Mary Fleming

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Mary Fleming was one of the "Four Marys," ladies-in-waiting to Mary I of Scotland.

Mary Fleming was a cousin to Queen Mary, as her mother, Lady Janet Stewart, was an illegitimate child of King James IV of Scotland. Lady Janet became a governess to Queen Mary, and accompanied her to France in 1548. Mary was about the same age as Queen Mary.

Mary later married Maitland of Lethington, the queen's secretary, who was much older than her. The marriage was not happy, and it was rumored that Mary wished to make attempts to murder her husband.

There is compelling evidence that the Fleming -Maitland marriage was happy. The marriage occurred after a three year courtship which weathered ambivalent relations between Maitland and Mary Queen of Scots, to whom Mary Fleming was a lady-in-waiting, and had been since the age of 5. Maitland was so infatuated that he wrote William Cecil about it. The courtship was the talk of both the Scottish and the English court. It appears that Mary Fleming Maitland was with her husband with he was captured at Edinburgh Castle by the English, and then surrendered to the Regent, Morton. While her sister-in-law was permitted to keep her property and plate, Mary Fleming was forced to give up her possessions including jewelry given her by the Queen of Scots. Her much older husband was carried out of the castle on a litter, because he was unable to stand or walk. He died awaiting trial and execution. Suicide was suspected. After the death of William Maitland, Mary Fleming Maitland wrote to Cecil to prevent his dead body from being hung, drawn and quartered. As a result, Queen Elizabeth asked the Regent Morton to spare the body. He did. Mary Fleming did not receive the restoration of Lethington's estate and properties until 1581-82, by grant of King James VI. While there is some dispute about this, the evidence is that she never remarried. She had two children, a boy who later became a Catholic and lived in France and Belgium as a self-imposed exile, and a daughter Margaret, who became a Duchess. In 1581, Mary Queen of Scots asked Elizabeth I to grant Fleming safe conduct so she could visit the imprisoned Queen of Scots. There is no evidence that Mary Fleming Maitland actually went. The last documents attributed to her are her letter to Cecil and a letter to her sister discussing some bad feelings that existed between Fleming and her brother-in-law Coldingham.