Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession Read Online Free Page B

for Mary Tudor, the fact that both Mary and Anne Boleyn were amongst the few English ladies remaining with the So Pleasing in Her Youthful Age French queen was advantageous to them and they would have found themselves often in close proximity to the queen.
    In spite of her distaste for her elderly husband, Mary Tudor quickly settled into married life with Louis and she was an exemplary wife towards him. The great contrast between the aged king and his lively wife did however continue to cause controversy and it is possible that there were some rumours surrounding Mary Tudor’s behaviour. According to the sixteenth century writer, the Seigneur de Brantome, Mary’s relationship with the husband of her stepdaughter, Francis of Angouleme, caused particular comment. According to Brantome, Mary and Francis quickly fell in love with each other and they were close to consummating their relationship when Monsieur De Grignaux, a member of the court, noticed what was happening. According to Brantome, M. De Grignaux recognised the danger that Francis was in from the predatory Mary and warned him saying:
‘”What would you be at? See you not this woman, keen and cunning as she is, is fain to draw you to her, to the end you may get her with child? But an if she come to have a son, what of you? You are still plain Comte d’Angouleme, and never king of France, as you hope to be’.
     
    Francis was attracted to Mary and it is possible that she may have shared something of this. However, she had very little time to even consider being unfaithful to Louis and she and her ladies lived quietly in Paris during her brief time as queen. Louis XII had been rejuvenated by his marriage to Mary, but it was a temporary recovery and, on 1 January 1515, he died after less than three months of marriage. Mary Tudor apparently fainted on hearing the news of her husband’s death.
    As the widow of a king who had no sons, Mary Tudor was expected to spend time in mourning and seclusion whilst it was established that there was no possibility that she would bear the king a posthumous son. Anne Boleyn, as one of Mary’s attendants, shared in her mistress’s mourning and she retired with the French Queen to the palace of Cluny. Anne would have braced herself for a number of boring months in seclusion and it is unlikely that she, or any of Mary Tudor’s other attendants, had any idea of the dramatic events that would take place whilst Mary was supposed to be mourning for her husband.
    When Mary Tudor had stood on the beach at Dover and begged her brother to remember his promise to her she already had her second husband in mind. Charles Brandon had been a childhood companion of Henry VIII and the king had created him Duke of Suffolk. Mary Tudor and Suffolk were attracted to each other in England and Mary later wrote to her brother describing Suffolk as one ‘to whom I have always been of good mind, as well you know’. Henry did indeed know of his sister’s affection for his friend and before sending him to France Henry insisted that Suffolk promised that he would not seek to marry Mary. Henry was satisfied with this promise and Suffolk arrived in France soon after Louis XII’s death in order to bring Mary home to England.
    Anne and the other ladies were probably glad of the interruption to their seclusion afforded by the appearance of the English lords. For Mary Tudor, Suffolk’s arrival heralded a way out of her predicament. Francis of Angouleme, now Francis I of France, had been showing Mary unwanted attentions of which Anne and the other ladies would have been aware and alarmed. According to a letter sent by Mary to her brother:
‘Pleaseth it your grace, the French [king] on Tuesday night last [past], came to visit me, and [had] with me many diverse [discoursin]g, among the which he demanded me whether I had [ever] made any promise of marriage in any place, assuring me upon his honour, and upon the word of a prince, that in case I would be plain