Tea at Trianon: Children of Henri IV and Marie de' Medici

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, January 6, 2022

Children of Henri IV and Marie de' Medici

Henri IV, first Bourbon King of France

Marie de' Medici

Today we will discuss Henrietta Maria's parents and full siblings, Henrietta Maria being the heroine of my new novel, My Queen, My Love. Someday I will do a post on all the children of Henri IV.

Henri IV or Henri of Navarre has been celebrated by the French people as the monarch who was the epitome of justice, kindness, and virility. The fact of his many mistresses and bastards never hindered his popularity, so great were his achievements on behalf of the French people in ending the Wars of Religion. His childless first marriage with his cousin Marguerite de Valois was annulled so that he could have legitimate offspring. He married the much younger and extremely wealthy and beautiful Italian princess Maria de' Medici in 1600. Queen Marie was devoutly Catholic and, loving her husband, suffered from his unfaithfulness. After she bore several children, Henri had Marie crowned at Notre Dame de Paris. The day after her coronation in 1610, Henri was assassinated. Marie became the Regent for her young son, Louis XIII.

As Regent, Queen Marie chose to avoid war by making peace with the other Catholic powers of Spain and the Empire. She believed that Catholic monarchies should unite to keep Protestantism at bay. She sent her youngest daughter Henriette to marry in England because she believed there was a chance of bringing Charles I into Catholicism. In her later years, a falling-out with her oldest son Louis XIII led to her exile and eventual death in penury in Germany. On Marie de' Medici from Women of Style:

During her reign, Marie undertook several large art projects, including building and furnishing of the Palais du Luxembourg, she called “Palais Medicis”. Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, whom Marie met around the time of her wedding, was commissioned to create paintings glorifying her life and reign and this series of 21 paintings along with portraits of Marie and her family is now known as the Marie de Medici cycle and hangs in the Louvre.

The task of painting Marie’s life and triumphs was a difficult one since Rubens had to create 21 paintings about a woman whose life consisted of marriage, giving birth to six children, one of which died in infancy and political scandals that made any literal description of the events too controversial to execute without angering someone in government.

Rubens, already established as an exceptional painter, turned to classical literature and artistic traditions and used allegorical representations to glorify the queen’s achievements and sensitively illustrate the less favorable events in Marie’s life. He painted extravagant images of the Queen Mother surrounded by ancient gods. (Read more.)

Louis XIII

Louis XIII is most famous for being the King championed by The Three Musketeers. He embraced a policy which opposed his mother's and was helped by the advice of Cardinal de Richelieu. The King and Cardinal were determined that France would not be a satellite of the Holy Roman Empire but would continue as a power in her own right, even if it meant making treaties with Protestants. Here are some impressions of Louis XIII, from The Secret Lives of Royals, Aristocrats and Commoners:

Louis XIII was short, ungainly, and---until disease attacked him---inclined to corpulence. He was not beautiful, although Sully, who had served the royal house so faithfully, professed to admire the boy's regular features. His nose was too large, his head out of proportion to his body, his chin projected, his lover lip was unpleasantly thickened, and his mouth was usually half-open. Owing to the awkward formation of his palate he was compelled to speak little and slowly to avoid a trying stammer. He suffered from chronic gout, and it is almost certain that he had at least one epileptic fit. His teeth were decayed, and he was a continual invalid through persistent dyspepsia. Most of these physical defects may be traced in his family history. Many of them he bequeathed to his sons. Philip inherited his undersized stature as well as his brown hair and swarthy skin. In profile Louis XIV challenged comparison with the ancestral Bourbons, and was in more ways than one a true grandson of Henri IV. (Read more.)

Élisabeth of France, also called Isabel. Queen of Spain.

Élisabeth de France, called "Madame Royale" before her wedding, was married to Philip IV of Spain in an "exchange of princesses" in which the Daughter of France traded places with the Spanish Princess Anne of Austria, who married Élisabeth's brother Louis XIII. Her only surviving child the Infanta Maria Teresa became the first wife of Louis XIV.

Christine de France, Duchess of Savoy

Christine de France was the middle daughter and the only one not to become a queen, although she exercised considerable influence in the Duchy of Savoy and its environs. She was the mother of a large family and after her husband's premature death she was said to have taken a lover, which may or may not be true, since the same story is told of Henriette-Marie and her sister-in-law, Anne of Austria. Christine and Henriette wrote to each other all their lives and exchanged portraits of their children.

Monsieur d'Orléans

Monsieur d'Orléans died before he could be named, since the French royal children were named and christened when they were older. From Wikipedia:

Marie de' Medici gave birth to her fourth child, a son, at the Palace of Fontainebleau. Like all of her other children, he was born in the Oval room, later called the "Louis XIII salon".[1] Born at 22:00 on 16 April 1607, the day after Easter, the prince's birth was a source of tremendous joy for his father, King Henry. His newborn son was said to resemble him, possessing the same large nose and "sparkle of his father's eyes".[2] (Read more.)

Gaston of France, Duke of Orléans

Gaston of France, Duke of Orléans, born in 1608, was closest in age to Henriette and devoted to her and to their mother all his life. He was heir to the throne for many years, until Queen Anne gave birth to a son. He was often in trouble for plotting and for marrying without permission. His scheming caused turmoil in France during his brother's reign and during the reign of his nephew, Louis XIV.

Henriette-Marie de France as a child

Henriette-Marie of France is the protagonist of My Queen, My Love. It is the story of the fifteen-year-old French princess Henriette-Marie who is mandated by the Pope and her brother the King of France to convert the English back to Catholicism by marrying their King, Charles I. Meanwhile, the Catholic Faith is outlawed in the British Isles, so as Queen she becomes the #1 lawbreaker. The powerful Duke of Buckingham is trying to thwart her influence with her husband. And England has become known as a place where queens lose their heads.