Henrietta Maria: The Warrior Queen Who Divided a Nation

Dispelling the myths around this legendary queen, this biography of Henrietta Maria, queen consort of King Charles I, retells the dramatic story of the English Civil War from the perspective of this dynamic woman.

Henrietta Maria is British history’s most reviled queen consort. Condemned in her lifetime as the ＂Popish brat of France,＂ an adulteress, and a traitor, she remains in popular memory the wife who wore the breeches in her marriage, the woman who turned her husband Catholic (and so caused the English Civil War), and a cruel and bigoted mother.

This clear-eyed biography unpicks the myths and considers the story from Henrietta Maria’s point of view. A portrait emerges of a woman whose closest friends included Puritans as well as Catholics, who crossed swords with Cardinal Richelieu, and led the anti-Spanish faction at the English court. A witty conversationalist, Henrietta Maria was a patron of the arts and a champion of the female voice, as well as a mediatrix for her persecuted fellow Catholics.

During the civil war, the queen’s enemies agreed that Charles would never have survived as long as he did without the ＂She Generalissimo.＂ Seeing events through her gaze reveals the truth behind the claims that she caused the war, explains her estrangement from her son Henry, and diminishes the image of the Restoration queen as an irrelevant crone. In fact, Henrietta Maria rose from the ashes of her husband’s failures--a ＂phoenix queen＂--presiding over a court judged to have had ＂more mirth＂ even than that of the Merry Monarch, Charles II.

It is time to look again at this often-criticized queen and determine if she is not, in fact, one of British history’s most remarkable women.

Leanda de Lisle is the New York Times bestselling author of Tudor: Passion, Manipulation, and Murder, as well as The White King, The Sisters Who Would Be Queen, and After Elizabeth. She has been a columnist on the Spectator, the Guardian, the Sunday Telegraph, and the Daily Express, and she writes for the Daily Mail, the New Statesman, and the Sunday Telegraph. She lives in Leicestershire, England.