history-be-written: “With her usual charm, good sense and genuine interest in people, Marie wo
history-be-written:“With her usual charm, good sense and genuine interest in people, Marie won hearts wherever she went; pleasing and impressing everyone with her kindness, unfailing friendliness and gracious manner as well as the intelligence of her questions and responses.Before her departure for Scotland, Marie had been warned that she would find her new home a ‘barbarous country, destitute and void of all commodity’. Instead, she was delighted to find that, although lacking the polish and wealth of her native France, it was nowhere near as primitive as she had been led to believe. In fact it was just as civilised, bustling and pleasant as any other nation in Europe. She was particularly taken with the attractiveness of the people, informing her husband that ‘she never saw so many fair personages of men and women and also young babes and children’.Never a great or diligent letter writer, a tendency she seems to have inherited from her father and one that she would need to overcome now that she lived so far from her family, Marie managed to send some letters to her mother after her father and sister set out on their return journey. Sadly her missives have not survived, but it’s clear from her mother’s affectionante and relieved response that she had been full of praise for Scotland and her new husband.” - Melanie Clegg, “Scourge of Henry VIII: the Life of Marie de Guise” -- source link
#history#16th century