in Tolbooth at Edinburgh, on the charge that their letters denied the authority of James VI of Scotland and his representatives. They were released on their promise they would not write to Queen Mary again. The Bishop of Ross, John Lesley, had written to Regent Lennox that she was Mary's special servant and one of her Dames of Honour and should be freed.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 356 no. 480. In October, Queen Elizabeth heard she had been arrested and would be banished from Scotland, and took action that Regent Lennox should know that she thought it no great cause. Marie Pieris had already been released before this intervention, promising not to write to Queen Mary again.Calendar of State Papers Scotlandvol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 410 no. 543: A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents in Scotland (Bannatyne Club, 1833), pp. 185-6.