User blog comment:Scrawland Scribblescratch/ANGLES AND FRANKS!/@comment-32656-20121227015522/@comment-32656-20121229060213

...I should have added before that Mary's brother is only her half brother - unlike her, he had no claim whatsoever to the English throne. Really, his "claim" to the Scottish throne was rather threadbare, but if something had befallen Mary and she had no child to inherit, he's more than likely have been crowned. And no, the English would never have accepted her brother as King.

No child of Mary's by a Frenchman would be allowed to take the Scottish throne. They barely let her, a Catholic, keep it. Think about what that means for a Catholic who is French too.

Remember, too, that the Tudors being delayed getting the crown more or less negates any chance of Henry the Eighth taking the throne, let alone having daughters.