Louise of Savoy: A Model of Female Power at the French Court.

Louise of Savoy: A Model of Female Power at the French Court

As you know, I am learning more about some of the people, especially women, who may well have influenced Anne Boleyn. We have touched on her time in Austria and are now learning more about the influences the French court had on her. We know that she loved French fashions and brought them back to England with her, but she would also have been shaped by the people at court. Whether she met them or simply observed them from a distance, their presence would have made a lasting mark. So here is another powerful woman, who I believe may well have influenced Anne.

Louise of Savoy was born on the 11th of September 1476 at Pont-d’Ain, the daughter of Philip II, Duke of Savoy, and Margaret of Bourbon. After her mother’s early death, she was raised by Anne de Beaujeu, the capable sister of King Charles VIII, and was introduced to the refined and politically charged French court. There she met Margaret of Austria, with whom she would later negotiate peace many years on.

At just eleven years old, Louise was married to Charles of Orléans, Count of Angoulême, though she did not live with him until she was fifteen. Their marriage, though not without its complications, was bound by a shared love of books and learning. They had two children who would rise to great prominence, Marguerite, later Queen of Navarre, and Francis, who became King Francis I of France. When Charles died in 1496, Louise was only nineteen, but she proved herself a woman of determination and intelligence, guiding her children’s futures.

She secured her son’s position at court and ensured both he and Marguerite were educated in the humanist ideals and artistic spirit of the Italian Renaissance. Francis’s marriage to Claude of France, daughter of King Louis XII, was a triumph of Louise’s political skill. When Louis died in 1515, Francis ascended the throne, and his mother, now Duchess of Angoulême and later of Anjou, became one of the most influential figures in France.

Louise twice acted as regent while her son was away at war in 1515 and again in 1525- 1526 when he was held captive in Spain. During these times she displayed a talent for diplomacy and governance that earned her widespread respect. She even initiated contact with the Ottoman Empire, seeking the support of Suleiman the Magnificent, and successfully helped negotiate the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529, known as the “Ladies’ Peace”, with her former acquaintance Margaret of Austria. This agreement brought a temporary end to the wars between France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Louise of Savoy died on the 22nd of September 1531 at Grez-sur-Loing, likely of plague, and was buried at Saint-Denis in Paris. Through her daughter Marguerite and granddaughter Jeanne d’Albret, she became the ancestress of the Bourbon kings of France. 

A woman of learning, resilience, and political insight, Louise’s influence stretched far, shaping not only her son’s reign but also the world of refinement, intellect, and ambition that Anne Boleyn would encounter in France. Anne would have seen and heard about these powerful and intelligent women and learned how grace, wit, and diplomacy could shape influence at court, something her family would later use to their advantage, with Anne becoming a tool for their ambitions.

Of equal importance was the model Louise provided for female authority exercised without a crown in her own right. She ruled not through spectacle or overt dominance, but through proximity, intellect, and careful cultivation of loyalty. Her household became a training ground for women who learned how influence could be wielded discreetly: through conversation, patronage, education, and emotional intelligence. This was a court culture in which women were not merely decorative, but observant, articulate, and politically aware. For a young woman like Anne Boleyn, watching from within or just beyond this circle, it demonstrated that power did not always require a throne—only access, confidence, and an ability to read the shifting currents of favour.

Louise also embodied the delicate balance between ambition and restraint. Fiercely protective of her children’s interests, she nevertheless understood the dangers of overreach. Her successes came from patience and timing rather than impulsive action, a lesson Anne may have absorbed deeply. The French court prized elegance, wit, and intellectual sharpness, but it was Louise who showed how these qualities could be transformed into real political capital. In this environment, Anne learned not only how to dress and speak, but how to be seen: how to attract attention without appearing threatening, how to influence without issuing commands, and how a woman’s mind could become her most powerful asset. These lessons, shaped by women like Louise of Savoy, would echo through Anne’s later life in England-sometimes to her advantage, and sometimes with tragic consequences.

Image info:

Artist: Jean Clouet

Portrait of Louise of Savoy

Date: 16th century

Collection: Fondation Bemberg

The Woman Behind the Courts: Marguerite de Navarre’s

Anne Boleyn’s French Inspiration: The Remarkable Marguerite de Navarre

I have been finding out more about the people who shaped, influenced and knew Anne Boleyn prior to her more well-known time at the Tudor court. I have written a little about her time in Austria, and have now been learning more about her influence from the French court. We know she loved the fashions of the French court and that she brought them back to England with her. We know she served Queen Claude, but other women of the court would have influenced Anne in all sorts of ways. One such woman is Marguerite de Navarre, a remarkable princess whose intellect, compassion, and faith made her one of the most important figures of the French Renaissance.

Marguerite was born on the 11th of April 1492 in Angoulême, the daughter of Louise of Savoy and Charles, Count of Angoulême. She and her brother Francis, the future King Francis I of France, were raised in an environment that valued art, learning and culture. Her education was exceptional for a woman of her time, including the study of Latin and the classics.

At seventeen she married Charles, Duke of Alençon, in a match arranged for political convenience, as was common place. Though her husband was loyal and well-meaning, the union was sadly not a happy one. It was after Francis became king in 1515 that Marguerite truly came into her own. Her salons became famous across Europe for their lively discussion of humanist ideas, theology, and the arts. Salons were especially popular in France, where educated nobles and thinkers gathered to share ideas. Other European courts sometimes had similar meetings, but France was the centre of salon culture. Writers, scholars, and reformers gathered around her, and she became known as the “Maecenas” of her brother’s kingdom for her generous patronage.

After Charles’s death, she married Henry II of Navarre in 1527. Their daughter Jeanne later became Queen of Navarre and the mother of Henry IV of France, the first Bourbon king. Marguerite’s marriage placed her in a position of influence both at the French and Navarrese courts, and she used it to promote learning, faith, and tolerance. During the crisis that followed Francis I’s capture at the Battle of Pavia, she rode across to negotiate his release during winter, thus proving her courage and political skill.

As a writer, Marguerite was ahead of her time. Her works include The Mirror of the Sinful Soul, a deeply personal religious poem that explored the relationship between the human soul and God. It was controversial and even condemned by theologians at the Sorbonne, who accused her of heresy. The Sorbonne was a famous university in Paris, known for its powerful theologians and long influence on learning and religion in France. But her brother defended her fiercely. 

Her most famous literary achievement, The Heptaméron, is a collection of stories that combine wit, insight and moral reflection, and is often compared to Boccaccio’s Decameron. Boccaccio’s Decameron is a famous Italian book of one hundred stories told by people escaping the plague in 14th-century Florence.

Marguerite’s influence extended beyond France. Her writings and reformist views are believed to have reached England, and some historians think that Anne Boleyn may have known her personally or served briefly in her household. Anne’s later interest in religious reform and her possession of Marguerite’s Mirror of the Sinful Soul suggest a strong intellectual connection. Years later, Anne’s daughter, the young Princess Elizabeth, translated the poem into English for her stepmother, Queen Katherine Parr, a sign of how Marguerite’s ideas continued to inspire across generations and nations.

As a patron, she protected figures such as François Rabelais, Clément Marot and Pierre de Ronsard, using her influence to shield reform minded thinkers from persecution. Though she remained within the Catholic Church, she sought peaceful reform rather than division, and tried to persuade her brother to show tolerance towards those with different beliefs. Her kindness and generosity became legendary. She walked among her people without guards, listening to their troubles and calling herself “the Prime Minister of the Poor.”

Marguerite de Navarre died on the 21st of December 1549, but her spirit lived on through her daughter, her grandson Henry IV, and the writers and thinkers she inspired. Contemporaries praised her wisdom, humility, and strength, Erasmus, the Dutch scholar who encouraged education and church reform admired her piety. Later historians saw her as the embodiment of the Renaissance’s union of learning and faith. For Anne Boleyn and others who passed through the French court, Marguerite’s example of intellect, courage, and compassion must have left a lasting mark.

Marguerite’s legacy also lies in the atmosphere she created at court-a space where women could participate meaningfully in intellectual life. She encouraged them to read, debate, and write, subtly widening the boundaries of what was considered acceptable for noblewomen of her age. In doing so, she helped nurture a generation of young female attendants who witnessed firsthand how learning and leadership could coexist. For someone like Anne Boleyn, whose formative years were shaped by the courts of Europe, the example of a woman whose influence rested not on beauty or intrigue but on intellect and moral authority would have been especially striking.

Her political instincts were equally sophisticated. Marguerite used correspondence as a diplomatic tool, maintaining networks that stretched from Rome to the German states. Through letters, she cultivated allies, soothed tensions, and gathered information that allowed her to advise both her brother and her husband with unusual insight. This quieter form of statecraft-conducted through persuasion rather than decree-reflected her belief that dialogue could achieve what force often could not. It is a testament to her skill that even opponents acknowledged the tact and steadiness with which she navigated the turbulent religious and political currents of early sixteenth-century Europe.

How much influence do you think Marguerite’s ideas had on the young Anne Boleyn and the reformist climate that followed?

Image info:

Artist: Jean Clouet

Portrait of Marguerite d'Angouleme, duchess d'Angoulême, Queen of Navarre

Date: Valois-Angoulême 

Date c.1527

Collection:

Walker Art Gallery

Elizabeth Cheney: The Hidden Matriarch of the Tudor Queens

The Woman Behind Three Queens: The Story of Elizabeth Cheney.

Let me introduce to you the great-grandmother of Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Jane Seymour. We all know Anne, Catherine and Jane, three of Henry VIII’s famous queens, but their family roots are often overlooked. Without women like Elizabeth Cheney, history may have taken a very different turn.

Elizabeth Cheney, sometimes known as Lady Say, was born in April 1422 at Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire. She was the eldest child of Lawrence Cheney, High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire, and Elizabeth Cokayne. Through her parents she descended from notable families: her grandfather Sir John Cokayne had been Chief Baron of the Exchequer, while her grandmother Ida de Grey linked her to the powerful Grey family. Elizabeth grew up among the English gentry, and her life would connect her directly to some of the greatest dynasties of Tudor England.

Her first marriage was to Sir Frederick Tilney of Ashwellthorpe in Norfolk and Boston in Lincolnshire. They lived at Ashwellthorpe Manor and had one daughter, Elizabeth Tilney. When Sir Frederick died in 1445, their daughter became heiress to his estates. That daughter would later marry into the Howard family and become grandmother to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of Henry VIII’s later queens.

Widowed young, Elizabeth Cheney remarried before the end of 1446. Her second husband was Sir John Say of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, who rose to become Speaker of the House of Commons and a servant in the household of Henry VI. Together they built a large family of three sons and four daughters, forging alliances with some of the most important houses of the time. Their daughter Anne Say married Sir Henry Wentworth, and from that line came Margery Wentworth, mother of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third queen and the mother of Edward VI.

Thus, from Elizabeth Cheney’s two marriages sprang bloodlines that produced three of Henry VIII’s wives. Through Jane Seymour, she became great-great-grandmother to King Edward VI, and through Anne Boleyn she was an ancester of Queen Elizabeth I.

Elizabeth lived until the age of fifty-one, dying on the 25th of September 1473. She was laid to rest at Broxbourne. Her husband survived her and later remarried, but her legacy remained in ways she could never have imagined. Through her descendants, Elizabeth Cheney’s bloodline shaped the course of English monarchy and forever tied her name to the turbulent story of the Tudors.

Elizabeth Cheney’s own lifetime unfolded during one of the most turbulent chapters in English history. She lived through the later years of the Hundred Years’ War and witnessed the collapse of Henry VI’s authority as the Wars of the Roses ignited around her. Though she did not stand on the battlefield, the shifting fortunes of Lancaster and York shaped the world in which she raised her children. Families like the Cheneys, Tilneys, and Says depended on careful alliances, loyalty, and strategic marriages to navigate the uncertainty of civil conflict. Elizabeth, through both of her unions, positioned her family securely within this landscape, ensuring her children entered adulthood with the advantages of land, lineage, and influential connections.

Her memory endured not only through the royal bloodlines that descended from her but also through the properties, monuments, and local ties she helped cement. At Broxbourne, where she spent her later years, the Say family became central figures in community life, supporting the parish church and leaving their mark on its memorials. Centuries later, antiquarians would uncover her image through brasses and records, tracing the unexpected thread that linked this fifteenth-century gentlewoman to the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Elizabeth Cheney never lived to see the Tudor dynasty rise, but her influence-quiet, domestic, and rooted in family-played a decisive role in shaping the very world the Tudors inherited.

What do you think-does Elizabeth Cheney deserve more recognition as one of the hidden architects behind the Tudor dynasty?

Image info:

Oil painting based on a brass rubbing of Elizabeth Cheney 

Date: 31st of May 2022

Source: National Trust Collection

Artist:Wentworth Huyshe