Henrietta Maria of France - Henrietta Maria and The English Civil War

Henrietta Maria and The English Civil War

During the 1640s the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland were dominated by a sequence of conflicts termed the English Civil War or the Wars of the Three Kingdoms; within England, the conflict centred on the rival Royalist and Parliamentarian factions. Henrietta Maria, as Charles' queen, was to become heavily involved in this conflict that would result in her husband's death and her exile in France. There have been various schools of thought as to Henrietta's role in the civil war period and the degree of her responsibility for the ultimate Royalist defeat. The traditional perspective on the Queen has suggested that she was a strong-willed woman who dominated her weaker-willed husband for the worst; the historian Wedgwood, for example, highlights Henrietta's steadily increasing ascendancy over Charles, observing that "he sought her advice on every subject on every subject, except religion" and indeed complained that he could not make her an official member of his council. Reinterpretation in the 1970s argued that Henrietta's political role was more limited, suggesting that the King took more decisions himself personally. Bone concludes, for example, that despite having a very close personal relationship with Henrietta, Charles rarely listened to her on matters of state politics. A third, more recent model argues that Henrietta did indeed exercise political power and influence during the conflict, less so directly but more as a result of her public actions and deeds, which constrained and influenced the choices available to Charles.