Henrietta Maria of France (French: Henriette Marie de France; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was queen consort of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I. She was mother of two monarchs, Charles II and James II, and grandmother of three: Mary II, William III and Anne.
Her Catholic religion made her unpopular in England, and also prohibited her from being crowned in an Anglican service; therefore she never had a coronation. She began to immerse herself in national affairs as civil war loomed on the horizon, and was compelled to seek refuge in France in 1644, following the birth of her youngest daughter, Henrietta, during the height of the First English Civil War. The execution of King Charles in 1649 left her impoverished. She settled in Paris, and then returned to England after the Restoration of her eldest son, Charles, to the throne. In 1665, she moved back to Paris, where she died four years later.
The North American Province of Maryland was named in her honour, and the name was carried over into the current U.S. state of Maryland.
Read more about Henrietta Maria Of France: Childhood, Henrietta Maria As Queen, Henrietta Maria and The English Civil War, Henrietta Maria Under The Restoration, Legacy, Ancestry, Issue
Famous quotes containing the words henrietta, maria and/or france:
“A political place with no power, only influence, is not to my taste.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there’s another dog.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)
“It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world—and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish—she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)