Henrietta Anne Stuart
Encyclopedia : H : HE : HEN : Henrietta Anne Stuart
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Early life
Henrietta was born at Bedford House, Exeter, at a time when the English Civil War was raging across the land. Two weeks after Henriette's birth, her mother, the Queen, fled the country leaving her in the care of Lady Villiers. 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 Henrietta's father Charles I was beheaded in 1649 and a republic was proclaimed in England, Henrietta's mother made her home at the French court, nominally presided over by her minor nephew, Louis XIV. Henrietta thus grew up at the French court.Duchesse d'Orléans
At age 17, Henrietta married her first cousin, Philippe duc d'Orléans, who was the younger son of her maternal uncle Louis XIII and the only brother of Louis XIV, then King of France. The wedding was held at the Chapel Palais Royal in Paris on March 31, 1661. The marriage was unhappy, and her husband preferred the affections of his gentlemen, who vied with Henriette for power. Rumored to have had an affair with her brother-in-law, the king (Louis XIV), she used her influence with Louis XIV to have her husband's favorite banished, marking the decline of the fortunes of the Duke's gentlemen, who, according to a contemporary account, hatched a plot to eliminate her.Henrietta-Anne was the mother of four children, being:
- Marie Louise d'Orléans (March 27, 1662 - February 12, 1689), who married Charles II of Spain on November 18, 1679.
- Philippe Charles, Duke of Valois (July 16, 1664 - December 8, 1666)
- Anna Maria d'Orléans (August 27, 1669 - August 26, 1728). On April 10, 1684 she married Victor Amadeus II of Savoy.
- A still-born daughter (July 9, 1665).
- Four other miscarriages in 1663, 1666, 1667 and 1668.
Diplomacy and Death
Henrietta-Anne 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. She died at the Palace of 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 favorite, 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. Robinson, James. "The History of Gastric Surgery" Chapter 20, page 239. The History of Gastroenterology.External link
Notes
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