Henrietta Maria of France - Henrietta Maria Under The Restoration

Henrietta Maria Under The Restoration

Henrietta returned to England following the Restoration in October 1660 along with her daughter Princess Henrietta. Henrietta's return was partially prompted by a liaison between the Earl of Clarendon's daughter Anne and Henrietta's son, the Duke of York – Anne was pregnant, and the Duke had proposed marrying her. Henrietta still disliked Clarendon, and did not want Anne as a daughter-in-law, but Charles II agreed and despite her efforts the wedding went ahead. Henrietta did not return to much public acclaim – Samuel Pepys counted only three small bonfires lit in her honour, and described her a "very little plain old woman, and nothing more in her presence in any respect nor garb than any ordinary woman". She took up residence once more at Somerset House, supported by a generous pension.

In 1661, she returned to France and arranged for her youngest daughter, Henrietta to marry The Duke of Orléans, the only brother of Louis XIV. This significantly helped English relations with the French.

After her daughter's wedding, Henrietta returned to England in 1662 accompanied by her son Charles II and her nephew Prince Rupert. She had intended to remain in England for the rest of her life, but by 1665 was suffering badly from bronchitis, which she blamed on the damp British weather. Henrietta travelled back to France the same year, taking residence at the Hôtel de la Bazinière, the present Hôtel de Chimay in Paris. In August 1669, she saw the birth of her granddaughter Anne Marie d'Orléans; Anne Marie was the maternal grandmother of Louis XV making Henrietta Maria an ancestor of most of today's royal families. Shortly afterwards, she died at the château de Colombes, near Paris, having taken an excessive quantity of opiates as a painkiller. She was buried in the French royal necropolis at the Basilica of St Denis, with her heart being placed in a silver casket and buried at her convent in Chaillot.