Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession Read Online Free PDF

twenties when he came to the throne and his court was very different from that of his pious wife. Francis had married Claude at her father’s request and also for her position as heiress of Brittany. While he always showed her the utmost respect in public she was certainly not often in his thoughts and Francis’s court was renowned for its licentiousness. Chasing women was one of Francis I’s chief pastimes and, according to a near contemporary, the Seigneur de Brantome, Francis said that the best way to please him was:
‘By offering to his view on his first arrival a beautiful woman, a fine horse and a handsome hound. For by casting his gaze now on the one, now on the other and presently on the third, he would never be a-weary in that house, having there the three things most pleasant to look upon and admire, and so exercising his eyes right agreeably’.
     
    Following Francis’s accession to the crown the ladies of his court quickly gained something of a reputation with reports that ‘the ladies thereof, both maids and wives, do oft-times trip, indeed do so customarily’. Brantome considered this rumour to be false and that the French ladies were, in fact, honourable and virtuous. He also said that the liberty accorded to ladies in France served only to make them ‘more desirable and loveable, more easy of access and more amenable, than they of any other nation’. Both Anne and Mary Boleyn would have enjoyed the freedom afforded to them as members of the court of France. Mary Boleyn however appears to have taken this freedom a little too far.
    The Elizabethan writer Sander, in an account hostile to Anne claimed that at the French court she was known as ‘the English mare, because of her shameless behaviour; and then the royal mule. When she became acquainted with the King of France’. Sander believed that Anne had disgraced herself in France by indulging first in sexual relations with members of Francis’s court and later with Francis himself. According to his account, even in the notoriously licentious French court, Anne Boleyn stood out for her immorality. It is clear that Sander has confused the two sisters in his account and that it was in fact Mary Boleyn who attained the reputation of both the ‘English mare’ and the ‘royal mule’.
    Mary Boleyn became the mistress of Francis I soon after his accession. This was only a casual affair and certainly not as lasting as the affair that Mary would later enjoy with Henry VIII in England. Francis quickly tired of Mary and she then became the mistress of other French courtiers. Mary Boleyn quickly obtained a notorious reputation helped in no small part by Francis’s own view of her. Years later he would refer to her as a great prostitute and infamous above all. Anne must have been horrified at Mary for throwing herself away so cheaply. Mary Boleyn received no tangible benefits for the loss of her honour and her conduct horrified her family in England. Mary was quickly sent for by her parents and returned home to England to avoid any further scandal. Anne may have been relieved that her sister was no longer in a position at court to disgrace her further. There is certainly no evidence of closeness between the two sisters and Anne often felt that she had cause for embarrassment due to Mary’s behaviour.
    Following Mary Boleyn’s disgrace, Anne may have been glad of the relative seclusion of Claude’s household. Claude was often in ill health and lived quietly away from court. During the times that Claude’s household was separate from the king’s Anne would have spent much of her time at her needlework. She could also play the lute, sing and dance and she may have been expected to help entertain the queen. Anne probably also took part in Claude’s coronation in May 1516 at St Denis and the queen’s state entry to Paris. These were grand state occasions which Anne would have enjoyed. She appears also to have met Francis’s sister, the accomplished