Restoring Henrietta Maria’s English Household in the 1660s: Continuity, Kinship and Clientage

Abstract

After over fifteen years exile in France, Henrietta Maria returned to England in 1660 upon the restoration of Charles II. She spent two periods in England in the 1660s before her death in 1669 at her château in France. The English Crown fulfilled its obligations to the Queen Mother by restoring the income from her jointure estates, providing a generous pension and re-establishing her household. This article provides the first overview of Henrietta Maria’s household in the 1660s using her Treasurer’s accounts extant in the Duchy of Cornwall Office and the National Archives. Recording her officers and servants of the chamber, household, chapel and revenue as well as pensioners, these accounts reveal remarkable continuity — and some changes — with her households as Bourbon princess and Stuart queen. Service to Henrietta Maria crossed time and place, France and England, linking families and bolstering social and financial prospects.