Henrietta of England

Henrietta Anne of England, Duchess of Orléans (born Henrietta 16 June (Old Style) 26 June (New Style) 1644 – 30 June 1670), in French Henriette d'Angleterre, known familiarly as Minette, was the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France. The Jacobite claims to the throne following the death of Henry Benedict Stuart descend from her.

After her marriage to Monsieur, Philippe d'Orléans, brother of king Louis XIV, she became known as Madame at court.

Life

Henrietta was born at Bedford House, Exeter, at a time when the English Civil War was raging across the land. Two weeks after Henrietta's birth, her mother, the Queen, fled the country leaving her in the care of Lady Morton. Henrietta Anne (the "Anne" was added after she was baptized into the Catholic Church) was not reunited with her mother until she was two years old. After her father, Charles I of England, was beheaded in 1649, and a republic was proclaimed in England, Lady Morton brought her to France to live at the court of her cousin, King Louis XIV.

France

At the age of seventeen, Princess Henrietta married her first cousin, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, who was the younger son of her maternal uncle Louis XIII and the only brother of Louis XIV. The wedding was held at the Palais Royal chapel in Paris on 31 March 1661. By then her brother Charles II had been restored to the thrones of England and Scotland and therefore the marriage was even more politically advantageous. The marriage was unhappy, and her husband preferred the affections of his gentlemen, who vied with Henrietta for power.

Louis XIV was very close to his sister-in-law, and the two may have been lovers. Louis' mourning of her after her tragic death was even greater than that of Philippe, her husband, lending credence to that theory. However, Philippe was extremely jealous of his wife, possibly abusive, and paraded a succession of male lovers before her.

Popular at court, much to Philippe's annoyance, Henriette was known as a pretty, good-natured girl who enjoyed flirting. She soon attracted the attention of her husband's older brother. In order to hide their attraction from the king's mother and wife, Henriette and Louis invented the story that he was constantly in Henriette's company in order to be close to one of her ladies-in-waiting, Louise de La Vallière. Only later did Henriette realize that the ruse had been so successful that Louis had indeed begun an affair with Louise.

Reluctantly and somewhat bitterly, Henriette stepped aside. Later, she seems to have taken one of her husband's earlier conquests, the comte de Guiche, as a lover. This caused all sorts of arguments at the Palais Royal, the Orléans residence in Paris.

Children

Despite the marital dissension between Monsieur and Madame, several children were born of the union. Some believed at the time that the King was the real father of Henrietta's two daughters:

• Marie Louise d'Orléans (27 March 1662 – 12 February 1689),
  • She was the first wife of Charles II of Spain;
• Philippe Charles, duc de Valois, (July 16 1664 – 8 December 1666);
• A daughter born 9 July 1665 ; died soon after;
• Anne Marie d'Orléans (27 August 1669 – 26 August 1728),
  • First wife of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, first King of Sardinia, whom she wed in 1684,
  • ancestress of the Kings of Sardinia and Kings of Italy,
  • through her derives the post-Stuart legitimist claim of the Jacobites to the English and Scottish thrones.

Henriette had four miscarriages, in 1663, 1666, 1667, 1668.

By the time of the birth of Anne Marie, the couple was notorious for their constant arguing at court and at home in the Palais Royal. Philippe now had a new lover, and many were aware of the great influence this man had over Philippe.

• 
  Philippe de France, her husband
• 
  Marie Louise, Queen Consort of Spain
• 
  Anne Marie, Queen consort of Sardinia and Sicily

The Chevalier de Lorraine

The favorites of Monsieur, invariably younger, handsome men, would dominate contemporary and historical commentary about his role at court, particularly with one man who shared his princely rank and much of his life:

Philip of Lorraine-Armagnac was three years younger than Philip of Orléans. Insinuating, brutal and devoid of scruple, he was the great love of the life of Monsieur. He was also the worst enemy of the latter's two wives. As greedy as a vulture, this cadet of the French branch of the House of Lorraine had, by the end of the 1650s, hooked Monsieur like a harpooned whale. The young prince loved him with a passion that worried Madame Henrietta and the court bishop, Cosnac, but it was plain to the King that, thanks to the attractive face and sharp mind of the good-looking cavalier, he would have his way with his brother.

Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that Monsieur's first marriage was not a happy one. In January 1670, his wife prevailed upon the King to imprison the chevalier, first near Lyon, then in the Mediterranean island-fortress of the Château d'If, and finally he was banished to Rome. But by February Monsieur's protests and pleas persuaded the King to restore him to his brother's entourage.

Later life

Today, Henrietta is best known through her correspondence with her brother King Charles II of England, with whom she was very close. With her brother, she helped to negotiate the Secret Treaty of Dover (1670), which was an offensive and defensive alliance between England and France. When she visited her brother at Dover, she was accompanied by one of her ladies-in-waiting, Louise de Kérouaille. The English king became fascinated with Louise. After Henrietta's death, Louise was appointed by Charles to become a lady-in-waiting to his wife, the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, and became his mistress.

Henrietta died at the Château de Saint-Cloud, near Paris on June 30, 1670, just two weeks after the treaty was signed. At the time of her death, it was widely believed that Henrietta-Anne had been poisoned by friends of her husband’s jealous lover and exiled favourite, the Chevalier de Lorraine. An autopsy was performed, however, and it was reported that Henrietta-Anne had died of peritonitis caused by a perforated ulcer. At her funeral, the well-known orator Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet conducted her eulogy, the famous Oraison funèbre d'Henriette d'Angleterre. Her widowed husband took Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate as his second wife; she was the daughter of Henrietta's first cousin.

• Her eldest daughter died without issue.
• Through her youngest daughter, Anne Marie d'Orléans, she is a direct ancestor of Louis XV and his descendants, the last Bourbon kings of France before the reign of Louis Philippe, King of the French, a descendant of her husband and his second wife.

Gallery

• 
  Portrait of Henrietta-Anne, duchesse d'Orléans painted during her life.
• 
  Henriette-Anne Stuart, duchesse d'Orléans
• 
  Henriette d'Angleterre by Samuel Cooper
• 
  Henrietta Anne as a child

Ancestors

Family of Henrietta of England

16. Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox 8. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley 17. Margaret Douglas 4. James I of England 18. James V of Scotland 9. Mary I of Scotland 19. Mary of Guise 2. Charles I of England 20. Christian III of Denmark 10. Frederick II of Denmark 21. Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg 5. Anne of Denmark 22. Ulrich III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 11. Sofie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 23. Elizabeth of Denmark 1. Princess Henreitta-Anne of England 24. Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme 12. Antoine of Navarre 25. Françoise d'Alençon 6. Henry IV of France 26. Henry II of Navarre 13. Jeanne III of Navarre 27. Marguerite de Navarre 3. Henrietta Maria of France 28. Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany 14. Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany 29. Eleonora di Toledo 7. Marie de' Medici 30. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor 15. Johanna of Austria 31. Anna of Bohemia and Hungary