Henrietta Maria As Queen
Henrietta Maria and Charles I of England were married on 13 June 1625, during a brief period in which England's pro-Spanish policy was replaced by a pro-French policy. After an initial difficult period, she and Charles formed an extremely close partnership. Henrietta never fully assimilated herself into English society; she did not speak English before her marriage, and as late as the 1640s had difficulty writing or speaking the language. This, combined with her Catholic beliefs, marked her out as different and potentially dangerous in the religiously intolerant English society of the time, and led to her becoming an unpopular queen with the general public. Henrietta has been criticized as being an "intrinsically apolitical, undereducated and frivolous" figure during the 1630s; others have suggested that she exercised a degree of personal power through a combination of her piety, her femininity, and her sponsorship of the arts.
Read more about this topic: Henrietta Maria Of France
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