Mary Boleyn - Royal Affair in France

Royal Affair in France

Mary was joined in Paris by her father, Sir Thomas, and her sister, Anne, who had been studying in the Netherlands for the past year. During this time Mary is supposed to have embarked on several affairs, including one with King Francis himself. Although some historians believe that the reports of her sexual affairs are exaggerated, the French king referred to her as "The English Mare", "my hackney", and as "una grandissima ribalda, infame sopra tutte" ("a great slag, infamous above all").

She returned to England in 1519, where she was appointed a maid-of-honour to Catherine of Aragon, the queen consort of Henry VIII.

Read more about this topic:  Mary Boleyn

Famous quotes containing the words royal, affair and/or france:

    Are you there, Africa with the bulging chest and oblong thigh? Sulking Africa, wrought of iron, in the fire, Africa of the millions of royal slaves, deported Africa, drifting continent, are you there? Slowly you vanish, you withdraw into the past, into the tales of castaways, colonial museums, the works of scholars.
    Jean Genet (1910–1986)

    An affair wants to spill, to share its glory with the world. No act is so private it does not seek applause.
    John Updike (b. 1932)

    It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world—and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish—she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.
    Simone Weil (1909–1943)