Henriette-Marie de France-Wikipedia

Henriette Marie de France , born November 25, 1609 in Paris and dead the September 10, 1669 In Colombes, is a Queen Consort from England. Benjamine of the King of France Henri IV and Queen Marie de Médicis, she married in 1625 the King of England Charles I ^is Stuart. She is the sister of the King of France Louis XIII , the mother-in-law of the great resident of the Netherlands Guillaume d’Orange, the mother of two kings of England, Charles II And Jacques II . The English civil war, which culminated in 1649 by the decapitation in London of her husband, led him to take refuge in France.

The state of Maryland, in the northeast of the United States, was baptized in its honor, as well as the rue de la Reine-Henriette in the city of Colombes, in France.

Childhood [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Born at the Louvre Palais in Paris on November 25, 1609 , Henriette Marie is the last and sixth child and the third daughter of the King of France Henri IV and Queen Marie de Médicis.

The princess has hardly known her father, murdered in May following her birth and was raised with her brother Gaston, Duke of Orleans, a year older, by their mother. This does not prevent him from inheriting the enterprising, courageous character of his father. She also has character traits of her mother: pious, generous, intellectual ^{[ first ]} , with a pronounced taste for art.

She is called the June 15, 1614 In the chapel of the Queen at the Palais du Louvre at the same time as his brother Gaston, Duke of Orleans: his godfather is the cardinal of La Rochefoucauld and her godmother is Madame Élisabeth, her older sister ^{[ 2 ]} .

Marriage [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Henriette Marie is separated from her mother between 1617 and 1620 (period when the queen mother was exiled far from Paris). His brother, King Louis XIII , gives Prince Charles Stuart his hand, future king Charles I ^is of England and Scotland , the June 13, 1625 (or at sixteen) ^{[ 3 ]} . Thanks to his godfather, the fiancée can marry the heir to the throne of England, although Charles is Protestant and not Catholic. Thus, she leaves to marry a procession of twelve priests of the oratory. It is George Villiers de Buckingham, favorite of her husband, who comes to France to negotiate his marriage, it is on this occasion that he courts the queen Anne of Austria, which causes the ire of her husband the king the king Louis XIII (Brother of Henriette).

Queen Consort of England [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Until 1628, George Villiers de Buckingham barred between the Queen and the King, but after the assassination of Buckingham, Henriette Marie can get closer to Charles I ^is . The birth of their children, from 1629, brought the two spouses closer, and Henriette Marie acquired a lot of influence on her husband. French, it pushes it in the sense of an authoritarian and centralizing policy, as well as towards greater tolerance towards Catholics. Indeed, Henriette, very pious and stubborn like her mother, ostensibly practices Catholicism, which irritates the English Puritans, and had come from France with a certain number of priests, including his chaplain, Jean Paumart (presence of priests according to the clauses of his marriage contract negotiated between the prices of France and England). In addition, the queen has an influence on the shows at the court. It becomes more and more unpopular because the Puritans suspect her of wanting to eradicate Protestantism in favor of Catholicism. The royal family is even forced to take refuge for Oxford for a time, because Cromwell threatened to stop the sovereign and had already arrested some of her faithful. Simultaneously, the Scottish are gather to walk straight on the capital to defend the Queen. During the civil war, she took advantage of her trip in 1642 in the United Provinces where she accompanied her daughter Marie who married Guillaume II d’Orange-Nassau To bring together funds and a small army won at the royal cause. She returns to Newcastle in February 1643 , after having survived a storm during which the queen has a word that manifests her courage and recalls the manners of her father: “The queens are not drowning. »» Arrival safely, it is greeted with cannons by five rebel vessels. In order to protect herself, she is forced to spend the night in a dirty ditch that covers her with sand. Thanks to the army she brought together, she managed to join the king in Oxford. However, the latter decided to divide the troops in half with the aim of repressing the rebellions, which was a mistake because he thus reduced the army forces. But a new pregnancy distant the queen from conflicts in July 1643 . She withdrew to exercise to give the light of day, in a miserable cottage, to a girl: Henriette Anne.

Exile in France [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Despite the fatigue of childbirth, she is determined to join Paris because the London Parliament offered fifty thousand Ecus to anyone who reported the head of the sovereign. She ends up embarking on Plymouth and managed to run away, even with the sails of her ship torn apart by the cannonballs. Faced with the fury of her attackers and not wanting to fall into their alive hands, she ordered the captain: “When you can’t defend me anymore, kill me. »»

The July 25, 1644 , Henriette de France, queen of England on the run, landed “in a small haven called Mellon [melon, in Porspoder]”. His ship met all day before the strike. The inhabitants worried. They feared an attack and it was necessary to parliament. “The whole coste being in arms forced him to have a handkerchief put at the end of a fight”. The queen landed in poor crew. She stayed in a small house covered with thatched roof. But she was subsequently solemnly welcomed in Brest, then in other Breton cities (including Vannes, rue des Canines, in the Hôtel de l’Archdiaconat), along her journey to the capital ^{[ 4 ]} .

She never saw the king her husband again, who will be imprisoned and then condemned to death as “tyrant” and “traitor”, although he had made a lot of concessions to supporters of Cromwell. Thus, this tragic epilogue of the life of the sovereign earned him the nickname of “The best and most unhappy of kings” . He was beheaded the January 30, 1649 . Henriette Marie, learning the news in France, was collapsed and decided to create a convent of the Visitation, in Chaillot, in which she retired while completing the education of her children in the Catholic faith. A few years later, she married the daughter she put into the world in distress, Henriette Anne, to the brother of Louis XIV : Philippe de France, Duke of Orleans, despite the bad understanding she will have with her son -in -law. She had the joy of seeing her sons Charles and Jacques, who managed to escape from England, but she lost her daughter Élisabeth, prisoner of the Puritans ( September 1650 ). The widowed queen stayed in France with her daughter Henriette Anne, while Cardinal Mazarin, principal minister of the young Louis XIV , nephew of Henriette, forced Charles and Jacques to leave the kingdom (because Mazarin wanted the alliance of the English Republic against Spain). Henriette Marie lived near Paris, in Colombes, in a certain material discomfort, remaining whole days in bed for lack of being able to buy wood to heat her home.

In 1660, she accompanied her son Charles II In London during her restoration and attended her marriage to the infant Catherine de Portugal, wealthy and Catholic. During her few trips to England where she shows great kindness, the former English sovereign managed to conquer the hearts of those who were her enemies at the time of the troubles. Because of all her past misfortunes, her health has deteriorated, she no longer supports the humid climate of England. She decides to return to France to prepare for death in her Chaillot monastery. Sick and insomniac she is treated by doctors that Louis XIV sends him. THE September 10, 1669 , at the Château de Colombes, they present a potion in which, they reassure it, there is no opium (substance which it feared, dreading to be poisoned), and that it drinks. But a few hours later, she died.

On the orders of the king, she is buried in Saint-Denis, and her heart sent to the convent of the Visitandines de Chaillot, where Bossuet pronounces on this occasion Funeral oration of Henriette-Marie de France (not to be confused with the funeral prayer of Henriette-Anne of England, his daughter and sister-in-law of the king, from which is drawn the famous ” Madame is dying! Madame is dead! “).

Its castle of Colombes is now destroyed, but a street and a school in the city are dedicated to the Reine Henriette .

King Charles and Queen Henriette Marie have nine children:

Weapons of Henriette Marie de France as Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Born daughter of France, Henriette Marie bore different titles during her life:

• Arnault Pfersdorff, The tragic fate of Henriette of England , Roman, PubliBook editions 2002 (ISBN  978-2748319965 ) .
• Micheline Dupuy, Henriette de France, Queen of England , Paris, Perrin, 1994, 380 pages .
• Jacqueline Duchêne, Henriette of England, Duchess of Orleans , Paris, Fayard, 1995, 464 pages (ISBN  978-213648804 ) .
• Charles de Baillon, Henriette-Marie de France Queen of England 1609-1669 , Paris, France-Empire, 2013, 244 pages (ISBN  978-2704811960 ) .
• André Maurois, Three portraits of women , Paris, Hachette-les Soirées du Luxembourg, 1967, 136 pages .
• Universalis encyclopedia , “Henriette Marie de France (1609-1669) Queen of England”.
• Bossuet, Madame is dying! Madame is dead! ^{[ 5 ]} .

Related articles [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

external links [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

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