Anne de Parthenay was a 16th-century woman who received a thorough classical education from her mother, Michelle de Saubonne, the governess to Renée, Duchess of Ferrara. Clément Marot stated in verse to Parthenay that she had "learning and sound knowledge."

Michelle de Saubonne, Madame de Soubise (1485–1549) was a French courtier who served as lady-in-waiting to Anne of Brittany, as the Governess of the Children of France beginning in 1499, and as the governess for the children of Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. She and Anne became best friends and, as she was dying, she asked Michelle de Saubon to be a mother and guardian for her daughter Renée, Duchess of Ferrara, from 1528 to 1536. Like her mother, Renée had a close relationship with Michelle, both of whom had become Protestants. Renée's husband, Ercole II, was a Catholic and he resented having many French Protestants, also known as Huguenots in his court and diverting his wife's attention away from Catholicism.