Henrietta Maria and Her Mother, Marie de’ Medici
First of all, I would like to thank Tony Riches for opening his popular blog to other historical writers so that we may share our research. I am the author of a biography of Marie-Antoinette as well as six historical novels. The latest two novels are about Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I and they are entitled My Queen, My Love and Generalissima. They are part of an unfinished trilogy; the third instalment Avalon will be out sometime in 2027 or 28.
In my readings about Henrietta of France, I have found that her mother Marie de’ Medici played an enormous role not only in her upbringing but in her ongoing political decisions, as well as shaping her faith, her love of the arts, of music, theater, and architecture.
Queen Marie has ended up playing a much larger role in my novels than I originally would ever have imagined, due to the sheer force of her personality as much as to her real adventures, which included leading rebellions against her son, climbing out of windows to escape the royal guards, and hiding with her entourage of dwarves in a German brewery. All of this followed a glittering career of being Queen Mother Regent of France. Most of the Queen’s life is captured in the spectacular series of twenty-four huge paintings by Rubens, now at the Louvre.
Marie de' Medici, Queen of France, painted by the Flemish Baroque artist
Peter Paul Rubens around 1622.
Marie’s life had always been eventful, however. Born in 1575 in Florence, the youngest daughter of Francesco de' Medici, who was to inherit the Duchy of Tuscany, she was reared in the magnificent Pitti Palace. Marie’s mother, a Habsburg Archduchess, fell down the palace steps when expecting her eighth child and died in agony. Some thought she had been murdered.
Marie’s father married his mistress. Marie was well-educated and healthy but lonely. The stepmother found a companion for Marie: a homely dwarf named Dianora, who claimed to possess psychic powers. In spite of the Florentine court’s penchant for fortune-telling and astrology, Marie remained firmly Catholic her entire life. When in her twenties, word came that the King of France was looking for a wealthy wife.
Henri IV or Henri of Navarre (1553-1610) has been celebrated by the French people as the monarch who was the epitome of justice, kindness, and virility. The fact of his many mistresses and bastards never hindered his popularity, so great were his achievements on behalf of the French people in ending the Wars of Religion. His childless first marriage with his cousin Marguerite de Valois was annulled so that he could have legitimate offspring.
He married the much younger Marie de' Medici in 1600. Queen Marie, loving her husband, suffered from his unfaithfulness. She brought with her Dianora, renamed Leonora. Leonora married another Italian, a thug named Concini who later bullied his way into becoming a marshal of France. After the couple had several children, in 1610 Henri had Marie crowned and anointed at Notre Dame de Paris. The day after her coronation, Henri was stabbed to death in his coach in the streets of Paris. Marie became the Regent for their young son, Louis XIII.
As Regent, Queen Marie chose to avoid war by making peace with the other Catholic powers of Spain and the Empire. She believed that Catholic monarchies should unite to keep Protestantism at bay. Too often Queen Marie is dismissed as being "stupid" in histories of the time. But Henri IV would never have designated Marie to be Regent in case of his death if he had thought her hopelessly ignorant and helpless. Queen Marie had great devotion to the Virgin Mary, seeing her role as being like that of the Mother of God, the conduit of power between the king and his people.
As regent for her son Louis XIII she was determined to keep France out of wars, especially wars with other Catholic countries. Her older daughters, Elisabeth, Queen of Spain and Christine, Duchess of Savoy, had been brought up with Marian devotion and saw their roles in their adopted countries as being active rather than passive. As for Louis XIII, he attained his majority in 1614, although Marie kept running the country. Louis overthrew his mother in 1617, and had Leonora and Concini executed. After a brief exile, Marie managed to make her way back to Paris, where she presided in majesty at the new Medici Palace, later known as the Luxembourg. And she had one more daughter left to marry off.
The youngest child, Henriette-Marie de France, born on 25 November, 1609, was perhaps Marie’s favorite as she greatly resembled Henri IV, in coloring and wiry agility, as well as in merriment and a sense of adventure. Marie arranged for her youngest daughter Henriette to marry in England because she believed there was a chance of bringing Charles I into Catholicism. Henrietta Maria, at age fifteen, tackled the insurmountable task of converting the British Isles back to Catholicism.
Marie made Henriette promise never to become a Protestant and if she did, she would be cursed by Marie. Henriette never flagged in the practice of her Catholic faith no matter the cost. While Charles I never converted to Catholicism, his relationship with his devout wife was deeply spiritual, which enhanced the intense physical passion between them. They were happiest together and with their children. Their tragedy is that they were eventually separated by the Civil Wars as their family was scattered. Their two youngest children were captives of the enemy forces. And Charles I was eventually arrested and beheaded in 1649.
In Marie’s later years, another falling-out with her oldest son Louis XIII, and especially with his minister Cardinal de Richelieu, led to her exile in England, where she lived in St. James Palace. Marie was warmly welcomed by Charles I and Henriette, although they were in the throes of a constitutional crisis. Marie saw the coming disasters and, realizing her Catholic presence was causing political complications for Charles and Henriette, went to Germany to seek refuge with her friend the painter Rubens.
The Thirty Years War was raging; Rubens had died but the ailing Queen was able to stay in a brewery in Cologne owned by the Rubens family. She died in the brewery in Cologne on 3 July, 1642 in a state of destitution, abandoned by her son Louis XIII, who would not allow her to die in France, although he later had her buried at Saint Denis. Mercifully, the Queen received the ministrations of the Carmelites of Cologne, to whom she bequeathed a cherished statue of the Blessed Virgin, one of her last possessions.
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