Mary Beaton (1543–1598) was a Scottish noblewoman and an attendant of Mary, Queen of Scots. She and three other ladies-in-waiting (Mary Livingston, Mary Fleming and Mary Seton) were collectively known as "The Four Marys". Family Mary was born in 1543, the third of five children of Robert Beaton, 4th Laird of Creich, and Joanna or Jane Renwall. Mary's mother was one of Marie de Guise's ladies-in-waiting; she died in June 1577 at Dunbog in Fife. Mary's aunt, Janet Beaton, was a mistress of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who would in 1567 become the third husband of Queen Mary. At court in France and Scotland In 1548, at the age of five, Mary Beaton was chosen by Marie de Guise to accompany her daughter Mary, Queen of Scots, to France. She, along with three other girls who also accompanied the Queen, became known as the "Four Marys." On 26 May 1562 the four women attended Mary at the ceremony of the opening of the Parliament of Scotland. Thomas Randolph described the procession of "four virgins, maydes, Maries, damoyselles of honor, or the Queen's mignions, cawle [call] them as please your honor, but a fayerrer [fairer] syghte was never seen". In June 1563 Mary Beaton wrote to Anne Carew, Lady Throckmorton, the wife of the English diplomat Nicholas Throckmorton, thanking her for the present of a ring brought to her in Edinburgh by Captain Tremayn. Mary sent her ring to Lady Throckmorton in return. She signed this letter "Marie de Bethune". Black velvet gowns were made for Mary Beaton and Lady Livingstone in February 1564 by the Queen's tailor Jehan de Compiegne. Marriage Mary, described as having been pretty and plump, with fair hair and dark eyes, attracted the attentions of an older man, Thomas Randolph. At the time of the courtship, in 1564, Randolph was 45 and Mary was 21. Randolph was Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to the Scottish court, and wanted Mary Beaton to spy on her mistress for him, which she refused to do. In April 1565 Mary Beaton and Randolph teamed up to play bowls with the queen and Lord Darnley at Stirling Castle. They won, and Darnley gave Beaton a ring and a brooch with two agates worth fifty crowns. One of Randolph's Scottish contacts, Alexander Clark sent him a letter teasing him about their relationship in a joke using nonsense words; "And as to your mistress