“Swooning with fear, Lady Rochford was dragged to the blood-soaked scaffold.  In her final words, she maintained her innocence as being Kathryn’s procuress, but admitted that she had  “falsely accused” her late husband “of loving in an incestuous manner, his sister, Queen Anne Boleyn. For this I deserve to die”.”

I do have to say,  I do feel she deserved her punishment.  She lies not only directly cost two people their lives, but she also left the future Queen Elizabeth motherless.  I can not help but think, what if Anne was spared her life and simply divorced.  Would Elizabeth been able to know her mother?  Would she have become the Queen she was? Would she have outlived Henry?   Would be interesting indeed.

“Mary Boleyn remained at the French court, where she became a lady in waiting to the new queen, Claude, the wife of Louis’s son François”

Claude was indeed the wife of François, but François was not the son of Louis XII, in fact Claude was Louis’s daughter.  While French law prohibited the crown be handed down to a woman, and poor king Louis with no surviving sons, Claude was married to her cousin and her fathers heir-presumptive, François, Duke of Angoulême.  But this wasn’t Claude’s first marriage arrangement.   Her mother, Anne of Brittany, wanted her daughter to be married to Charles V the future Holy Roman Emperor.   This marriage would mean Claude would take the duchy of Brittany and Burgundy from the French Crown.

The French nobles wanted no part of this deal and argued against Claude’s marriage to Charles, the loss of Brittany and Burgundy would have greatly reduced the size of France.  So the marriage promise was called off and Claude was arranged to marry François, whom she was married to at the age of 15 on May 18th, 1514.

While this little snippet of text is an error, do not let it discourage you from reading Leslie Carroll’s book, it is fantastic!