1633
Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson by Anthony van Dyck.
Portrait of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of England by Anthonie van Dyck.
Charles I and Henrietta Maria, with their two eldest children, Prince Charles, and Princess Mary by Anthony van Dyck.
Queen Henrietta-Maria of France.
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Henrietta-Including-Private-Correspondence-ebook/dp/B07DDBDBHC/?tag=2022091-20
Henrietta Maria was born on 25 November 1609 in Paris, France. She was the daughter of King Henry IV of France and Marie de Médicis. Throughout her childhood, she was surrounded by political intrigue. The day after her mother’s coronation, her father was assassinated in the street, and her brother became King Louis XIII of France. When Henrietta Maria was seven years old her mother was banished from Paris.
Henrietta Maria was handed over to the care of Madame de Montglat, gouvernante of the royal children. She learned to dance at an early age and was said to have had a good singing voice. She was taught to ride and learned all about the court protocol and etiquette.
Even before hostilities opened between King Charles I and the "Long Parliament" in 1642, Henrietta Maria used her contacts on the Continent to procure money, arms, and troops. In February the queen left for Holland to purchase arms and supplies, returning to England the next year. When Henrietta Maria landed at Bridlington on 22 February 1643, she was discovered by a parliamentary squadron the next morning, and her ships and lodgings were shelled. The queen herself was forced to take refuge in a ditch. The enemy failed to capture her or the stores she had brought in. In April Henrietta Maria set out with "my regiment of infantry and cavalry". Together with General Goring, she urged taking Leeds by storm but was overruled. Henrietta Maria also proposed sending 3,000 troops to Lancashire "to clear out that country, which I hope will be done in ten or twelve days".
The queen wrote the king from Newark on 27 June that "1 carry with me three thousand foot, thirty companies of horse and dragoons, six pieces of cannon, and two mortars," describing herself as "her she majesty generalissimo, and extremely diligent, with 150 wagons to govern, in case of battle." On 14 July 1643, she entered Oxford with Charles. As the military situation deteriorated, Henrietta Maria was forced to flee to France in July 1644, where she died twenty-five years later.
Henrietta Maria was not a battlefield figure, but she was militant in the attempt to retain her throne and was at least in part responsible for the organization of royalist military efforts.
She kept up an intimate correspondence with King Charles in England, doing her best to persuade him to be more flexible in negotiations after his military defeat in 1645, and tirelessly engaging in schemes and intrigues to gain foreign help for the Royalist cause.
Henrietta was a staunch Catholic, who openly practiced her faith. In England, the fear and distrust of Catholics had not lessened, and there were fears she would convert Charles. The marriage itself had been allowed only with a special dispensation from the Pope, and Henrietta’s religion caused friction from the start - she would not have a coronation as her Catholicism barred her from taking part in the Anglican service.
Because of Henrietta's religious beliefs, the new queen was not fully welcomed in the English court. Charles simply called her Maria, whereas other people referred to her with the title of 'Queen Mary', recalling the famous and criticized Catholic queen, Mary Stuart.
In July 1626, she prayed for the executed Catholics at Tyburn, causing a profound controversy.
Henrietta Maria had brought a large number of Catholic assistants with her from France.
On 26 June 1626, Charles sent the group of Catholics back to the French court. Some people, including the bishop of Mende, refused to abandon their lady, however, and the king resorted to having his guards expel them. Seeing Henrietta observing the expulsion, Charles dragged her away from the window with force.
Henrietta Maria spent almost a year in The Hague, raising loans, buying weapons and recruiting troops for the Royalist cause. By selling or pawning jewels, she raised a large fortune which financed several convoys of weapons and ammunition and a company of veteran professional soldiers to fight for the King.
Quotations:
"If the wind is favorable, I shall set off tomorrow... I am hazarding my life, that I may incommode your affairs... If I die, believe that you will lose a person who has never been other than entirely yours, and who by her affection has deserved that you should not forget her."
"Did you know that last night at dinner I was obliged to eat all five courses from the same plate? I've never heard of anything so disgusting."
"All day we unloaded our ammunition... The cannonballs whistled over me, and as you can imagine I did not like the music... I went on foot some distance from the village and got shelter in a ditch. But before I could reach it the balls sang merrily over our heads and a sergeant was killed twenty paces from me. Under this shelter we remained two hours, the bullets flying over us, and sometimes covering us with earth... by land and sea I have been in some danger, but God has preserved me."
Henrietta Maria was a great patron of the arts, with a keen eye for art collecting, and she and Charles amassed a great collection. She also enjoyed masques, taking part in many herself, as well as music and garden design.
Her palaces were the subject of extensive renovations, more so even than the King's, and she funded lavish redecorations of rooms, with Persian carpets, Mortlake tapestries, wrap-around silk bed curtains and inlaid cabinets, the floors strewn with fresh flowers. Her accounts show that she made payments to Inigo Jones, who designed her "House of Delight" at Greenwich. Notably, too, she retained the services of French garden designers, including Isaac de Caus, André Mollet, and André le Nôtre. She even ordered flowers and fruit trees from France.
Henrietta's lavish wardrobe seems to have been funded entirely through her own revenue. The ravishing silks, delicate ribbons and luminous jewels in her portraits reveal a woman of huge wealth as well as style. She maintained a French tailor, embroiderer, and perfumer, as well as a veritable army of artisans and suppliers to ensure she was the best-dressed woman at court. Her style was widely emulated, as evidenced by the many portraits of Stuart ladies whose coiffures and clothes pay homage to their French queen.
Physical Characteristics: Henrietta Maria was a short woman perched on her chair, with long bony arms, irregular shoulders and teeth protruding from her mouth like a fence. She had beautiful eyes, a well-shaped nose, and an admirable complexion.
Quotes from others about the person
"I had not been there above an hour but the Queen and Madam hath seldom put on a more cheerful countenance than that night. There were some that told me I might guess at the cause of it. My Lord, I protest to God, she is a lovely, sweet, young creature. Her growth is not great yet, but her shape is perfect, and they all swear that her sister the Princess of Piedmont (who is now grown a tall and goodly lady) was not taller than she at her age." - the first report to England on Henrietta Maria
In 1623, the Prince of Wales, future King of England Charles I, went to Spain with the Duke of Buckingham to ask for the hand of Mary Ann, Philip IV’s sister. During his trip, Charles stopped in Paris and met Henrietta Maria for the first time during a court reception. In Spain, things did not go according to Charles’ plans, since Philip IV required the Prince of Wales to convert to Catholicism and live for a year in Spain after the wedding.
Charles brought a precious trunk from England as a marriage offer, which included diamonds, pearls, rings, satin and velvet dresses, embroidered cloaks, skirts, and velvet hats.
Henrietta Maria married Charles by proxy in Paris on 11 May 1625, shortly after her accession to the throne. The official marriage was celebrated in the church of Saint Augustine in Canterbury on 13 June that same year.
The marriage between Charles and Henrietta did not start well, with Henrietta resentful of her husband’s close relationship with Villiers. It was only after the Duke was assassinated in 1628 that Charles turned to his wife and the two became closer.
After a rocky start, Charles and Henrietta Maria of France settled into the kind of complacent domesticity to which political matchmaking aspired, and from this came nine children. Two of those sons - Charles II and James II - would end up kings. A daughter, Mary, would become the mother of another - William III. And another daughter, Henrietta Anne, would marry into the French Royal Family and end up a dazzling fixture at Versailles. Charles and Catherine – would tragically die the same day they were born. Another, Anne, lived only until the age of three and was buried at Richmond Palace before the civil war broke out. And a final two - Elizabeth and Henry - would not end up as famous as their siblings.
King Henry IV, although a popular King of France, was assassinated in Paris by a fanatic Catholic before the infant Henrietta Maria was only six months.
Marie de' Medici was Queen of France as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici.
Louis XIII was King of France from 1610 to 1643 and King of Navarre from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. Shortly before his ninth birthday, Louis became king of France and Navarre after his father Henry IV was assassinated.
Gaston, Duke of Orléans, was the third son of King Henry IV of France and his wife Marie de' Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a Fils de France. He later acquired the title Duke of Orléans, by which he was generally known during his adulthood.
The Duke of Orléans was the second son and fourth child of Henry IV of France and his Italian queen Marie de' Medici.
César de Bourbon, Légitimé de France was the illegitimate son of Henry IV of France and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées and founder of the House of Bourbon-Vendome.
Christine of France was the sister of Henrietta Maria and the Duchess of Savoy by marriage. At the death of her husband Victor Amadeus I in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy between 1637 and 1648.
Elisabeth of France was Queen consort of Spain and Portugal as the first spouse of King Philip IV of Spain. She served as regent of Spain during the Catalan Revolt in 1640-42 and 1643-44. She was the eldest daughter of King Henry IV of France and his second spouse Marie de' Medici.
Charles II was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, and the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death.
James II and was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland, his reign is now remembered primarily for struggles over religious tolerance.
Henrietta of England was the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. Fleeing England with her governess at the age of three, she moved to the court of her first cousin Louis XIV of France, where she was known as Minette.
Mary, Princess Royal was Countess of Nassau by marriage to Prince William II, and co-regent for her son during his minority as Sovereign Prince of Orange from 1651 to 1660. She was the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France.
Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester was the youngest son of Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France.
Elizabeth Stuart was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. Due to her husband’s reign in Bohemia lasting for just one winter, Elizabeth is often referred to as the "Winter Queen".
Anne Stuart was the daughter of King Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. She was one of the couple's three children to die in childhood.
Catherine died less was stillborn.
Charles James, Duke of Cornwall was stillborn.
