Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and Patronage (review)

Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and Patronage is a scholarly volume of interdisciplinary essays that deftly explores the vibrant role Queen Henrietta Maria (1609–69) in Caroline England. At the heart of this collection is a quest to understand more fully the nuances of political and cultural influence that stemmed from Henrietta Maria’s position as a French Roman Catholic queen consort. These essays are especially timely as they widen current debate on the significant power of elite women by spotlighting hitherto less explored cultural forms, ranging from sacred music in the queen’s chapel to the visual representation of Catholic devotion in Stuart portraiture.

What emerges most forcibly throughout this collection are the inextricable links forged among the volume’s three key strands: piety, politics, and patronage. Quite rightly, Griffey places piety at the heart of this triumvirate. It is well documented how, as a Counter-Reformation princess, Henrietta Maria was urged by both her godfather, Pope Urban VIII, and her mother, Marie de Medici, to act as a “parent” to English Catholics. As Diana Barnes reminds us, Henrietta Maria entered a country where the very survival of the old faith had depended on a female subculture. Henrietta Maria’s fostering of a Catholic revival that directly shaped both her politics and her patronage is especially resonant.

Interestingly, literary studies have documented how on the elite stage Henrietta Maria showcased her Counter-Reformation vision from as early as 1627 with her remarkable performance in Honorat de Bueil Racan’s L’Artenice. However, Griffey, in a fascinating exploration of devotional jewelry in the queen’s portraits, argues that on canvas, such a bold representation was not fully realized until 1636—that watershed year that witnessed an astonishing revival of court Catholicism under the queen’s auspices. Yet, suggestively (and perhaps unsurprisingly), as the fine essays by Jessica Bell and Gudrun Raatschen intimate, there are earlier glimpses of this self-presentation, such as in the Marian imagery (from roses to pearls) that repeatedly infuse Henrietta Maria’s portraits.

One strength of this volume is a probing assessment of the inevitable constraints within which Henrietta Maria operated. Thus, in an illuminating essay that revisits a seminal article, Malcolm Smuts convincingly examines the complexity of the religio-political landscape in Stuart England to unpack seemingly unexpected cross-confessionalisms, such as Henrietta Maria’s ready engagement with leading Puritans to further her political aims. Caroline Hibbard reminds us of the importance of the dynamics of conjugal patronage by teasing out, through a forensic archival analysis of the queen’s household accounts, an active artistic collaboration between the royal spouses from as early as 1628.

Crucially, this focus on the power and influence of early-modern queenship draws attention to a material and political culture that might otherwise have disappeared. Karen Britland offers a fascinating exploration of the machinations behind Henrietta Maria’s active support for a French acting troupe; Sarah Poynting perceptively assesses the queen’s complicated relationship with playwright-courtier Walter Montague, which culminated in a dynamic staging of the moral element of female political power in The Shepherd’s Paradise (1633); and Jonathan Wainwright tantalizingly speculates on the progressive nature of the sacred music performed in the queen’s chapel.

These stimulating and beautifully illustrated essays, which are firmly anchored in original research, are warmly recommended and fully succeed in Griffey’s aim for the collection: not to downplay King Charles I but to bring Queen Henrietta Maria back onto the stage.