page_title: Henrietta Maria
section_title: Henrietta Maria under the Restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Henrietta Maria / Henrietta Maria under the Restoration
context_page_description: Henrietta Maria was queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the wife of Charles I. She was mother of his two immediate successors, Charles II and James II and VII. Contemporaneously, by a decree of her husband, she was known in England as Queen Mary, but did not like this name and signed her letters "Henriette R".
  Queen Henrietta Maria's Roman Catholicism made her unpopular in England, and also prohibited her from being crowned in a Church of England service; therefore she never had a coronation. She began to immerse herself in national affairs as civil war loomed on the horizon, and was compelled to seek refuge in France in 1644, following the birth of her youngest daughter, Henrietta, during the height of the First English Civil War. The execution of Charles I in 1649 left her impoverished. She settled in Paris, and then returned to England after the Restoration of Charles II to the throne. In 1665, she moved back to Paris, where she died four years later.
  The North American Province of Maryland, a major haven for Roman Catholic settlers, was named in her honour. The name was carried over into the current U.S. state of Maryland.
context_section_description: Henrietta Maria returned to England following the Restoration in October 1660 along with her daughter Henrietta. Henrietta Maria's return was partially prompted by a liaison between the Earl of Clarendon's daughter Anne and Henrietta Maria's son, the Duke of York – Anne was pregnant, and the Duke had proposed marrying her. Henrietta Maria still disliked Clarendon, and did not want Anne as a daughter-in-law, but Charles II agreed and despite her efforts the wedding went ahead. Henrietta Maria did not return to much public acclaim – Samuel Pepys counted only three small bonfires lit in her honour, and described her a "very little plain old woman [then aged 50], and nothing more in her presence in any respect nor garb than any ordinary woman". She took up residence once more at Somerset House, supported by a generous pension.
  The restoration year 1660 was also one of many private griefs for Henrietta. Her return had been partially prompted by concern for the welfare of her second son James, who had been in a liaison with Lady Anne Hyde, the daughter of the Earl of Clarendon – Anne had revealed that she was pregnant, and the prince had made known his desire to marry her. Henrietta, who was in the Hague at that time, was horrified; she still disliked Clarendon, and she had no reason to think well of the pregnant Anne, and she certainly did not want the courtier's daughter to marry her son. However, Charles II agreed to his brother's wishes, and despite Henrietta's efforts, a heavily pregnant Anne was married to James in a private ceremony held just after midnight on 3 September 1660. Their child was born only weeks later, in October, but died seven months after birth. Also in September, Henrietta's third son, Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, died of smallpox in London aged 20. He had accompanied his brother King Charles II to England in May and had participated in the King's triumphal progress through London. More death was to follow: on Christmas Eve, Henrietta's elder daughter Mary also died of smallpox in London, leaving behind a 10-year-old son, the future William III of England.
  In 1661, Henrietta Marie returned to France and arranged for her youngest daughter, Henrietta to marry her first cousin Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the only brother of Louis XIV. This significantly helped English relations with the French.
  After her daughter's wedding, Henrietta Maria returned to England in 1662 accompanied by her son Charles II and her nephew Prince Rupert. She had intended to remain in England for the rest of her life, but by 1665 was suffering badly from bronchitis, which she blamed on the damp British weather. Henrietta Maria travelled back to France the same year, taking residence at the Hôtel de la Bazinière, the present Hôtel de Chimay in Paris. In August 1669, she saw the birth of her granddaughter Anne Marie d'Orléans; Anne Marie was the maternal grandmother of Louis XV making Henrietta Maria an ancestor of most of today's royal families. Shortly afterwards, she died at the château de Colombes, near Paris, having taken an excessive quantity of opiates as a painkiller on the advice of Louis XIV's doctor, Antoine Vallot. She was buried in the French royal necropolis at the Basilica of St Denis, with her heart being placed in a silver casket and buried at her convent in Chaillot.
caption: Henrietta Maria painted by Sir Peter Lely after the restoration of her son Charles II to the throne.
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