The Republican., 1932-11-24

with fitting ceremonies the three
hundredth anniversary of the signing
of the provincial charter, attention
naturally turns to the States god
mother, the queen for whom the colo
ny was named. Though the name
Henrietta Maria probably is not
familiar to many persons today, when
the charter was signed in 1852 she
was Queen of England, sharing in the
unhappy reign of Charles I. 1t was
his affection for her which caused the
King to write the name, Terra
Mariae, in the charter he signed for
George Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
Calvert had wanted to call his
colony Crescentia, meaning land of
growth or increase, but in order to
please Charles he left blank the space
for the name when he took his charter
to the King for his signature. The
charter was approved, but when the
matter of name was brought up,
Calvert apparently approached his
own choice cautiously with the re-
mark that he was sorry the new land
could not be named after his High
ness, since Charles name already had
been perpetuated by the colony of
Carolina.
Then the King had an idea which
doomed Crescentia. Why not name
the province in honor of his Queen?
Mariana was suggested, but writer
by that name had once penned a tract
against monarshy so that suggestion
was discarded. Finally the King de-
cided upon Maryland, writing the
Latin form of the name into the char
ter. Thus the State was granted to
an Irish lord by Scott who was King
of England, and the tract was named
in honor of a French Princess who
was the namesake of her Italian
mother.
Henrietta, history has revealed,
was a much better woman than a
queen. From her first official act,
that of sprinkling holy water on her
murdered fathers body when babe
in arms, to her death at the age of
60 from an overdose of sleeping
powder, her life was replete with
change, and so unhappy that she
called herself "la refine malheureuse."
AS the inscription on the silver urn
containing her heart stated, she was
"Queen of England, France, Scotland,
and Ireland; daughter to the French
King Henry w the Victorious; wife
of Charles 1 the Martyr, and mother
to the restored King Charles H." She
was also mother to James II and was
grandmother to three monarchs of
Great Britain, to queen of Spain, a
duchess of Savoy, and a dauphiness of
France.
When she married Charles l she
was the first daughter of France to
be queen consort to England in two
centuries. She was the first queen of
England to refuse to be crowned, and
later she refused to accompany the
king to the coronation in Scotland.
Known as Henrietta to intimates, she
was called Queen Mary by her Eng
lish subjects mainly because the
British disliked her French-sounding
name.
She remained a Catholic despite her
Protestant husband and Puritan SUBJ
jects, and this religious difference
contributed to the unhappiness of the
first few years of her life in England.
She never mastered the English
language, either, much to the disgust
of the country gentlemen who even
tually took the throne away from her
husband. But this inability to speak
English fuently did not prevent her
from gossiping, and on several oc-
casions her untimely telling of state
secrets proved embarrassing for both
herself and the King She is credited
with the first naming the Roundheads,
political party that opposed the
Cavaliers in the civil wars which put
Oliver Cromwell in control as protec-
tor. This name was given widespread
recognition after Henrietta had seen
a young man on the street with his
head shaved in contrast to the long
hair and curls of the Cavaliers.
"La, what a handsome roundhead,'
the queen remarked, and the name
stuck.
Vain to an irritating degree, she
caused the civil war to be prolonged
because she was winning an occasion
al fight and was gaining for herself
the formidable title of "she-majesty
generalissima." But difficult positions
and circumstances could always be
avoided by pleading i'll health and
fleeing to her favorite spa in France.
Her confessor has said of Henrietta
that her only sin was that OF omls-
sion. If Henrietta was unfaithful to