Taming the Sparrowhawk—Manners and Marriage

Abstract

When Sir Geoffrey’s daughter Jeanne turned sixteen, her behavior in social situations would become increasingly important. Her little sister Anne would feel the tension, too, even though the attention would have been on Jeanne. When an unmarried nobleman visited the Tour Landry family, Jeanne would have been fussed over by her maidservants, her ladies-in-waiting, and her mother until they deemed her clothing grand enough, her carriage stately enough, and her smile demure enough to make her marriageable. Anne would likely have looked on enviously, forgetting that envy was a deadly sin. As she watched, she would learn how she herself would be expected to act in a few short years. In her parents’ bedchamber, contentedly sucking at the wet nurse’s breast, baby Marie would be oblivious to the scene that awaited her when she grew up.