Anne Boleyn at the French Court
It’s not too fanciful to say that Marguerite of Angoulème, who grew up in Château Amboise, unwittingly helped kickstart the English Reformation. Neither is it too fanciful to say that Anne Boleyn who arrived at Château Amboise when she was fourteen, was the conduit.
Anne’s mistress, Queen Claude, was fifteen. They spent their impressionable teenage years together. Anne, Claude’s maid of honour for seven years, was profoundly influenced by Marguerite, Claude’s fiercely intelligent sister-in-law.*
Marguerite, who was educated by the most avant-garde thinkers in France, admired Martin Luther’s determination to reform the church. She imported his banned books and had them translated into French. She supported the Protestant Reformation in France, protected Protestant preachers and writers from persecution including Calvin, the French Luther. She publicly supported anti-clerical Francis Rabelais whose books were also banned.
When the bilingual, Frenchified Anne, was twenty-one and returned to England, she was the Court’s darling. She was exotic. Her distinctive trademark hairstyle tucked behind an elaborate hairband mirrored that of Queen Claude. She danced better than the other ladies of the Court. She had received an education fit for a princess, was at the centre of Renaissance France** for seven years mixing with enlightened, forward thinking men and women and had rubbed shoulders with world famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. No wonder Henry VIII was in thrall.
Anne imported the latest French fashions into England.
She also imported Marguerite’s views on the new religion sweeping Europe, Protestantism. Marguerite was the Petri dish and Anne the catalyst for the end of Catholic England.
Why would a hard man like Henry take any notice of Marguerite’s views? Because her brother, the king of France was very proud of her. Because Henry was in awe of the French Court where Francis I, his mother Louise of Savoy and Marguerite shared absolute power. They called themselves The Trinity.
Francis loved hunting animals and women. Louise loved money. Marguerite loved learning. Today she would be known as a blue stocking. She couldn’t get enough of the debates among the European intelligentsia.
Francis relied on his sister to keep him up to date with the latest thinking. The latest hot topics were Erasmus, who was educated at the Sorbonne and Martin Luther. Both had openly criticised the Pope. Both had their books banned. Both were branded as heretics.
Marguerite was also branded a heretic by the Sorbonne. When she published satirical verses about the men who ran Parliament, a sermon was preached advocating she be tied in a sack and drowned in the Seine. The king forced the Sorbonne to apologise.
When the Pope branded Henry a heretic and refused to give him a divorce, Henry divorced the Pope. If the sister of the king of France was a heretic, he was in good company.
* When Anne returned to England she wrote to Marguerite often telling her how much she missed her and longed to see her again. She never did.
** The French Renaissance started in Amboise in 1494. The English Renaissance didn’t begin until sixty years later when Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elizabeth I was on the throne.
Read more about Anne and the other Ladies in Out of the Shadows: The Ladies of Royal Château Amboise by Pamela Shields
Post by Pamela (BA History of Art). Artwork by Mark.
Out of the Shadows
The Ladies of Royal Château Amboise
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