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]
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  • Henrietta Maria: Conspirator, Warrior, Phoenix Queen

    Leanda de Lisle

    Chatto & Windus, pp. 342, £25

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The ‘experts’ who enabled RFK Jr’s rise

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The nomination of husky-voiced, musclebound Robert F. Kennedy Jr – who once dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park – to be secretary of health and human services in the Trump administration has horrified ‘experts’, according to the BBC. A left-wing Democrat who admires the late Venezuelan Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez, hates big business,

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