Powerful mediatrix, Popish planet or La reine malheureuse? : a re-evaluation of Henrietta Maria
The queen-consort of Charles I, Henrietta Maria, has been viewed through a multitude of lenses by academic historians, but often only as either a Catholic interloper in a staunchly Reformed nation or as a trivial dilettante squandering national resources on blasphemous artwork and frolics. Taking her background - her childhood, education, and, perhaps most importantly, her unique religious situation - into consideration, combined with an examination of a multitude of primary sources, Henrietta Maria is now analysed practically. Her actions and motivations are separated from those of others who have been conflated with the queen and the nature of her place in the history of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and its distinctive religious situation(s) are all re-evaluated. Henrietta Maria was not a Counter- Reformation menace, nor was she the frivolous antecedent to France's Marie Antoinette. Between two extreme interpretations, the truth is usually considered to lie somewhere in between, but in the case of this particular queen, careful assessment shows that Henrietta Maria was not a static archetype of any sort; rather she was a complicated and real person whose beliefs, desires and actions changed over time
Bilhartz Betik, Jessica
Powerful mediatrix, Popish planet or La reine malheureuse? : a re-evaluation of Henrietta Maria. The queen-consort of Charles I, Henrietta Maria, has been viewed through a multitude of lenses by academic historians, but often only as either a Catholic interloper in a staunchly Reformed nation or as a trivial dilettante squandering national resources on blasphemous artwork and frolics. Taking her background - her childhood, education, and, perhaps most importantly, her unique religious situation - into consideration, combined with an examination of a multitude of primary sources, Henrietta Maria is now analysed practically. Her actions and motivations are separated from those of others who have been conflated with the queen and the nature of her place in the history of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and its distinctive religious situation(s) are all re-evaluated. Henrietta Maria was not a Counter- Reformation menace, nor was she the frivolous antecedent to France's Marie Antoinette. Between two extreme interpretations, the truth is usually considered to lie somewhere in between, but in the case of this particular queen, careful assessment shows that Henrietta Maria was not a static archetype of any sort; rather she was a complicated and real person whose beliefs, desires and actions changed over time
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