Page 46 - All About History - Issue 72-18

Bourbon, a cousin of Anne’s husband, spent at
least some time at Moulins during her youth, as
did her future sister-in-law Renée de Bourbon,
whose brother Charles would eventually marry
Anne’s daughter Suzanne.
Both Antoinette and Renée were widely
regarded to be amongst the most well-educated
and cultivated women of the time and they
naturally imbued Marie de Guise with all the
same virtues, which she honed during an
adolescence spent at the French court under
the charge of François I’s second wife Eleonora
of Austria and his intellectual sister Marguerite,
Queen of Navarre.
Marguerite was one of the most significant
figures of the French Renaissance thanks to
her patronage of artists, writers and humanist
thinkers. Marguerite’s tutelage almost certainly
helped prepare Marie for her difficult future
position as Queen of Scotland and regent for her
young daughter, which involved presiding over
The friendships, and rivalries, that young women
forged while being taught together at court or in the warring Catholic and Protestant forces at the
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aristocratic households in the provinces would Scottish court.
e
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r remain with them for the rest of th eir lives
Marguerite d’Angoulême would also have a
profound influence upon another future queen
– Anne Boleyn, who resided at the French court
between 1514 and 1522.
If you accept her most likely birth year of
1501, Anne was in her early teens when she first
arrived in France as a maid of honour to Henry
VIII’s sister Mary Tudor, who married Louis XII
in October 1514.
When Mary returned to England after Louis
suddenly died in January 1515, mere months
after their wedding day, Anne remained behind
in France as maid of honour to Claude de
France, Louis XII’s eldest daughte
of his successor
to h e

Mary, Queen
of Scots,
shows off her
embroidery
skills with
this cat
image

GUARDIAN:

Guardians are requested to sign and return this report

46