Françoise de Paroy


Françoise d'Estamville, Dame de Paroy, was a French court official.
She succeeded Janet Stewart, Lady Fleming as the governess of queen Mary, Queen of Scots in 1551, and remained in service until 1557. Françoise de Paroy was described as a person with irreproachable character. However, she was not liked by queen Mary. de Paroy was favored by queen Catherine de Medici and therefore came to be viewed with suspicion, and Mary accused her of talking ill of her to Catherine. de Paroy also disliked Mary giving away her dresses to relatives as a deprivation of her own privilege to Mary's old clothes, something which also caused discord with Mary.
She fell ill with dropsy in 1556 and was forced to leave court, and there was talk of a replacement as it was not considered suitable for Mary to be without a female supervisor. De Paroy, however, formally kept her office until one year prior to Mary's wedding in 1558, after which Mary was instead given a head lady-in-waiting, Guillemette de Sarrebruck.