Pocket Profile – Henrietta of England, Pearl Lover

This one is for the pearl lovers and history buffs among us – and if you are both, you are in for a bit of fun ; ). Thank you to geogirl for this post.

A Bit of Background

Henrietta of England (26 June 1644  – 30 June 1670) was the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. Henrietta fled from England to France with her governess at the age of three.  When she first arrived, she was known as Henrietta d’Angleterre or the princesse d’Angleterre.  She eventually moved to the court of her first cousin Louis XIV of France, where she was known as Minette.

While living at the French court, the princess was given the name Anne in honour of her aunt, the French queen Anne of Austria. During the Fronde, the civil war that raged in France between 1648 and 1653, Henrietta and her mother stayed at the Louvre.

On April 1, 1661, Henrietta married Philippe I, Duke of Orleanss, brother of King Louis XIV.  He was known as Monsieur and she became known as Madame.  She was the sister of Charles II (of England) and he agreed to give her a dowry of 840,000 livres  and a further 20,000 towards other expenses. She was also given, as a personal gift, 40,000 livres annually and the Chⴥau de Montargis as a private residence.

In 1667 Henrietta began complaining of an intermittent, intense pain in her side. At 2 o’clock in the morning of 30 June 1670, she died.  She was thought to be poisoned.  Seventeen French and two English physicians, the English ambassador, and roughly 100 other onlookers observed the autopsy, and though the official report stated “death from cholera morbus (gastroenteritis) caused by heated bile,” many observers disagreed.