Anna Keay

Why was Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s beautiful wife, so reviled?

Being French, Catholic and a woman made her the perfect scapegoat for royal misrule in Parliamentarian eyes, says Leanda de Lisle

One of many portraits of Henrietta Maria by Anthony van Dyck. [Alamy] 
issue 20 August 2022

On 15 June 1645, as Thomas Fairfax’s soldiers picked over the scattered debris on the Naseby battlefield, they made a sensational discovery. Amid the corpses and musket balls, dismembered limbs and severed swords there nestled a carrying case of personal letters and papers. It was nothing less than the king’s private correspondence.

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