Henrietta Maria is the most reviled consort ever to have worn the crown of the three kingdoms. Born a French princess, she has been accused of being ‘frivolous’, a spendthrift fashionista, with bad teeth, an adulteress, yet also a religious fanatic who ‘made Charles Catholic’ and caused the civil war; an unloving mother to her son, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, trying to force him to become Catholic out of sheer bigotry, while after the Restoration of Charles we are told she was an irrelevance, a shrivelled and bitter crone. Today Leanda De Lisle will reveal the real, extraordinary queen behind this black legend and turn reveal a new and much more interesting story.
Leanda de Lisle is the author of several historical biographies of the Tudor and Stuart periods, including Henrietta Maria - Conspirator, Warrior, Phoenix Queen; After Elizabeth: The Death of Elizabeth & the Coming of King James; The Sisters Who Would be Queen; The tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Grey; Tudor - The Family Story (1437-1603) and White King, a biography of Charles I and his loss of three kingdoms. leandadelisle.com
