A royal passion The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France

Stories of royal romance ordinarily involve kings and their acknowledged and shown-off mistresses or queens and their kept-secret male lovers. But occasionally popular historians enjoy bringing to the fore one of those uncommon arranged royal marriages that blossom into true romance. Such is the case with this biographer and her subject: the marriage of the ill-fated Charles I of England (executed in 1649, upon the termination of a civil war between monarch and Parliament) and the wife who brought a much-needed national alliance, Henrietta Maria, a princess of the French royal house. Whitaker pursues a more nuanced understanding of the royal pair as she chronicles a marriage that, granted, got off to a rocky start but definitely evolved into a love affair. She sees Charles less as the cold, arrogant, passive-aggressive person of historical reputation and more as a man who never faltered from his mission to uphold the religious and political principles in which he truly believed. The queen here is not a husband-domineering shrew but a woman of courage and drive. For good readers of European history and biography.--Hooper, Brad Copyright 2010 Booklist

According to British historian Whitaker (Mad Madge), Charles I attempted a military coup against Parliament because the legislature was on the verge of charging his beloved Catholic wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, with high treason, and Charles was determined to save her whatever the cost. That effort ended with Charles's defeat and execution, and a nine-year bloody civil war that led to the birth of the first modern republic. For reasons of international diplomacy, Protestant Charles had wed the Catholic sister of France's Louis XIII. The early years of their marriage were tempestuous because of religious differences and the machinations of Charles's adviser, the Duke of Buckingham. But Charles clung to his wife after Buckingham's assassination, involving her in major political decisions. Parliament became alarmed that by seeking Catholic funding for Charles's war with rebel Scots, Henrietta was involved in a dangerous Catholic conspiracy to enable Charles to govern without Parliament. Making judicious use of wide-ranging primary sources, including the couple's letters, memoirs, and speeches, this persuasive and perceptive biography of a marriage gives Henrietta her due as Charles's shrewd, capable political ally. 16 pages of illus. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A royal couple known for their part in bringing about religious unease and the English Civil War, Charles I of England and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, are reexamined in this revisionist study. Whitaker (Mad Madge: The Extraordinary Life of Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle, the First Woman To Live by Her Pen) examines well-known and lesser-known works with fresh eyes and relies on primary sources to tell a more personal story of the Catholic Henrietta and the Protestant Charles. Quotations from their letters, speeches, reports, and other contemporary writings, in addition to Whitaker's extensive research into their personal lives, allow her to reach new conclusions about their personalities and relationships-with each other and others at court and beyond. Each of her book's three parts covers a period of their marriage, from the couple's first meeting, which occurred after their wedding, to Charles's death at the hands of his subjects. The accompanying illustrations add context to Whitaker's descriptions. Verdict Whitaker weaves primary sources seamlessly into her character-driven history, offering a window into life in 17th-century England. This will appeal to readers of historical romance as well as English history.-Elizabeth Nelson, UOP Lib., Des Plaines, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

More questions than answers emerge from this intriguing look at the problematic marriage that helped spark the English Civil War.Whitaker (Mad Madge, 2003, etc.) is adept at depicting the spirit and temper of this age of religious fervor, while avoiding finer academic distinctions and hard contextual references. She calls the marriage of Charles I and Henrietta Maria "one of the greatest romances of all time," yet it was roiled by crises largely due to Henrietta's supercilious intractability, and the author can't disguise her ambivalence toward the Catholic zealot who rubbed the English the wrong way. Freshly perusing primary sources, including correspondence between Charles and Henrietta, Whitaker finds that the 1625 political match grew into a warm marriage and meeting of the minds, despite religious differences. She was the lively, outspoken younger sister of Louis XIII, daughter of the terrifying Marie de Medici and assassinated Huguenot King Henri IV. He was the browbeaten son of England's James I, for years swayed by the influence of his father's favorite, Lord Buckingham. Henrietta's huge train of Catholic ladies and her religious rituals at Somerset House scandalized the English, and at one point her retinue was sent packing back to France. By the 1630s, after years of luxurious living and numerous children, Charles' animus against Parliament led him to take increasingly provocative steps, including the persecution of Puritans and the reinstatement of high church ceremonies viewed by a suspicious populace as the run-up to outright popery. Whitaker's study shows that with each challenge the royal couple grew more immovable and unbending; Henrietta's pleas for concessions to Scottish Presbyterianism came too late. Would the Civil War have ended differently had the queen had stayed by her husband's side instead of fleeing to France? This is among the many issues that the author does not thoroughly address.Compelling but frustratingly narrow and not terribly convincing.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.