“Henrietta Maria has been looked at far too much through the male gaze – it’s time for another perspective”
LEANDA DE LISLE speaks to Emily Briffett about her new study of Charles I’s reviled queen – and reveals why she doesn’t deserve her rotten reputation
INTERVIEW / LEANDA DE LISLE
Emily Briffett: Your new book tells the fascinating story of Henrietta Maria, challenging the myths surrounding her life. To begin with, can you please introduce her to us?
Leanda de Lisle: Henrietta Maria was a Bourbon princess. She was the daughter of King Henry IV (“the Great”), a warrior king assassinated by a Catholic fanatic when she was just a baby. Her mother, Marie de Medici, ruled France as regent for many years. At the age of 15, Henrietta Maria married Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland, later becoming the mother of Charles II and James II.
An important aspect of Henrietta Maria to address is her legacy. How has the Stuart queen been seen through history?
She is probably the most reviled consort to have ever worn the crown of the three kingdoms, but she was ultimately a victim of parliamentary propaganda of the period. In her lifetime she was described as the “popish brat of France” and a whore, and was said to have worn the britches in her marriage. Ever since, she’s been perceived as the original “bad woman”: Eve, the corrupter who seduced her husband into evil.
How did she come to be so hated?
As the old adage goes, history is written by the victors – those who overthrew the house of Stuart in 1688. A myth then grew up that English Protestantism played a pivotal role in the creation of our democracy, and indeed our sense of nationhood. Therefore, being a Catholic, Henrietta Maria was associated with Charles’s authoritarianism and is wrongly assumed to have been, in part, responsible for it.
Beyond this, I actually think her legacy shaped that of Charles I. To ensure that she is believable in the role of the seductress corrupting him into evil, Charles has to be perceived as weak and feeble. So, though it’s true that he was a sickly child, we often don’t hear that he was actually extremely athletic and physically strong in adulthood.
How much do we actually know about Henrietta Maria’s character?
One of the fascinating things about studying the 17th century is that a myriad of sources ex
