The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-01

Judging her, therefore, even out OF the
mouth Of her enemies, he arrives at the
conclusion that the evidence against her
indicates errors OF the understanding
rather than Of the will; rashnees, unwisdom
and prejudice, rather than any more serious
moral delinquencies.
Henrietta Maria. the youngest child OF
Henri w., by Marie de Mediois, niece OF
the Grand Duke of Tuscany, was born at
the Louvre on November rs, 1909. We
first hear Of her as assisting, borne in the
arms of the young Prinoesee de Condo,
at the coronation Of her brother, Louis
XIII, in the autumn succeeding her fathers
murder. Marie de Medicis-the fat
banker as she was called by her insolent
rival, her husbands mistress, Nine. de
Verneuil-was a devoted mother and ac-
customed to bestow her personal super
vision upon the training of her children.
Henrietta, however, was ~aaspoiled child,
and her lessons must have been constantly
subject to interruption. If, in the purity
of her after life, Henrietta presented a
singular contrast TO the standard Of morals
prevailing at the French court, the effect
Vi LILO IulCld6O VI NO SNNN "NAi
nevertheless, markedly apparent. Unlike
her mother in much, the two were united
by a bono of love unaffected by time or
separation; and to it may be traced many
Of the articles of those oreeds, political
and religious, which contributed 90 ma
terially to wreck the cause Of monarchy in
England, her adopted country.
Until the question Of her marriage brought
Hank;atto into proninanca n ia loft phieAv
to the imagination to form a conception
Of the child destined to play an important
part in English history. There was a
unanimity Of opinion at the French court
as to the desirability OF cementing an alli-
ance with England by means of a marriage
between the youngest daughter Of Henri Nv.
and the heir to the British throne. An
abortive attempt to that end was made
by the DUO de Luynes in 1920, but 1t was
not until after the failure Of the projected
marriage between Charles and a Spanish
Infanta thai the plan was carried out. 1t
appears tina ever at the age of II the brain
Of the young Princess was occupied with
speculations as to her probable future.
One of her first recorded sayings shows
that she was not without notions Of her
W on the subject of the marriage rela-
ton. "A wife" Henrietta is reported to
have declared when it was suggested that
religion might prove an obstacle to her
marriage with a Protestant Prince-"a
wife ought to have no will but that of her
husband The sentiment was singularly
out OF harmony with the principles that
governed her conduct In after life. In
February, 1923, Cha rles Stuart, being in
Paris incognito. saw her dance in a ballet
performed at court. 1t is alleged in an
early memoir hat the Prince then took
In by the eyes that love which he preserved
inviolate for her till his DEATH Charles
himself at a later day, when he was ad-
dressing Henrietta as his b%etrothed, rested
the tribute he offered to her personal at
fractions not only upon reports transmitted
TO him by others, but upon the witness
Of his own eyes. The present biogra-
pher regards both statements in the light
of polite fiction. The fourteen-year-old
charms of Henrietta must have been eclipsed
nv the more mature and da Zzling beauty
Of the young Queen, Anne Of Austria, and
IL proof we're wanting it is to be found in the
letter written by Charles to his father on the
following day, when, mentioning his pres
ence at the ballet, he added that Of all
the ladies taking part in it, the Queen was
the fairest, and that the sight Of Anne
had a~uickened his desire to see her sister
the ~Infanta. Unless, however, the portrait
of her by Van Dyck, which is preserved
at Dresden, is much fattered, Henrietta
at the time Of her marriage must have
been an exceedingly pretty girl. 1t was
on May IL, 1925, that Henrietta, then not
10 years old, was married in Paris by proxy
to Charles Stuart, who a little earlier had
assembled the English throne. She did not
reach England until toward the end Of
June. The young married pair did not get
on we'll at first. The bride, as we have
said, had been a spoiled child, and, being
a stranger in a foreign land, was not in
excusably disposed to cling with unwise
tenacity to all that savored Of the life she
had left behind her; while Charles, a two
months king, entertained pronounced no.
lions OF a husbands authority and was
young enough not to make due allowance
for the petulant wilfulness Of the lonely
child committed to his care. In matters
of religion he had already given unmis-
taxable proofs of the strength Of the preju-
dice entertained by him, as a Protestant,
against his wife's faith. His frame of
mind was by no means such as to incline
him to look with a favorable eye upon
the train OF bishops, priests and lay Catho-
lies, masculine and feminine, by whom