by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2013
Princess Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans; Credit – Wikipedia
Known as Henrietta-Anne during her years at the French court, she is an ancestor of the royal families of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Spain. When the line of Henriette-Anne’s brother King James II of England died out, the Jacobite claims to the British throne descended from her daughter Anne Marie d’Orléans, Queen of Sardinia. The Orléanist pretenders to the French throne and the Savoy pretenders to the Italian throne descend from Henrietta-Anne.
Princess Henrietta was born on June 16, 1644, amid the English Civil War, at Bedford House in Exeter, England, the home of William Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford, where her mother had fled from Oxford, England to safety. It was in Oxford shortly before her birth that Henrietta’s parents, King Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, last saw each other. Henrietta Maria’s parents were King Henri IV of France, who had been assassinated when she was a year old, and Marie de Medici from the famous House of Medici.
Princess Henrietta, drawing by Anthony Van Dyck; Credit – Wikipedia
Henrietta’s siblings who survived infancy:
- Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1630 – 1685), married Catherine of Braganza, no issue, had at least 14 illegitimate children with his mistresses
- Mary, Princess Royal (1631 – 1660), married Willem II, Prince of Orange, had one child William III of England who married his cousin Mary II of England
- James VII and II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1633 – 1701), married (1) Anne Hyde, had issue including Mary II of England and Anne, Queen of Great Britain; married (2) Mary of Modena, had issue including James Edward Francis Stuart, The Old Pretender
- Princess Elizabeth (1635 – 1650), no issue
- Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1640 – 1660), no issue
Henrietta on the right with her brother James and Charles, circa 1660; Credit – Wikipedia
Henrietta was well connected to European royalty through her maternal aunts and uncles: Louis XIII, King of France; Elisabeth, Queen of Spain, wife of Philip IV, King of Spain; Christine Marie, Duchess of Savoy, wife of Vittorio Amedeo I, Duke of Savoy; and Gaston, Duke of Orléans. Her only surviving paternal aunt or uncle was Elizabeth Stuart who married Frederick V, Elector Palatine. It was through Elizabeth’s daughter Sophia that the Protestant Hanovers came to the British throne in 1714 through the 1701 Act of Settlement.
About a month after Henrietta’s birth, her mother went to France to ask her nephew, King Louis XIV, for assistance for the Royalist side in the English Civil War. Henrietta was left in the care of Lady Dalkeith (born Anne Villiers, the daughter of Sir Edward Villiers). While in Lady Dalkeith’s care, King Charles I saw his daughter for the first time and ordered her baptized with the Church of England rites. In 1646, Lady Dalkeith disguised herself and the princess as peasants and fled to France, reuniting the princess with her mother. Lady Dalkeith was Princess Henrietta’s governess in France until 1651.
At the French court, Henrietta was given the additional name of Anne, in honor of Anne of Austria, widow of King Louis XIII and mother of King Louis XIV. Thereafter, the princess was known as Henriette-Anne, but she was called Minette by her family and friends. Mother and daughter were given apartments at the Louvre Palace, the use of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and a pension, much of which was given to King Charles I in England and to royalist exiles in France. In January 1649, King Charles I was beheaded and Henriette-Anne and her mother moved to the Palais Royal with her cousins King Louis XIV and Philippe, Duke of Orléans and their mother Anne of Austria, Dowager Queen of France. At this time Henrietta Maria decided to have her daughter brought up as a Roman Catholic.
Henrietta Maria wanted her daughter to marry her cousin King Louis XIV, but his mother was against the marriage. Instead, Louis married Maria Theresa of Spain, another first cousin, in 1660. Also in 1660, the monarchy was restored in England and Henriette-Anne’s oldest brother became King Charles II. Now that Henriette-Anne was the sister of the English king, her cousin Philippe became interested in marrying her. Philippe had homosexual affairs, but apparently, he was intent on fulfilling his dynastic responsibility of having children. The cousins married on April 1, 1661, and moved into the Palais des Tuileries. Philippe was styled Monsieur and so Henrietta was then styled as Madame. Henriette-Anne and Philippe had four children. Some members of the French court doubted their children’s paternity. Henriette-Anne had affairs, including an affair with her husband’s lover Guy Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche.
- Marie Louise of Orléans (1662 – 1689), married Carlos II, King of Spain, no children
- Philippe Charles d’Orléans, Duke of Valois (1664 –1666) died in infancy
- Anne Marie d’Orléans (1669 –1728) married Vittorio Amedeo II, Duke of Savoy (future King of Sardinia), had children
Henrietta with her daughter Marie Louise by Jean Nocret, 1670; Credit – Wikipedia
Henriette-Anne regularly corresponded with the playwrights Molière and Racine, and the fabulist La Fontaine. She was interested in gardening and created the water gardens at the Palais Royal. She also had a large art collection focusing on the Flemish artist Van Dyck and the Italian artist Correggio. In 1669, Henriette-Anne’s mother Henrietta Maria died after mistakenly taking too many opiates as a painkiller.
The Death of the Duchess of Orléans; Credit – Wikipedia
Beginning in 1667, Henriette-Anne’s health started to suffer. She had pains in her side and her digestive problems became so severe that she could only drink milk. On June 29, 1670, Henriette-Anne drank a glass of iced chicory water and immediately felt severe pain in her side. She thought she had been poisoned and asked to be given an antidote. The last rites were administered and Henriette-Anne died on June 30, 1670, at the age of 26, at the Château de Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, France. There were rumors that her husband’s lover Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine had poisoned her.
An autopsy was conducted by 17 French doctors and two English doctors and attended by the British ambassador and an audience of 100. The official report stated that Henriette-Anne died from “cholera morbus caused by heated bile” which was a medical diagnosis at the time for acute gastroenteritis occurring in summer and autumn with severe cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. Many of the autopsy observers disagreed with this diagnosis. Henriette-Anne was buried at the Basilica of St. Denis near Paris, the burial site of the Kings of France and their families.
Henrietta’s funeral; Credit – Wikipedia
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