As we celebrate everything to do with romance, let’s look at one of the most devoted of royal couples of the 17th Century, if possibly all time …
King Charles with his wife Henrietta Maria
(copy from an original by Sir Anthony van Dyck - 1632)
Far from a Fairy Tale Romance
King Charles I of England & Scotland wed French princess Henrietta Maria on 11th May 1625.
Charles’s father King James I initially envisaged a Spanish match for his son and heir. During the early 1600s Spain still held the position as one of the most powerful countries in Europe, whilst England was considered to be a backwater.
In 1623, Charles and his father’s favourite (and possible lover) George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, set off on a grand adventure across Europe – wearing false beards and calling each other Thomas and John Smith – to woo the Spanish Infanta Maria Anna. The trip turned into an embarrassing disaster. Charles failed to impress the Infanta as potential husband material, and the Spanish insisted on Charles converting to Catholicism before any marriage could take place, a state of affairs that Charles knew his future subjects in England would never condone.
Charles and Henrietta Maria first met when Charles stopped off in Paris whilst on his way to Spain, being entertained by the French Royal court. Henrietta Maria was the youngest child of Henri IV and his Italian wife Marie de ’Medici. But at this time, Charles only had thoughts of a Spanish bride, and Henrietta Maria was still little more than a child.
But when Charles returned home after the Spanish fiasco, a French marriage was vigorously pursued – knowing this would really annoy the Spanish as they were bitter rivals with France at the time.
Charles and Henrietta Maria were married by proxy in Paris in May 1625, Duke Claude of Chevreuse standing in for the English royal bridegroom. Henrietta Maria then travelled to her new home, spending the first night with her husband near Canterbury on 13th June 1625. The following morning Charles was noted to be in high spirits, whereas his 15-year-old wife appeared somewhat depressed. By this time, James I had died, and Charles taking his place as king.
An Unhappy Beginning
The royal marriage did not start well. The young queen had been raised as a Catholic and she took her religion very seriously. England was a proud Protestant nation, but their new queen refused to change her faith to that of her subjects, which led to her unpopularity from the very start of her marriage. She may have seen it as her holy mission to try and persuade her husband to convert to the Catholic faith and thus turn England back towards Rome in all matters spiritual. When King Charles was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 2nd February 1626, Henrietta Maria’s religion barred her from taking part in the Anglican ceremony, watching from a private closet instead.
There were domestic troubles as well. Henrietta Maria brought a large retinue of French servants with her when she arrived in England, costing the Royal Household a great deal of money to house and feed. These French attendants took important court appointments away from loyal English ladies and other nobles, who would have expected to take up these influential positions in the Queen’s Household. It was also believed that the queen’s French attendants encouraged her to spend extravagant sums of money on possessions, jewellery, and clothing. In June 1626, Charles dismissed his wife’s French servants. Most refused to leave and had to be physically removed, causing Henrietta Maria some distress. One account says she threatened to jump out the window if they weren't allowed to stay. In the end, she was only allowed to retain eight of her French entourage.
Right - Detail from 'George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham (1692 - 1628), with his family'-
Gerrit van Honhorst 1628
The Duke of Buckingham looking fabulous - as always
. Not long after this was painted, the duke was assassinated in Portsmouth.
Another issue was the ever-present Duke of Buckingham. When James I died, George Villiers easily exercised his easy-going sycophantic charm over the new king, becoming almost as beloved by Charles as he was by his father. King Charles just didn’t have time for his wife when the charismatic Buckingham was about. But the duke was assassinated by a Protestant fanatic in August 1628. Charles was left heartbroken, but Henrietta Maria offered him comfort in his grief, and from this time onwards a deeply loving and affectionate relationship developed between the couple. The queen fell pregnant for the first time in 1628, but after a very difficult labour, the child died shortly after in March 1629. However, just over a year later, Henrietta Maria performed her marital and royal duty by providing her husband and the kingdom with a male heir – Prince Charles (future Charles II). The royal couple would go on to produce seven more children over the next 14 years.
'The Greate Peece' -
family portrait of King Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, Charles, Prince of Wales and baby Princess Mary.
Sir Anthony van Dyck - 1632
Domestic Harmony
Charles dissolved his unruly Parliament in 1629, ruling without their support or interference for the next ten years. Charles and Henrietta Maria presided over a sophisticated and stylish royal court obsessed with the cult of ‘platonic love’, where wisdom, truth and respect for the opposite sex were valued above sexual desire. The queen never lost her free spending habits, and she was joined in this by her husband. Charles started an art collection which rivalled any in Europe at the time. The Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck was persuaded to work in England, painting exquisite portraits of the growing Royal Family, as well as other members of the Royal Court.
Lavish entertainments called ‘masques’ were frequently put on at the royal palaces. These might cost thousands of pounds for one night’s spectacle, and involved music, dance, and poetry, with extravagant costumes and ingenious moving sets. The themes for these masques were based on classical myths and glorified such romantic ideals as chivalry and chastity. The queen herself often performed in these masques, inciting the criticism of many puritanically minded social commentators, who saw such behaviour as immoral.
Left - court masque costume designed by Inigo Jones 1630s
Trouble and Strife
But this idyllic life could not last forever. In 1637, King Charles unwisely tried to force the Anglican Book of Common Prayer on his mainly Calvinist Scottish subjects, who reacted by organising a National Covenant to oppose the king’s religious bullying. The Scots banned bishops from their Kirk in 1638 and were soon raising troops to defend themselves if the king decided to reassert his royal authority by armed force.
But Charles had no money to raise and equip an army, so he had no choice but to recall Parliament in 1639 so they could vote him the funds to do so. But the members in the House of Commons had not forgotten the flippant way the king had treated them back in the late 1620s - what they saw as his abuse of royal power, and a betrayal of Parliament’s lawful rights and privileges. The MPs presented their Grand Remonstrance – or list of complaints - to Charles in December 1641. The king would not accept having policy dictated to him by his subjects, and neither side would make concessions to the other. In early January 1642, a plot was hatched by Charles – encouraged by his wife – to arrest the five members of Parliament who were perceived to be the main troublemakers. The scheme backfired, Charles being betrayed, possibly by one of the queen’s ladies in waiting. When Charles arrived at the Palace of Westminster with 400 armed men, he found ‘the birds had flown’.
Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle
by Sir Anthony van Dyck, 1637
The countess is believed by some to have forewarned Parliament about the king's plan to arrest several of its members
News of what was happening soon spread through the capital, and London fell into chaos. Ordinary citizens took up arms and barricades were erected in many of the streets. In fear for his life, Charles soon fled with Henrietta Maria and their children to the relative safety of Hampton Court Palace.
Henrietta Maria left England in February 1642 on the pretext of delivering her eldest daughter, Mary, to her husband in the Hague in the Netherlands. Little Princess Mary had been married to William, Prince of Orange, in May 1641, when she was not quite ten years old. The bridegroom was fourteen. As Mary was so young it was agreed for her to remain with her family in England for some time, whilst her husband returned to his home in the Low Countries.
It must have been a heart-breaking farewell for the royal family, Charles riding along the cliff on his horse, waving until he could no longer see the ship carrying his wife and daughter across the sea. It would be nearly eighteen months before husband and wife would see each other again, and the little princess never saw her father again.
The Civil War
Henrietta Maria took the crown jewels with her with the intention of pawning them and using the proceeds to buy weapons and armour for her husband’s cause.
Whilst the queen was in the Hague, the situation back in England went from bad to worse. King Charles finally raised his Royal Standard at Nottingham in August 1642, signalling his intention to fight a civil war to regain control of the country he had been appointed by God to rule over. The indecisive Battle of Edgehill followed in October, and a failed attempt to retake London by force the following month. Charles and his supporters retreated to the university town of Oxford, which the king would make his capital and seat of government during the years of warfare that followed.
The loving couple retained a regular correspondence during their separation, Henrietta Maria always trying to advise her husband on how to proceed. The queen had demonstrated a strong, stubborn will from a young age, and Charles often deferred to her judgement, not always wisely.
After securing the desired armaments, Henrietta Maria decided to return to England at the beginning of 1643. Her first attempt was a failure, her ship nearly capsizing in a storm, and being forced to return to port. The English queen left harbour again in February, and finally landed at Bridlington in Yorkshire, having withstood bombardment by the Parliamentarian fleet, and having to shelter in a ditch for safety.
The queen lingered in York for a while, where she met with leading Scottish Royalists. She was not so keen to enter into discussions with Parliamentarian leaders, looking to negotiate a peace treaty with the king though her mediation. Henrietta Maria strongly advocated for the complete annihilation of her husband’s enemies – and nothing less.
Henrietta Maria began her journey south to join her beloved husband at the beginning of the summer. She seems to have greatly enjoyed herself, playing the soldier, riding at the head of the men she brought to fight for the king, and terming herself the ‘she-majesty generalissima’. Whatever her other faults, no one could ever doubt the little Queen of England lacked courage.
Charles and Henrietta Maria were reunited in July at Kineton in Warwickshire, not far from the field where the Battle of Edgehill had been fought. They then preceded to Oxford, where the king and queen tried to recreate their glamorous court amongst the spires and colleges. Henrietta Maria conceived her last child there, but with Parliamentarian forces moving in around Oxford, it was thought safer for her and her unborn child if she transferred to the city of Bath in the West Country, then under Royalist control. Charles accompanied his wife as far as Abingdon, where they parted - they didn’t know it at the time - for the final time.
Henrietta Maria moved on from Bath to Exeter, where she gave birth to her youngest daughter, Henrietta Anne. Getting wind of a Parliamentarian plan to besiege the city and take the queen hostage, and thereafter forcing the king to surrender, Henrietta Maria managed to escape to her family in France, leaving her newborn baby in England.
French Exile
Henrietta Maria was supported by her sister-in-law and French queen mother, Anne of Austria. Henrietta Maria settled at the Chateau-Neuf de Saint-Germaine-en-Laye near Paris, where she presided over a court of quarrelsome English Royalist exiles.
Little Princess Henrietta Anne joined her mother in exile in France – along with her governess – in June 1646 and was followed by her eldest brother Charles a month later.
Back in England, the Royalist cause was not going well, and when the Parliamentarians remodelled their army in 1645 into the first professional fighting force in England’s history, the war was all but over, although King Charles struggled on for a while longer. But, in May 1646, finally admitting defeat, Charles handed himself over to the Scottish army, who sold the king back to the politicians in London.
Charles and Henrietta Maria still managed to correspond during the late 1640s, Henrietta always desperate for her husband to do as she advised.
Charles was held under house arrest by Parliament, but managed to escape to the Isle of Wight in November 1647, believing the governor there to be loyal. However, Charles found himself held prisoner at Carisbrook Castle.
Royalist uprisings broke out in several places in England during May 1648, sparking the brief Second Civil War, but any unrest was quickly quashed by Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army. By now, many English men viewed King Charles as untrustworthy, aiming to play the different factions amongst the Parliamentarians off against each other. After Pride’s Purge in December 1648, where any members of Parliament suspected of wishing to continue negotiating with Charles for peace, were physically ejected from the House of Commons, the remaining MPs – the so called Rump Parliament – quickly indicted the king for treason.
Charles, King of England, was put on trial by his subjects and found guilty in late January 1649. The king was sentenced to death and executed by beheading on 30th January.
King Charles looking composed during his trial in January 1649 - by Edward Bower
Unhappy Widowhood
When Henrietta Maria heard about her husband’s death she went into shock. Over the next ten years she concentrated on her religious faith, and the upbringing of her daughter. Henrietta Anne was the queen’s one consolation during these dark times. As the little girl grew up, she demonstrated a lively personality, and her mother made sure she was raised as a Catholic, unlike any of her other siblings. The two were inseparable and lived in genteel poverty in Paris, often short of money.
When Henrietta Maria’s eldest son Charles was restored to the English throne in 1660, she returned briefly with Henrietta Anne to live in England. She took up residence once again at Somerset House. Whilst most of England rejoiced at the return of their rightful king, few were pleased to see the Queen Mother again.
Henrietta Maria in widowhood
The two Henrietta’s returned to France in 1661, so the younger woman could marry Louis XIV’s younger brother Philip, Duc d’Orleans. In 1662, Henrietta Maria decided to make her home back in her son’s kingdom, but had trouble with bronchitis, which she blamed on the damp English weather. She returned back to Paris in 1665, where she died four years later of an overdose of opiate painkillers.
Final Thoughts
Although their marriage was often plagued by tragedy and the couple spent many years apart, it is obvious that Charles and Henrietta Maria were devoted to each other, supporting each other through the many misfortunes which befell them.
It’s interesting to note that King Charles I of England is one of the few European monarchs for which no royal bastards have been assigned, although he may have had a brief fling with Royalist agent Jane Whorewood in the summer of 1648, during his confinement at Carisbrook Castle. Whether or not Charles did indulge in extramarital affairs, he obviously held a deep respect for his wife and was utterly discreet in their conduct.
Henrietta Maria remained faithful to her husband even in death, proclaiming herself to be a widow of a martyr.
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