The Republican., 1932-11-24
HENRIETTA MARIA, THE GODMOTHER
OF CALVERT'S COLONY
by
ALFRED D. HARLES
In the Baltimore Sunday Sun, November 20, 1882.

NASsA y JO-S WV IL viz SCSoiP VI 1ilS NSAg
concerning the queen and her adviser,
Henry Jermyn, the Earl of St.
Albans. The latter was in the queens
company and household for many
years, and after Charles death, it was
rumored that Jermyn and Henrietta
were married. Pepys, in summing up
the year 1861, writes:
The queen-mother is said to keep
too great court now; and her be-
ing married to my lord St. Alban's
is commonly talked of, and that
they had daughter between them
in France, how true, God knows.
| This was the woman whose portrait
hangs in the Executive Chambers in
the Maryland State House, her dark
eyes piercing, her small body held
erect in royal gown bedecked with
Jewels, with her somewhat large and
unattractive mouth formed into
half smile.
Henrietta, whose three hundred and
twenty-third birthday falls on
November 25, was brought up to
pursue the lighter side of court life.
She inherited from her Italian Medeci
ancestors a taste for painting, the
arts and music; and she became an
exquisite ballet dancer and lover of
1 nathan fhoTo n
trained to share the throne of Eng
land. In her girlhood all her talents
were directed toward being a leader
of society in the French court, instead
of wife to a king struggling for his
crown. Her voice, naturally sweet
and powerful, was better suited for
prima donna roles than telling state
secrets.
Soon after their marriage, Charles
and Henrietta began quarrels over
religion and French customs, and
these arguments lasted for several
years. There was controversy, for
example, over who should say grace
at the table-the kings chaplain or
the queens confessor.
While they were in the midst of
their disagreements Charles was
scheduled to be crowned. He forgot
his part of the argument while he
tried to persuade Henrietta to be
crowned with him; he fattered her,
threatened her, and pleaded with her,
but to no avail. The queen took her
religious training more seriously than
had her Protestant father, Henry w,
who held that Paris was "well worth
one mass" and joined the Roman
Catholic church forthwith.
One of the principal sources of
their disagreement was the presence
of Henrietta's French attendents.
They irked the English, but the queen
was firm that they remain and for a
while Charles put up with them for
lack of a way to send them home.
After a year of discomfort, however,
the king ordered the French attend
ants to leave. The protest raised by
the departing ladies was feeble COM
pared with Henrietta's laments. Ac-
cording to tradition, she went into
one of her best fits of temper, and
finding the windows of her room
locked, smashed them to pieces in
order to wave farewell. Charles had
to drag her from the easement and
force her to be quiet until the French
were out of sight.
A year later the four hundred she
had brought from Paris were replaced
by two dozen, and Henrietta partially
forgave her husband. After two
stormy years. Charles and Henrietta
forgot their quarrels and when the
queen made it known that she would
present England with an addition to
the Stuart line, the king wholly dis
missed their past differences.
But the son born May Is, 1929, and
named Charles James, died short
while later. Before she was 35, Hen
rietta had given birth to nine royal
children, four boys and five girls. A
son and a daughter died the day of
their birth, and two other daughters
died in childhood. Her favorite
daughter, Henrietta Anne, the young
est of the family, lived to be 26, while
Charles II reached the age of Sc and
James II, 6S. Henry, her youngest
son, died when 20 years old. Of her
nine children, she was survived only
by her namesake and her two sons
who became kings.
With all her power over her hus-
band, which was becoming more
marked as the years went by, Hen
rietta could not control two things
her temper when she became dis
pleased, and her tongue when she had
a secret or wished to speak English.
Her temper reached the pitch of rage
on many occasions and even trivial
things would cause her to become
aroused.