Henrietta Maria de Bourbon de France

Marie-Henriette was the illigitimate daughter of Henry IV, King of France and his mistress, Charlotte des Essarts, Countess of Romorantin, who was legitimized by her father. She probably entered the Abbey of Notre-Dames-des-Chelles to be educated, just like her older sister, Jeanne and was later known as Sister Saint Placide de Bourbon. For many years almost all the abbesses were the widows, daughters or sisters of emperors and kings and Marie-Henriette was appointed by the King in 1627. She died two years later. The abbey stood in the Val-de-Marne near Paris (in modern Meaux) until it fell victim to the disestablishment of the Catholic Church in 1792 during the French Revolution and was dismantled. Henrietta Maria (Henriette Marie in French) was the youngest daughter of the magnificent, dominating Henry IV of France and his second wife, Maria de Medici, and named after her parents. Throughout her childhood she was surrounded by political intrigue; her father was assassinated six months after her birth, and when she was seven her mother was banished from Paris. In 1625, at the age of 15, Henrietta Maria married 24-year old King Charles I following negotiations between the English and French crowns. The couple were married by proxy on 11th May 1625 at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, followed by feasting and fireworks. However, the bride did not set foot in England until 12 June; she finally met her new husband the following day at Dover Castle before proceeding to Canterbury. Despite the tradition that the couple were then married in an Anglican service at St Augustine's Church, no particulars of the event have been preserved. The marriage did not get off to a good start. Henrietta Marie arrived with a French Catholic entourage of some 400 people but some 12 months later Charles had sent all but one lady and two priests back to France, much to Henrietta Maria's chagrin. Plus she had to endure the insolence with which she was treated by Charles’s favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, which severely strained her relationship with the King. However, after the assassination of Buckingham in August 1628, the unexpected happened: Charles fell passionately in love with his wife. He remained absolutely faithful to her and she was equally devoted. Only when it came to religion was it a disparate match: Charles was a committed Protestant whereas Henrietta Maria was brought up a pious Catholic and never abandoned her religion. Thus Charles was crowned on 2 February 1626 at Westminster Abbey, but without his wife at his side, because her rigid Catholicism would not allow her to swear the necessary Anglican oath required in the ceremony. Their first child, Charles James was born and died in May 1629. Almost a year later, Henrietta Maria gave birth to another son, also named Charles. He was followed by Mary, The Princess Royal in 1631, James Duke of York in 1633, Elizabeth in 1635, Anne in 1637, Catherine who died at birth in 1639, Henry Duke of Gloucester in 1640, and Henriette-Anne in 1644. During the early years of her marriage, Henrietta Maria showed no interest in the political machinations of government but as the Civil War approached, she began to meddle in politics. She sought without success to instigate a military coup to overthrow the Parliamentarians, and her efforts to enlist support for her husband from the Pope, the French, and the Dutch infuriated many English. When war broke out in August 1642, she was in the Netherlands desperately trying to raise funds for her husband. She landed at Bridlington, Yorkshire, in February 1643 and set about reinvigorating the Royalist cause in northern England. But the deterioration of the Royalist position caused her to flee back to France on 14 July 1644 and she never again saw her husband, Charles who was convicted of treason and executed on 30 January 1649, nor her daughter, Elizabeth who died a prisoner of Parliament in Carisbrooke Castle. In Paris Henrietta Maria took up residence in the old palace of Saint-Germain, near but not too near Paris, and at some distance from the French court, which was established at the Palais Royal and one of its country retreats at Fontainebleau. By 1949 both her sons, Charles, James and her baby daughter, Henrietta-Anne had escaped England and joined their mother but it wasn't until 1652, when Oliver Cromwell finally agreed to release Henry, that he was able to join his mother. Losing her husband was without a doubt Henrietta Maria's greatest source of grief and this led to her developing an inordinate possessiveness towards her children. But the boys would cut the apron strings: James and Harry went off to fight for Spain and Charles went off to fight for his royalist cause. After the Restoration, Henrietta Maria and daughter Henriette-Anne returned to England and took up residence at Somerset House. In 1661, she returned to France to arrange for Henrietta-Anne to marry her first cousin Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the only brother of Louis XIV. Henrietta Maria was back in England in 1662, however by 1665 she was suffering badly from bronchitis which she blamed on the damp British weather. But it was probably The Plague then ravishing London that caused her return to France the same year and she died on 10 September 1669 at the Chateau du Colombes due to an overdose opiates taken for pain on the advice of Louis XIV's doctor.