View source for Henrietta Maria of France

25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669. Daughter of King Henry IV of France and Marie de Medici. Married to [[Charles I]]. Mother of [[Charles II]] and [[James II]]. This also made her the grandmother of [[Mary II]], [[William III]], and [[Anne I|Anne of Great Britain]].

Her marriage with Charles I in May 1625 was rather unpopular with the British, as well as with the Pope, because Henrietta Maria was a Roman [[Catholic]]. It was the first time that a Protestant prince married a Catholic princess. The political motivation behind this marriage was to form an alliance between France and England against Spain. 

During the [[Civil War|English Civil War]], she tried to help her husband in funding the war. In 1642 when the war started, she was in Europe and returned to England in 1643. When Charles I lost his power, she fled to France in 1644, taking her sons with her. After the execution of her husband in 1649, she moved to Paris and did not return to England until the [[Restoration]] in 1660. She then lived as “Queen Mother” in London for five years, until she permanently returned to live in France in 1665. 

In 1669 she died and was buried in the royal tombs at Saint Denis Basilica near Paris.

== Source ==
Plant, David. "Queen Henrietta Maria, 1609-69." ''BCW Project: British Civil Wars, Commonwealth & Protectorate 1638-1660'', http://bcw-project.org/biography/henrietta-maria.