Page 45 - All About History - Issue 72-18

University of Wife

more directly “avoid sin”. While Anne was keen
to imbue her pupils with a gloss of courtly
sophistication which, naturally included an
element of flirtatiousness as all this education
was, ultimately, designed to attract a good
marriage, she was also clear that well brought
up young women must never be seen to
encourage male attentions and should maintain
a balance of inviting praise and homage while
at the same time remaining completely aloof.
In an uncivilised world, it was Anne’s opinion
that it was duty of gently-raised women to
maintain standards of decency and gentility –
resisting all temptation in the process.
According to the chronicler Brantôme, every
single noble house in France aspired to have
their daughters educated under the aegis of
Anne de Beaujeu, and certainly the effects of
her teaching practices were to be widespread
and long lasting. Perhaps her most famous
pupil was the young Diane de Poitiers, who
spent a number of years at the Bourbon court
and emerged as one of its most exemplary
pupils, having fully taken on board all of Anne
de Beaujeu’s teachings.
Diane would later take in hand the education
of the young Mary, Queen of Scots after she
arrived in France, instilling her with all the
same principles and fashioning the intelligent
GUARDIAN: young girl into a cultivated and elegant leader
Guardians are requested to sign and return this report of fashion and, more crucially, worthy future
Queen of France. Mary’s mother Marie de Guise
was not directly educated by Anne de Beaujeu
but it is likely that her mother Antoinette de

Anne de Beaujeu’s
château in Moulins
where young ladies
from Europe’s
aristocratic were
sent to study

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