French-born wife of Charles I of England, mother of Charles II, champion of Roman Catholicism in England, patron of the theater, founder of a convent in France
Henrietta Maria de Bourbon, born 25 November 1609, was the youngest child of Henri IV of France and Marie de Medicis. Her brother was crowned Louis XIII of France upon their father’s death in 1610. Henrietta
Henrietta Maria de Bourbon, wife of Charles I of England and mother of Charles II; champion of Roman Catholicism. Painting by Anthony van Dyck. (Alinari Archives/ Corbis)
Maria married Charles I of England in 1625. During Charles’s reign, she served as patron for English Roman Catholics, sponsored and performed in masques and ballets at court, and maintained correspondence with politicians and religious officials throughout Europe, including the pope and the royal family of France.
The English Civil War began in 1642; in 1643, Henrietta Maria rallied support for the Royalist cause in northern England. By 1644, civil unrest caused Henrietta Maria to move to France with her unmarried children; she raised money, troops, and arms for her husband’s cause from leaders throughout Europe. Charles was beheaded in 1649, and Henrietta Maria remained in France until the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. During her lifetime, Henrietta Maria founded the Convent of the Visitation in Chaillot, France; she lived there from 1665 until her death on 10 September 1669.
Henrietta Maria bore ten children, six of whom survived infancy. Her first surviving son, Charles II, born 1630, was crowned king of England in 1660 at the restoration of the English monarchy; her second son, James II, born 1633, ruled from 1685 to 1688.
Karen Nelson
See also Convents; Religious Reform and Women;Theater and Women Actors, Playwrights, and Patrons.
Bibliography
Primary Work
Green, Mary Anne Everett, ed. Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria, including Her Private Correspondence with Charles the First. History ofWomen Microfilm Series. New Haven, CT: Research Publications, 1975. (Originally published in 1857.)
Secondary Work
Plowden, Alison. Henrietta Maria: Charles I’s Indomitable Queen. Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton, 2001.
World History
