A hugely important royal stronghold, it was here that Mary of Guise spent her final weeks. In March 1560 an English army arrived to support the uprising of the Protestant Lords of the Congregation against Mary and the Catholic Church. She took refuge in Edinburgh Castle while the French defence forces locked themselves up in the nearby Port of Leith.

The Siege of Leith was long, with the English finding it difficult to batter down state-of-the-art fortifications built to the latest Italian designs. On May 7th the English and Scots debated attacking the castle but the plan was dropped. Meanwhile Mary of Guise was doing all she could to support the troops in Leith and to get reinforcements.

But Mary’s health was failing. By early June she had not eaten for more than a week and her mind was wandering. Friends and enemies alike paid their respects as she lay on her deathbed suffering from dropsy, an accumulation of fluid in body cavities or soft tissue. The end came on June 10th when the journal of French envoys, Jacques de la Brosse and Jacques Mennage, says the “lady did not speak all day, and by a quarter of an hour after midnight gave up her spirit to God.”

Within three days the French were ready to sign a treaty with England.

Despite all Mary’s efforts the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France, which had existed since the 1290s, was broken.