Henrietta Maria, Queen of the Cavaliers

[palatine]

I can't agree that its a lofty statement; Mary was a terrible snob.  Her parents had planned to marry her into the royal family of Spain, but hastily married her to the son of the Stadholder instead, in the belief that the Stadholder would send the Dutch army to help Charles if war broke out.  The Stadholder could not help Charles with troops, and this was only realized after Henrietta visited Holland in 1642.   Mary, who grew up expecting to become a Queen, and who believed that the Stadholder could and should help her father, took out her anger and disappointment on her new family.

The Stadholder had been fighting a war with Spain for Dutch independence for many years, and was a real hero, yet Mary kept him standing and hatless in her presence, though he was ill.   Mary also asserted herself over her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, and was regularly rude to them, with Henrietta's full approval.  

There is no express evidence, besides Liselotte's tale, for the fact that Sophia and her sisters disliked Mary and vice-versa.  However, its telling that Sophia did not call on Mary, and said what she did to Liselotte about revenging them on her.  Liselotte had an excellent memory, and I can't imagine why she would have made this up.  

[bell_the_cat]

Interestingly, Holland was the richest country in Europe in these years. Even the average bourgeois had access to the latest mod cons, and Holland was at the forefront of what would now be called "Research and Development".

I've long had Simon Schama's "Embarassment of Riches" on my to read list. It's about Holland in the seventeenth century. Maybe I'll get it for Christmas.

I don't think Mary, (or her mother-in-law Amelia?) had much real power - not like a monarch anyway. However they had lots of spending money! It would have been difficult for the "guests" not to have felt envious.

[palatine]

From 1647-50, Mary had a limited political power, which she used to encourage her husband to follow a pro-Stuart, pro-France policy.  Mary's husband and her in-laws had great power with the States-General, the national assembly of Holland.  They didn't control it per se, but they had a lot of influence.

She was financially well off after her husband died, unlike the rest of the Stuarts.  Unfortunately, the House of Orange fell from power with his death.  Thanks to Mary's alienation from her mother-in-law, the supporters of the House of Orange were divided between them; an anti-Orange faction in the States-General took advantage of the confusion and enacted laws that would prevent Mary's son from ever holding any power.   In time, Mary's brothers were banned from coming to Holland as well.  

Mary schemed to get her son appointed as Stadholder, but continued to fight with her in-laws; they did not present a united front.  Mary believed that she should depend on help from the French or from Charles II, if he was ever restored to power, to get her son named as Stadholder.  Probably because of Henrietta Maria, Mary appealed to Louis XIV for help.  Her visit to France to visit her mother was largely a business trip on her son's behalf.  It ended in disaster for Mary when Louis XIV seized her son's territory in France, the province of Orange.

(edited by author due to concerns over copyright)

[Prince_Lieven]

I can't agree that its a lofty statement; Mary was a terrible snob.  Her parents had planned to marry her into the royal family of Spain, but hastily married her to the son of the Stadholder of the United Provinces instead, in the misguided belief that the Stadholder would send the Dutch army to help Charles if war broke out in England.  The Stadholder, who was the elected Captain-General of the Dutch army, could not help Charles with troops, and this was only realized after Henrietta visited Holland in 1642.   Mary, who had grown up expecting to become a Queen, took out her anger and disappointment on her new family.

The Stadholder had been fighting a war with Spain for Dutch independence for many years, and was a real hero, yet Mary kept him standing and hatless in her presence, though he was ill.   Mary also asserted herself over other members of the Stadholder's court, including his wife, who was a very intelligent woman and an able politician.  In 1646, Mary infuriated her in-laws by boycotting the wedding of her sister-in-law.  Mary wanted to take precedence of the bride due to the fact that she was a Royal Stuart, although by her marriage, the bride outranked Mary.  And so forth.

There is no express evidence, besides Liselotte's tale, for the fact that Sophia and her sisters disliked Mary and vice-versa.  However, its telling that Sophia did not call on Mary, and said what she did to Liselotte about revenging them on that haughty princess.  Liselotte had an excellent memory, and I can't imagine why she would have made this up.

There is negative evidence, based on the letters of Mary, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and Sophia, which makes it clear that Mary and her cousins did not exchange letters, and that, while they lived at The Hague, Mary did not invite her cousins to visit her at her country houses or to join her when she visited Charles II.  During the Interregnum, the Winter Queen and Louise were in dire financial straits, but Mary did not come to their financial rescue, though it was within her power to do so.  

All of this is just my opinion and feel free to disagree.

Maybe she simply didn't like them? It can happen, you know.  

[palatine]

It's unlikely that Mary and her cousins had many common interests.  

[Prince_Lieven]

Anywho, we should probably take this over to Charles I's Children . . .

[bell_the_cat]

though I have learnt a lot about the Stuarts in the 1650s! Thanks Palatine!

[Prince_Lieven]

though I have learnt a lot about the Stuarts in the 1650s! Thanks Palatine!

Ditto!  

[palatine]

I'm glad you liked it.     Its a shame that more hasn't been written about the lives of the Stuarts during the Interregnum.  

[palatine]

Henrietta Maria was put under attainder for treason by Parliament during the Civil War, which made it impossible for her to return to England without a safe-conduct.  She sent a letter to Parliament when she learned that Charles was going to be put on trial, begging them to let her return and be with her husband.  Parliament not only ignored her letter, they didn’t bother to open it.  It was discovered thirty-seven years later, still sealed.

The French ambassador to London did nothing to try to save Charles, possibly through lack of instructions due to the Fronde, which was in full swing.  Louis XIV, Anne of Austria and Mazarin were forced to flee from Paris just before Charles's trial started.  They were naturally more concerned with their own predicament than in Charles's problems.

Henrietta Maria remained at the Louvre with her courtiers, waiting for news.  Thanks to the disturbance in the streets, all kinds of rumors came to her.  She finally sent a messenger to Anne of Austria asking what she'd heard from the French ambassador to London.  Henrietta Maria was clinging to a rumor that Charles had been rescued at the last minute from the scaffold.  After she was told the truth, she sat speechless for hours until the arrival of another of her sisters-in-law, the Duchess of Vendome, who managed to get through to her and comfort her.

[Prince_Lieven]

How terribly sad . . . before his death Charles had told his children Henry and Elizabeth to tell their mother that his 'thoughts had never strayed from her'. Of course Elizabeth never saw her again.  

[palatine]

When Charles met with his children on the day before his execution, Elizabeth wept so much that Charles gently reproached her: "Sweetheart, you will forget all this."  He wanted Elizabeth to remember and pass on his farewell messages and last instructions to the rest of the family when she able to do so.  Elizabeth promised not to forget and to write everything he said down as soon as she could, and did so.  

It's my understanding that Henry brought Elizabeth's narrative to Henrietta Maria when Cromwell let him go.  She was certainly aware that she was in his thoughts to the end.  

For all his faults as a ruler, Charles was an excellent husband, and Henrietta absolutely adored him.  After a rocky beginning, their marriage turned out to be one of the happiest arranged marriages in history.

[elena_maria_vidal]

It must have killed Henrietta Maria not to be with her husband as he approached death. Her dilemma was one of the reasons Marie-Antoinette would not leave Louis XVI, and when they begged her to flee, she replied, "I am not Henrietta of France."

[palatine]

I think that the fact that she was put under attainder was one of the main reasons why Henrietta went into exile.  A short time before she decided to flee, the Earl of Essex threatened to capture her and bring her to London for trial.  She knew that if she fell into Parliament's hands, she'd be executed.   She didn't realize that Charles was coming to her rescue.  He arrived in Exeter a short time after she'd left. 

At the time that Henrietta fled, Parliament had not put Charles under attainder.  Parliament still claimed that they fought for "King and Parliament" and said that they merely wanted to separate Charles from all of his bad advisors.  

Parliament justified its decision to put Henrietta under attainder by arguing that since she'd never been crowned, she was not the queen.  

[Prince_Lieven]

Would parliament really have risked French wrath by executing Henrietta?   I mean, if her own sister-in-law was executed, surely Anne of Austria would have to make more than a token protest!