Henrietta Maria de Anonde

Henrietta Maria (8th September 1730 - 1747) was the second eldest daughter and third child of Elisabeth Josephine, and Jean-Claude le Duc d'Orleans.
== Reign of Louis XI - Dame de Boisson ==
Henrietta was born in the Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne, Dijon. Her mother was Elisabeth Josephine, a low noble. Her great-grandfather Albertus ensured that she be taught in moderation of many subjects. This made her upbringing a good mixture of the formal and informal. Her chosen name Henrietta Maria was not welcomed by many for it's foreign origins and sound. Many likened it to England's hated Queen Consort of the same name (In the future she would sign her name as Marie Henriette Eloise to please the snobs at court and to mellow public outrage).
Aged 5 she was sent with to the convent of Sainte-Genevieve in Dijon. Her youngest sister Jeanne Sophie would join her a year later. Henrietta spent 4 years there, returning on and off on their father's wishes to spend more time with them (Their mother wasn't impressed in the least at these small intervals in their education and raising). Henrietta returned back in Dijon in 1739, this couldn't have been a worst time. After a violent smallpox outbreak and the fleeing of many royals and courtiers had died of such disease as well as Tuberculosis. 
== Later life ==
Life didn't change much for Henriette or her siblings after their presentations to court. They maintained a normality where as their brother, Louis Charles, began to have a more harsh education due to his growing wild nature.
During the rebellion of 1741 the sweet and sensitive Henrietta was horrified of the hate made towards her family and for her safe keeping she was sent away to live with her 2nd cousins. After the rebuilding of Dijon and the moving of the court to the newly refurbished Chateau de Saint-Etienne she threw herself into the easy living life of the court which began to flourish as the months passed.
In 1744 she married Louis Alexandre, Duc de Anonde thus making her Princesse de Lamballe. Her marriage to him was "One of the most shocking wedding ceremony's ever to take place at any court", wrote her mother. Henrietta looked beautiful and her beauty highlighted her gentile and sensitive continence which was key to her charm over the people, but the Duc was far from impressed. He huffed and puffed, muttered remarks under his breath and made the bishop hurry the ceremony on. Henrietta was oblivious and was still head over heals in love with him. That night the pompous Duc de Anonde didn't bother to make love to her. He by this time had built a reputation of being a womanising, drunken, gambling man of the worst kind and the marriage between him and Henriette was an attempt to change his character so his family could live on. But this proved not the case when in no way shape or form did the Duc bother to make love to his innocent, pure wife. The Duc allegedly, in a fit of rage, raped Henrietta before an attack of rebels in Nassau and fell pregnant. She became ever more assertive during her pregnancy, becoming more angry towards rebellious citizens which raided the Nassau palace stating "If I were in power, I'd do something to make the, ever regret it". What did not please or mellow the angry rebels was the completion of her Maison d'été or Summer House name Le Petit Anonde. This folly was built in the meadows of Lamballe. It was most lucky to the Duchesse that the Hamlet of Armodeau were most content with her and had not been indoctrinated by rebellious ideas and false rumours.
Her husband died in July of 1744, upon his deathbed he received the last sacraments and begged forgiveness to Henrietta for "All the ills I've caused in our marriage", he went on "Know this, that I had always and will never stop loving you. I only wish we had more time, Mon Dieu! If I had more time..". Henrietta would assure him that their child will have the best of lives and she'll always remind him of who his father was. "Good, all good" with this he passed away.
Henrietta, now nicknamed "la Anonde veuve", would move far away to court in the peaceful Chardonne village near Aquitaine. There she gave birth in the presence of doctors and close ladies of distinction. It was a boy who she'd name Louis Alexandre after his father. But after only an hour the child died after to much damage to the brain. This was most likely caused by the violence put towards herself by the Prince de Lamballe. The baby was christened before his death which gave Henrietta much reassurance. She moved back to court and occupied her original rooms at Chateau de Saint-Etienne.
"PDuchesse de Anonde was the sweetest and most sensitive woman of the court of both Louis XI and Sophie Antoinette. Alas, time had been cruel, aged fourteen she had been deprived of love and of offspring. When a young, carefree Dame she had everything she ever wanted, what a contrast.."
The tired Henrietta would live out her life quietly. She befriended her father Jean's successor as Duc d'Orleans (also named Jean). She even became a skilled gambler, and was able to stare down even the strongest-willed of men. Unfortunately, the beautiful Henrietta would die of a heart attack on August 5th of 1747 in her bath tub at Saint-Etienne. Her life was considered so hectic and she was so high energy, it was little surprise. She is buried in Chateau de Vincennes in the Necropolis Wing, in the Room of Fantasy.
== Titles and Styles. ==
-14th February 1730 - 18th June 1744 Her Ladyship, Dame de Boisson
-June 28th 1744 - August 5th, 1747 Her Grace, Duchesse de Anonde
Category:Grandelumierian Nobility
Category:1700s births
Category:House Lowell-Valois