Henrietta Maria (1609 - 1669). Henrietta Maria of France was queen consort of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I. She was mother of his two immediate successors, Charles II and James II and VII. Contemporaneously, by a decree of her husband, she was known in England as Queen Mary, but did not like this name and signed her letters Henriette R. Her Roman Catholicism made her unpopular in England, and also prohibited her from being crowned in a Church of England service; therefore she never had a coronation. She began to immerse herself in national affairs as civil war loomed on the horizon, and was compelled to seek refuge in France in 1644, following the birth of her youngest daughter, Henrietta, during the height of the First English Civil War. The execution of King Charles in 1649 left her impoverished. She settled in Paris, and then returned to England after the Restoration of her eldest son, Charles, to the throne. In 1665, she moved back to Paris, where she died four years later. The North American Province of Maryland, a major haven for Roman Catholic settlers, was named in her honour, and the name was carried over into the current U.S. state of Maryland. Henrietta Maria was the youngest daughter of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, Marie de' Medici, and named after her parents. She was born at the Palais du Louvre on 25 November 1609, but some historians give her a birth-date of 26 November. In England, where the Julian calendar was still in use, her date of birth is often recorded as 16 November. Henrietta Maria was brought up as a Catholic. As daughter of the Bourbon king of France, she was a Fille de France and a member of the House of Bourbon. She was the youngest sister of the future King Louis XIII of France. Her father was assassinated on 14 May 1610, when she was less than a year old. As a child, she was raised under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat. After her older sister, Christine Marie, married Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, in 1619, Henriette took the highly prestigious style of Madame Royale; this was used by the most senior royal princess at the French court. Henrietta Maria was trained, along with her sisters, in riding, dancing, and singing, and took part in the French court plays. Although tutored in reading and writing, she was not known for her academic skills; the princess was heavily influenced by the Carmelites at the French court. By 1622, Henrietta Maria was living in Paris with a household of some 200 staff, and marriage plans were being discussed. Henrietta Maria first met her future husband in Paris, in 1623, while he was travelling to Spain with the Duke of Buckingham to discuss a possible marriage with the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain-Charles first saw her at a French court entertainment. Charles's trip to Spain ended badly, however, as King Philip IV of Spain demanded he convert to Catholicism and live in Spain for a year after the wedding to ensure England's compliance with the terms of the treaty. Charles was outraged, and upon returning to England in October, he and Buckingham demanded that King James declare war on Spain. Searching elsewhere for a bride, Charles looked to France instead. The English agent Kensington was sent to Paris in 1624 to examine the potential French match, and the marriage was finally negotiated in Paris by James Hay and Henry Rich. Henrietta Maria was aged fifteen at the time of her marriage, but this was not unusually young for royal princesses of the period. Views on Henrietta Maria's appearance vary; her niece Sophia of Hanover commented that the beautiful portraits of Van Dyck had given me such a fine idea of all the ladies of England that I was surprised to see that the queen, who I had seen as so beautiful and lean, was a woman well past her prime. Her arms were long and lean, her shoulders uneven, and some of her teeth were coming out of her mouth like tusks. She did, however, have pretty eyes, nose, and a good complexion. Henrietta Maria married Charles at Notre Dame in Paris by proxy on 1 May 1625, shortly after his accession to the throne, Charles being represented by a French courtier. Charles and Henrietta Maria then spent their first night together at the royal palace of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, Kent, on 13 June 1625. When Charles was crowned in Westminster on 2 February 1626, Henrietta Maria's Catholic religion made it impossible for her to be crowned in an Anglican service; Henrietta Maria had proposed that Daniel de La Mothe Duplessis Houdancourt, the French Catholic Bishop of Mende, crown her instead, but this was unacceptable to Charles and the court.