Mahaut des Essartz or Mahanet des Essarts was a French courtier in the service of Mary of Guise and Mary, Queen of Scots. She taught the French language to the Scottish queen.Rosalind K. Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends and Enemies of Mary, Queen of Scots (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2006), p. 47.

Career She was a daughter of Antoine des Essarts, sieur de Saint-Chéron (Marne). Her first husband was Jacques de Chaumont, sieur d'Ésguilly (died 1531). They had two children, Leonard and Antoine. She married secondly Charles de la Haye, sieur de Curel,Charles Lalore, Les sires et les barons de Chacenay (Troyes: Lacroix, 1885), pp. 368–371.Archives départementales de l'Aube, 1 (Troyes, 1884), p. 182.Joseph Depoin, Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Martin de Pontoise, 2 (Pontoise, 1895), p. 391. a master of household to Mary of Guise,Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), p. 46. and she was known as "Madame de Curel" and also as "Mademoiselle de Curel" according to the custom of the time.Rosalind K. Marshall, "In Search of the Ladies-in-Waiting and Maids of Honour of Mary, Queen of Scots: A Prosoprographical Analysis of the Female Household", Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2014), pp. 214, 218. Her position at the Scottish court was a "Dame d'honneur", a gentlewoman at court.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, 1 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1923), p. xxxii.

Mahaut was involved in textile crafts and embroidery with silver and gold thread.James Balfour Paul]], Accounts of the Treasurer, 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 162, 284. She was present in Scotland at the time of the coronation of Mary of Guise as Queen Consort in 1540, and was involved in the purchase of cloth of gold for her outfit.Sally Rush, 'Looking at Marie de Guise', Études Epistémè, 37 (2020), section 35

Mahaut visited France and the Duchess of Guise in 1541, possibly bringing a portrait of James V to Joinville (5km from Curel). The Duchess wrote to Mary of Guise that she frequently summoned Mahaut to tell her stories of the Scottish court.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, 1 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1923), p. 69–73.Jane T. Stoddart, The girlhood of Mary queen of Scots from her landing in France in August 1548 to her departure from France in August 1561 (London, 1908), p. xli.J. S. Brewer & R. H. Brodie, Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 16 (London, 1898), pp. 625 no. 1352, 626 no. 1357.

At this time the painter Pierre Quesnel was a resident at the Scottish court, as an usher of Mary of Guise, and was recorded at the Queen's painter in accounts of decorative work at Falkland Palace. He may have made the king's portrait sent to the Duchess.Michael Apted & Susan Hannabuss, Dictionary of Scottish Painters (Edinburgh: SRS, 1978), p. 77: Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), p. 85: Accounts of Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 8 (Edinburgh), pp. 59, 77, 84, 92.John G. Dunbar, Scottish Royal Palaces (Tuckwell, 1999), p. 33.

In 1546, Mahaut bought a property in France, a part of the "seigneurie de Champ-au-Roi" (Champ-sur-Barse, Aube) from Antoinette d'Amboise, the wife of Louis de Luxembourg, comte de Roussy, for 2,475 livre tournois.Léon Frémont, Revue de Champagne et de Brie, (Aric-sur-Aube, 1897), p. 356.

When Mary, Queen of Scots was taken to France in 1548, Mahaut found a barber to heal the arm of Anne Fleming, a daughter of Janet Stewart, Lady Fleming. The Duchess of Guise hoped that "Mademoyselle de Curel" and her husband would be Queen Mary's attendants as well as the governess Lady Fleming, and that Mahaut would teach the young queen to speak good French and the other accomplishments in which she excelled.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, 2 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1926), pp. 6–8: National Library of Scotland Balcarres Papers, 5, f. 31r.Retha M. Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 38: Jane T. Stoddart, The girlhood of Mary queen of Scots from her landing in France in August 1548 to her departure from France in August 1561 (London, 1908), p. 41.Francisque Michel, Les Ecossais en France, les Français en Écosse, 1 (London, 1862) p. 461.Susan Doran, Mary Queen of Scots: An Illustrated Life (British Library, 2007), p. 27.

Mahaut was not appointed chief governess but became a dame d'atours to Queen Mary.Alphonse De Ruble, La première jeunesse de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1891), pp. 90, 282. She resigned this post in 1553 after having some disagreements with Mary's governess Françoise de Paroy.John Guy, My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (Harper Collins, 2004), p. 62. Her position in Mary's household was filled by Guyonne de Breüil.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, 2 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1926), p. 198.Rosalind K. Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends, and Enemies of Mary, Queen of Scots (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2006), pp. 45, 47. Mahaut des Essartz continued to receive a pension from Mary's household list.Andrew Laing, "The Household of Mary Queen of Scots in 1573", Scottish Historical Review, 2:8 (July 1905), p. 349.

She was still a landowner at Curel in 1572,Jean Baptiste Carnandet, Géographie historique industrielle et statistique du département de la Haute-Marne (Chaumont, 1860), p. 554. and is said to have joined the French court with Madeleine of Savoy.Joseph Depoin, Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Martin de Pontoise, 2 (Pontoise, 1895), p. 391.

Family Her son, Antoine de Chaumont (died 1585),Anselme de Sainte-Marie, Histoire de la Maison Royale de France, et des grands officiers de la Couronne, p. 893. was later involved in the administration of Queen Mary's French estates, and Leonard de Chaumont (died 1573) was a master of Mary's French household in the 1550s,Charles Lalore, Les sires et les barons de Chacenay (Troyes: Lacroix, 1885), p. 371.René de Bellevall, Les fils de Henri II. La cour, la ville et la société de leur temps François II (Paris, 1898) p. 84.Louis Paris, Négociations (Paris, 1841), p. 746. and master of the household of Claude, Duke of Aumale in 1565 at Joinville where he was a godfather to Marie d'Aumalle.Louis Paris, Le Cabinet historique, 4 (Paris, 1868), p. 226.

References

External links Speaking of Mary: Scots Language Centre