Artistic License History / Reign

• The real Mary did not leave court as a child and spend the next several years in a convent. She was a permanent fixture at the French court from the time she arrived as a five-year-old Queen until she left as an eighteen-year-old widow. She really was separated from her four attendants for several years, however, because they were sent to live in a convent. This was because Henry II wanted Mary to be surrounded by companions who spoke French, which none of the "four Marys" did.
• The Pilot episode features the wedding of Francis's sister Elisabeth to Philip II of Spain, a wedding that did occur. However, it could not take place until the death of his previous wife, Mary Tudor (Mary I of England), which does not occur until halfway through the first season. The series also never shows Mary and Elisabeth interacting even one time; the real Mary and Elisabeth actually shared a bedroom growing up, and considered themselves best friends until Elisabeth's death.
• Catherine genuinely did have issues with the child Mary, but they had nothing to do with a prophecy by Nostradamus, and she had no objection to Mary marrying her son. Allegedly, on their first meeting, the young queen - not having been told who Catherine was - asked her why she didn't curtsey to the Queen of Scots, and Catherine never entirely forgave the slight. Catherine also somewhat resented the fact that Mary was already a queen in her own right, and therefore took precedence over her own daughters, who were merely princesses. But at no time (as far as history can prove) did Catherine or anyone else in her court ever try to have Mary raped, discredited, or killed.
• The pilot includes a plot to have Mary raped in her own bedchamber, thereby leaving her 'despoiled' and unfit to marry the Dauphin of France. Although this never happened in exactly that way, a similar incident did occur later in Mary's life, when she was back in Scotland, which probably inspired the plotline. A French poet in her court, apparently infatuated with her, hid himself underneath her bed in order to declare his love for her when she was alone; luckily, he was discovered by her guards. She banished him from Scotland, but he ignored this and two days later forced his way back into her bedroom as she was undressing. Her half-brother James, the Earl of Moray, came to her rescue when he heard her screaming, and the poet was convicted of treason and beheaded. The poet was acting on his own, though, and not under orders of Catherine or anyone else; he was also not romantically attached to any of Mary's ladies-in-waiting, unlike Colin in the show.
• While Henry had two acknowledged bastards, and one vaguely acknowledged one, none of them were by Diane and none of them were named Sebastian. However, it was rumoured that his bastard daughter Diane de France, by Filippa Duci, was in fact the daughter of Diane de Poitiers.
• Speaking of bastards, the real Francis did not father any children with one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting - or anyone else, including Mary herself (the miscarriage she has in the show is another bit of artistic license). He was also completely faithful to Mary, as was she to him, from the time of their betrothal when they were little children until his death; by all contemporary accounts, theirs was a Perfectly Arranged Marriage. Many historians believe Francis may have actually been rendered impotent or at least sterile by his assorted health problems, which would account for Mary not getting pregnant until her second marriage.
• The real Mary and Francis did not get married in one of the castles in front of a relatively small group. Their wedding was a lavish affair, beginning with a wedding Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and then continuing for a full three days of public celebration. (Francis himself wrote and published an account of the events.) Mary's wedding dress was in fact white, which was considered odd because it was traditionally a royal mourning color in France, but she wore a gold crown and many multicolored jewels. One thing the show did get remarkably correct about the occasion, however, was Francis's emotional response to the sight of his bride; one chronicler observed that the sickly Dauphin was rendered "almost handsome" by his joy.
• Mary's mother Marie de Guise was not present for her wedding. After she sent her daughter to France at the age of five, she came to visit when Mary was about seven years old. She then returned to Scotland to continue acting as regent. Mother and daughter never saw each other again. Marie died a few months before Francis did, making Mary's grief even more pronounced.
• By the 16th century, paganism was a long-spent force in Europe. Not so here, where they have apparently replaced the Huguenots as the main group of heretics in France (though paganism does not actually qualify as "heresy"). And in no way would a woman like Diane de Poitiers be connected with them.
• One early storyline has Mary seeking aid against England from, of all countries, Portugal... England's oldest ally, an alliance that was 250 years strong at the time the series was set and 700 years strong at the time it was made. There is a suggestion that Tomas is using his personal troops to further his own agenda, but for Mary to even ask shows a staggering ignorance of international alliances.
• The writers evidently got their ideas about Bohemia from Shakespeare. It never had a seacoast, much less merchant vessels, and at the time was not even an independent nation, but merely one part of the vast Holy Roman Empire, which was an old enemy of France. Why they didn't just use them is a mystery.
• Diane de Poitiers did not cause the deaths of any of Catherine de Medici's children. In fact, although Catherine was jealous of Diane's relationship with Henry, the two women were actually distant cousins; Diane approved of Henry's marriage, encouraged him to be with his wife frequently, and even nursed Catherine through an illness. Their relationship was, for the most part, relatively cordial. Catherine did outlive Diane, but she certainly did not strangle her.
• Henry II did indeed die from a jousting accident which happened almost exactly the way the show presents it. However, his opponent was another noble, Lord Montgomery, who along with both Queen Catherine and Diane de Poitiers had tried to persuade the king not to participate. Henry ignored their concerns for his level of fatigue and kept going. He was not killed by his own son, nor did he have any ideas about wedding or bedding Mary prior to his death.
• Francis and Mary were both firmly anti-Protestant, but the show alters this to Francis being blackmailed into his edicts against the religion. It was arguably the only way to keep them sympathetic in this day and age. They were, however, genuinely upset by the levels of violence to which the Protestants were subjected, and on at least one recorded occasion got into a dispute with Mary's uncles (Francis's advisors) about having to watch the torture.
• Monarchs can only be officially crowned at a coronation once in their lives. Mary was crowned as an infant in Scotland and thus, when she became Queen of France, could not be officially crowned with Francis. Furthermore, Kings of France were crowned in Reims, not in their throne rooms.
• Antoine couldn't make Kenna a queen by marrying her unless he actually took the right to the throne away from his son, the future Henri IV of France, since Antoine is King by marriage to Jeanne III of Navarre. With her death, he would lose his right to the throne, even if he could be regent. However, kings of Navarre by marriage in the past did indeed take the title from their children.
• Elizabeth saying that she, as Mary's cousin, has a claim to the Scottish throne is nonsense. Elizabeth was not descended from the House of Stewart/Stuart; her aunt (Mary's grandmother) merely married into it, so Elizabeth couldn't claim Scotland by birthright. The Earl of Arran, Mary's distant cousin and former regent, was next in line genealogically.
• Official information about the show indicates that Francis was his mother's favorite child. In real life, her Parental Favoritism was directed toward his younger brothers, particularly the future Henri III. It's even suspected by some modern historians that Catherine may have actually let Francis die rather than allowing a physician to attempt a treatment which might have saved his life, so she could be regent for the nine-year-old Charles. (Francis was, by French law, old enough to rule on his own when he became king, and Catherine is thought to have resented how much influence Mary had over him.)
• Catherine was not present for Mary's second wedding. It's possible that she was invited, if only as a gesture of courtesy, but once Mary left France and returned to Scotland she never saw her first mother-in-law again.

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