#certainly the line that all her plantagenet relatives revered her; for instance; is not true

[fideidefenswhore]

Could I ask you two questions please?

One, what do you make of Chapuys's report that Anne's aunt praised Mary as such a good girl she deserved total respect anyway? By the sounds of things, with Mary refusing to acknowledge Anne, not wanting to eat meals unless she came above Elizabeth, all that, she sounds as if she gave the servants a lot of stress and difficulty, because Mary was still above them but they couldn't obey her but disobey the King. It sounds more Chapuys's corny spin on things, where Mary's so awesome even Anne's family love her. I don't believe Anne's aunt really would've felt Mary was "good" in that situation, and I don't get who was listening to her say that who then reported it to Chapuys. Are they saying Mary heard it and told him, or he had spies there too?

"[...] nothing is done without the previous consent of the sister of Anne de Boullan's father, the lady to whom the keeping of her has lately been entrusted. I am told that the duke of Norfolk and the brother of Anne had the other day high words with the said governess because, as they thought, she treated the Princess with too great kindness and regard, when she ought to deal with her as a regular bastard that she was. "

So far, so plausible. This seems to fit what we know of both Norfolk and George Boleyn's characters. It is perhaps, interesting, that rather than her most immediate family (which would be, as mentioned above, Thomas Boleyn), the family firm feels the matter is of such great importance that Anne Shelton needs to be counseled and guided by its highest-ranking male member, Norfolk, alongside the male relative Anne was closest to: George.

It's a very high-handed move ('high words', as the report goes); and I don't think it's a bridge too far to speculate that these men were sent by AB personally to exhort Shelton, in person, to follow a stricter policy when it came to Mary, although it does contradict what we know about the supposedly extremely hostile relationship between Anne and Norfolk (because, if Anne sent him, that would suggest a level of trust on a sensitive matter...perhaps George was Anne's choice, and Norfolk, Henry's? Iirc it was Henry that sent Norfolk to Mary's household of Beaulieu to dissolve it and tell her she would be removed to Elizabeth's).

But as always, it's important to be careful when parsing a primary source—what exactly is Chapuys reporting here? Not that they said this, but that they thought this. Chapuys often reports what he believes these players thought:

"The King’s mistress [...] considering that her singular beauty, goodness, and virtue, might possibly induce the King to change his purpose, and that if the Princess were to attend Court, and be seen there continually, she might daily gain the hearts and favour of the courtiers, [will not] allow her to come [attend her at Court]." Jan 1534, Chapuys to Charles V

So, that's become words in her mouth, and/or thoughts in her mind, in fiction, and yet Chapuys cannot read her mind, and he in fact, did not report that this was something Anne said—which isn't entirely obvious, because he's saying this very definitively ('considering that'), but 'considering' is not 'said'. Ergo, this is Chapuys' own speculation on her motivations (the unlikelihood of Anne praising her as she's planning to isolate her, notwithstanding) for the actually definitive part of this sentence: "she has not allowed her to come [to court]".

One might ask why such a long-winded explanation of her motivations would be necessary here, and the answer is that months earlier, he's already rather declaratively informed Charles V that Anne will force Mary to attend her at court:

"I hear [this accursed Anne] has lately boasted that she will make of the Princess a maid of honour in her Royal household [...]"

This has essentially tangled Chapuys within his own cross-hairs: if Anne has a habit of ''boasting" (maybe played that card a bit too early...) that she will take actions that she doesn't actually end up taking, then (which, by his own account, is now apparent—again, depending on how credulous the reader is of his account) why would Charles V take any of her other reported threats seriously? Not to mention, the above was from a dispatch where he also exhorts his master that he can "hardly avoid making war upon this king and kingdom".

He has perhaps accordingly learned the risk of overconfidence on reporting what was said, and retreated into the plausible deniability of speculating the motivations, (ie, what was thought) behind what was said.

Anyway, the rest of the report in question:

"The lady answered that even if [...] she was the bastard daughter of a poor gentleman, her kindness, her modesty, and her virtues called forth all respect and honour. "

Allowing for some possible exaggeration ("I will still accord her the respect owed to the King's natural child", might've been closer to the actual line), I do find this plausible, actually. It's important to remember that most nobles were in a habit of reverence towards Mary; it would be difficult to relinquish that even if instructed to do so. And Shelton was probably not entirely motivated by altruism for saying so— fortune was fickle, HVIII himself had proved fickle, and the Queen, while expecting a son, could just as easily have another daughter, or a stillbirth, or even, as would have been brought home for Anne Shelton, as she reached maturity and heard the news of the (legally considered) former Queen, childbed death. Who was to say Henry would not reverse what he had done regarding Mary, had Anne not had a son? We can look at the timing of this report, as well (February 1534), and place this statement before the Succession Act was passed and before the Pope has declared on the marriage between COA and Henry.

Also, as to why this praise of her in light of the stress and difficulty she caused the servants, Mary has only been in the household for two months. Chapuys will advise her to be more outwardly defiant, and then apologize for having advised her so once Shelton becomes fed up of that enough to forcibly place her into an 'inferior' (leather, not velvet, and in the context of, she had tried to hijack the one set up for Elizabeth, and was refusing to travel in a lesser one— on a future, similar transfer between households, Chapuys reports that Mary "allowed the little one to travel by land", opting to travel by barge, instead) litter (ie, coach):

"Last Thursday, upon the Princess, Your Majesty's cousin, refusing to accompany this King's bastard daughter, who was being conducted to another house fixed for her residence, she was, by certain gentlemen deputed for the purpose, against her will and by sheer force, placed in a chaise (lictiere) with Anne's aunt, being in this manner obliged and compelled to pay her court to the said bastard;—not, however, without her having previously and publicly protested against the violence used with her, and declaring all the time that the act being an involuntary one could in nowise prejudice her right and title for the future. I should never have advised the Princess to go to such an extremity for fear of her over-irritating the King, her father, and giving him occasion and excuse for treating her worse than he is doing at present, and playing her some bad trick, in order to please his mistress Anne, who never ceases day and night plotting against her."

(By then, it seems the blinders have gone down fractionally...it's finally 'for fear of over-irritating the King', not Anne, although of course he still maintains any 'occasion for worse treatment' would mainly be done to please his 'mistress'. Also worth noting, by the date of the above report, the Act of Succession has passed, and Shelton has already been instructed to not afford Mary any precedence over Elizabeth, and, according to the same earlier report, to not allow her any privilege 'without the previous consent of [Thomas Boleyn]'.)

Tl; dr, at the time of the 'bastard daughter of a poor gentleman' report, matters of the succession were arguably still in a state of flux, nothing definitive had been passed besides the annulment (besides which, bona fides was the expected principle of some) as far as English law, and it wouldn't necessarily be politic to alienate a potential future heir to the throne. The world in which Mary was not to be considered such was still a decidedly new one.

It's fair to speculate on the likelihood of whether or not Shelton would've spoken so kindly of Mary had Anne already had a son (although, in those circumstances, Mary surely would not be sent to his household), and/or had the Pope declared for Henry by this point.

To your point, while Chapuys does not name a source ("I am told"); it's fair to assume one (or several) of the servants of Elizabeth's household were paid by him to send him intelligence of visits by significant figures (such as, Norfolk and George Boleyn), and of what was discussed during said visits.

Here it ends:

"The Princess [...] is so armed with patience that she bears her troubles with wonderful constancy and resignation, placing all her confidence in God, the true protector of good, right, and justice, and likewise in Your Majesty, so much so that I doubt whether she would put on a better face in prosperity than she is putting on now in the midst of her troubles. May God grant that such magnanimity on her part do not over-irritate this accursed lady, and prompt her to make haste and carry her detestable thoughts into execution."

The impression Chapuys wants to make here must be that Mary is in danger, whether or not she is outwardly defiant or 'magnanimous'. If she's defiant, she will be punished, and if she's 'magnanimous', she will be baited into being the former.