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Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette

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Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette: Queenship and Revolution in Early Modern Europe By Carolyn Harris A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in History in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada May 2012 Copyright © Carolyn Harris 2012 Abstract: Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette: Queenship and Revolution in Early Modern Europe analyzes Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette in a thematic framework, focussing on the dialogue between their perceptions of themselves as heads of households, wives, and mothers and the expectations of their husbands’ subjects concerning the Queen Consort’s performance of these roles. The public nature of the Queen Consort’s position transformed the choices Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette made as wives and mothers into political acts with lasting implications for their respective royal houses. Both Queens approached their roles in a manner that ultimately contributed to the collapse of monarchical government. The question of the Queen’s actual activities and her contribution to popular discourse has been particularly neglected as the symbolism of Henrietta Maria, and especially Marie Antoinette has received more recent scholarly attention while discussion of each Queen’s actual motives has been relegated to popular biographies. The juxtaposition of the Queen’s own intentions with the expectations of her husband’s subjects provides a more complete picture of the ideological conflicts centering on the consort. These points of similarity and the comparative structure deepen the understanding of Henrietta Maria’s impeachment and Marie Antoinette’s trial because the juxtaposition of the two events reveals the continuous presence of the Queen Consort as a divisive figure throughout the Early Modern period. The comparison also demonstrates that both Queens attempted to actively shape their reputations according to the perceived extent of the public sphere in their lifetimes. Each Queen’s engagement with the charges levelled against her reveals the boundaries of public life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Comparative analysis of the experiences of the two Queens illuminates changes in the perception of monarchy, the place of women within their i families, the public sphere and ideas of foreignness that occurred over the course of Early Modern European history. ii Acknowledgements: Numerous institutions and agencies provided financial assistance for the research and writing of this dissertation. I would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC) for Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement that funded the bulk of my archival research. Generous support for this dissertation was also provided through the Queen’s University Graduate Awards, the William C. Leggett Graduate Fellowship and Timothy C.S. Franks Research Travel Grants. Without this support, the extensive archival research necessary for this project would not have been possible. During the course of my research, I was assisted by numerous helpful librarians and archivists in Europe. In Paris, I would like to thank the staff of the Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, Archives Nationale, Bibliotheque Nationale, Bibliotheque St. Genevieve and Bibliotheque de la Ville de Paris for deciphering my pronunciation, and my handwriting and helping me to find additional sources regarding Marie Antoinette. In London, I would like to thank the staff of the British Library, the Lambeth Palace Library, the National Art Library, the Parliamentary Archives at Westminster and the National Archives of the United Kingdom for directing me toward new material and answering my questions about papers pertaining to Henrietta Maria. I would also like to thank the staff of the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Sheffield Archives in Sheffield, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library in Toronto and Stauffer Library in Kingston. I have had the opportunity to discuss Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette with numerous scholars in the field of Early Modern Europe during the research of this dissertation. I would like to thank Karen Britland, James Collins, Joel Felix, Erin Griffey, Colin Jones, Malcolm Smuts, Dale Van Kley and Michelle Anne White for discussing my work with me and providing invaluable insights and suggestions. During my six months as a visiting overseas research student at Birkbeck College in 2009, I had the opportunity to work with the faculty of the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology. I would like to thank my guest advisor Julian Swann, as well as Laura Stewart, John Arnold and Sean Brady for their comments on my thesis proposal and suggestions for primary and secondary reading. My friends and colleagues at Queen’s University and other institutions have always been willing to provide support, encouragement and feedback on my ideas. In Kingston, I would like to thank Marisha Caswell, LeighAnn Coffey, Claire Cookson-Hills, Caralee Daigle, Rob Engen and Katie Griffiths in particular for their friendship and advice over the years. In England, Amy Tims, Anne Byrne and Sara Wolfson discussed my research with me and drew my attention to some interesting documents. In Toronto, I would like to thank Malka Siegel for her friendship and encouragement. iii At Queen’s University, Donald Akenson and Rebecca Manley have provided helpful feedback, suggestions and insightful comments. My PhD co-supervisors, Andrew Jainchill and Jeffrey Collins have guided this project since the writing of my MA cognate, “Motherhood and Marie Antoinette.” Their assistance and guidance has been invaluable to the completion of this dissertation and I am fortunate to have worked with them both. I am grateful to my parents, Richard and Sue Harris, my brother David Harris and my grandparents Desmond and Mary Harris and Bob Hanbidge for their tireless encouragement and support of my work. Finally, special thanks go to my fiancé Bruce Harpham. The research and writing of this dissertation often resulted in our living in separate cities, or occasionally separate countries, but he has always encouraged me in this project. He has been there for me throughout the research and writing of this dissertation with love and support. iv Table of Contents: Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..iv Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………….vi Chapter 1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2 Education, Example and Expectations…………………………………………………32 Chapter 3 Governing the Queen’s Household……………………………………………………..96 Chapter 4 Wife of the King……………………………………………………………………….161 Chapter 5 Mother of the Royal Children………………………………………………………….224 Chapter 6 The English Civil Wars and the French Revolution………………………………….288 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………356 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………….379 v Chapter 1: Introduction When Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) were deposed as King and Queen of France in 1791, there were few precedents for their situation. France had experienced numerous instances of dynastic change, critiques of unpopular monarchs and consorts, and even assassinations of royal personages. The formal deposition of a monarch by a representative body of the King’s former subjects, however, had not taken place in French history. To make sense of her new circumstances, Marie Antoinette reputedly drew parallels between her family’s situation and that of Charles I, Henrietta Maria and their children during the English Civil Wars. According to the memoirs of Jeanne Campan, the Queen’s First Lady of the Bedchamber, Marie Antoinette explained: [The King] had long since observed to her that all that was going forward in France was an imitation of the revolution in England in the time of Charles I, and that he was incessantly reading the history of that unfortunate monarch in order that he might act better than Charles had done at a similar crisis. “I begin to be fearful of the King being brought to trial,” continued the Queen; “as to me, I am a foreigner; they will assassinate me. What will become of my poor children?1 The dialogue Campan attributes to Marie Antoinette alludes to the sources of the Queen’s unpopularity at the time of collapse of the French monarchy. She was the foreign wife of the King and the mother of the royal children during a time of ideological debate concerning the role of women within their households. As the allusion to Louis XVI’s eventual trial demonstrates, the activities of the royal family, including their eventual condemnation, unfolded before the public gaze. The parallels between the situations of Charles I and Louis XVI have been recognized by scholars and popular writers alike since the French Revolution but the experiences of Henrietta 1 Jeanne Louise Campan, Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France ed. M de Lamartine, (Philadelphia:Parry and McMillan, 1854), p. 158-159. 1 Maria and Marie Antoinette have seldom been placed in a comparative framework. One of Campan’s editors, Michel de Lamartine annotated his text with the note, “There is nothing in history to which the misfortunes of Marie Antoinette can be compared but those of Henriette of France, daughter of Henry IV, wife of Charles I and mother of Charles II”2 but did not elaborate on different themes that might be used as points
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