(In general, the Stuart spelling is used to denote the Dynasty when James came to the Throne of what would be Great Britain. This spelling came in to fashion after Mary, Queen of Scots spent her childhood and first marriage in France. The Stewart spelling generally refers to the Dynasty while it reigned previously in Scotland alone.)
James I of England and Great Britain was the son of the deposed and executed Mary, Queen of Scots and ruled Scotland first as King James VI. As a descendant of King Henry VII of England and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I he became King James I when God Queen Bess died.
James's (second) son and heir, King Charles I, would eventually end up losing not only the Throne, but, quite famously, his head. This lead the country into a republican phase under the 'reign' of Oliver Cromwell whose own son and successor, Richard, could not prevent the Restoration and the return of Charles's son, also called Charles.
The Jacobean and Caroline reigns saw continued struggles, but the two Kings handled the situation differently.
HM King James I and VI
The young king was kept fairly isolated but was given a good education until the age of 14. He studied Greek, French, and Latin and made good use of a library of classical and religious writings that his tutors assembled for him. This education aroused in James literary ambitions rarely found in princes but which also tended to make him somewhat pedantic
For several years James remained the puppet of contending intriguers and faction leaders. After falling under the influence of the Duke of Lennox, a Roman Catholic who schemed to win back Scotland for Queen Mary, James was kidnapped by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, in 1582 and was forced to denounce Lennox. The following year James escaped from his Protestant captors and began to pursue his own policies as king. His chief purpose was to establish his claim to succeed the childless Elizabeth I upon the throne of England by cultivating her goodwill, even concluding an alliance with England. Even Elizabeth’s execution of his Mother the following year, in 1587, drew from him only formal protests.
James was able to rule Scotland almost as absolutely as Elizabeth ruled England, making him the ideal candidate to succeed the apparently indecisive Queen. So, when James eventually came to the Throne of England on 24th March 1603, he was already, as he told the English Parliament, “an old and experienced king”, with a clearly defined theory of royal government. Unfortunately, James hardly understood the English Parliament, and he thus came into conflict with it. His fondness for lecturing both houses of Parliament about his royal prerogatives offended them. To parliamentary statesmen used to Tudor dignity, James ill befitted his exalted claims to power and privilege.
The Gunpowder Plot in 1605 was a plan to assassinate James, a strict Presbyterian, cause a people's revolt in the Midlands and place James's young daughter Elizabeth on the Throne as a Catholic queen after hopes of securing greater religious tolerance under King James had faded. We all know how that ended.
The death of his chief minister, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury in 1612 was a turning point for James, especially as he had dissolved parliament the year before. He fell back on the advice of favourites such as the incompetent Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. James disastrously recalled Parliament in 1621 to try and ally England with Spain against his own Protestant son-in-law, Frederick of the Palatine (Elizabeth's husband).
Buckingham allied himself with James's son Charles who had become heir when James's first son, Henry Frederick died of typhoid fever in 1612 and effectively ran the country as James's health deteriorated, dying in 1625 at his favourite country residence, Theobalds, in Hertfordshire.
James left a body of somewhat mediocre writings which might entitle him to a unique place among British kings since the time of Alfred the Great. These include the famous treatise, A Counterblaste to Tobacco, 1604. In addition, he famously oversaw a new authorized English translation of the Bible, published in 1611, which became known as the King James Version.
Naturally, as James was already King of Scotland, he brought along the Scottish Royal Arms to those of England to make up Great Britain. At this time the Kings of England also laid claim to the French throne, therefore the Arms of the Kingdom of England were themselves already quartered with those of the Kingdom of France (Modern). A Quarter was also added for Ireland for the first time. (The Harp had been adopted as the symbol of the new Kingdom of Ireland, established by Henry VIII, in 1541. The first King of England to be called Lord of Ireland had been King Henry II who had been granted the title by Pope Adrian IV in 1155. However, both titles were felt to be personal and therefore the Arms were not incorporated. In establishing a new Dynasty, James obviously felt otherwise.) The Scottish Supporter of a Unicorn was incorporated with the crowned Lion of England. They have remained the Supporters of the British Royal Arms ever since.
The Arms of Great Britain therefore became:
Quarterly, 1st & 4th Grand Quarters: quarterly of four, 1&4 France Modern (Azure three Fleurs-de-Lys or); 2&3 England (Gules, three Lions passant guardant in pale or armed and langued azure) (Plantagenet); 2nd Quarter: Scotland (Or a Lion rampant gules armed and langued azure within a Double Tressure flory-counter-flory of the second); 3rd Quarter: Ireland (Azure a Harp Or, stringed argent). The whole surrounded by the Garter; for a Crest, upon the Royal Helm the imperial Crown proper, thereon a Lion statant guardant or imperially crowned proper; Mantling or and ermine; for Supporters, dexter a Lion rampant guardant or crowned as the Crest, sinister a Unicorn argent armed, crined and unguled proper, gorged with a Coronet or composed of Crosses patée and Fleurs-de-Lys a Chain affixed thereto passing between the Forelegs and reflexed over the Back also or; Motto 'Dieu et mon Droit' in the Compartment below the shield, with the Tudor Rose, Thistle and Shamrock.
In 1589 James was married to Anne, the daughter of Frederick II of Denmark. They had only three children who lived to adulthood, including the fated Henry, as we shall see.
Anne of Denmark
Although sent to live with her maternal Grandparents, the Duke and Duchess of Mecklenburg, along with her siblings, they were soon returned and enjoyed a close, happy family upbringing in Denmark thanks largely to Queen Sophie who nursed the children through their illnesses herself.
Anne was betrothed to James at the age of 14. On her journey to Scotland she was marooned in Norway and James made the chivalrous decision to travel out and rescue her. Her Lutheran upbringing and apparent frivolous nature cost her the affection of James’s Scottish Presbyterian subjects, and James alienated Anne by entrusting the upbringing of their first son, Prince Henry (1594–1612), to John Erskine, 2nd Earl of Mar. Anne showed an independent streak and was not afraid to challenge her husband and manipulated political factions to achieve her own ends.
Nevertheless, once James ascended the British throne in 1603, he and Anne lived in harmony as the new Royal Family, although they had separate quarters during the last few years of her life and Anne set up a lavish and costly Court of her own. Most of the Queen’s time and energy were devoted to lavish entertainments, and her patronage contributed to the development of the arts, particularly of the masque.
No one is particularly sure of what Anne died of but an inquest found her to be "much wasted within, specially her liver". Although he did not visit her during her last illness, James was moved to write poetry of her death.
Anne simply combined her Father's Arms from Denmark with those of her Husband. King Frederick of Denmark showed the following Quarterings: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Kingdoms of the Goths and the Vandals. Those were separated by the red-edged white Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog. Then, on an Inescutcheon, were shown Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Ditmarsken, with, overall, another Inescutcheon impaling Oldenburg with Delmenhorst. The Supporters are the English Lion and the Danish Wildman with his Club.
Children of James and Anne
- Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (19th February 1594 – 6th November 1612). See below.
- Elizabeth (19th August 1596 – 13th February 1662). See below.
- Margaret (24th December 1598, Dalkeith Palace – March 1600, Linlithgow Palace). Buried at Holyrood Abbey.
- Charles I, King of England (19th November 1600 – 30th January 1649). See below.
- Robert, Duke of Kintyre (18th January 1602 – 27th May 1602). Died aged four months.
- Mary (8th April 1605, Greenwich Palace – 16th December 1607, Stanwell, Surrey). Died aged two.
- Sophia (22nd June 1606 – 23rd June 1606). Born and died at Greenwich Palace.
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
He was thought to have great promise as a Prince although he had violent anti-Catholic opinions. Accomplished in sports he was also a patron of the arts and an avid collector.
He was Duke of Rothesay (Earl of Carrick, Lord of the Isles) from birth as heir to the Scottish Throne and, in 1610, he was created Prince of Wales. But he died suddenly, probably due to typhoid fever, on 6th November 1612.
Duke of Rothesay is currently still the dynastic title of the heir apparent to the British throne when in Scotalnd, along with the other Scottish titles, including those of Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, the son of King Robert III of Scots, first held the dukedom from its creation in 1398. After his death, his brother James, later King James I, received the dukedom. Thereafter, the heir apparent to the Scottish Crown held the dukedom; an Act of the Parliament of Scotland passed in 1469 confirmed this pattern of succession. The Earldom of Carrick existed as early as the 12th century. In 1306, Robert the Bruce, Earl of Carrick, became King Robert I of Scotland, with the earldom merging in the Crown. The office of the Great Steward of Scotland (also called High Steward or Lord High Steward) dates back to its first holder, Walter fitz Alan, in the 12th century. The seventh Great Steward, Robert, ascended the Scots throne as Robert II and created the House of Stewart in 1371. The 1469 Act also confirmed these titles. |
Heraldic symbols for the Clan MacDonald include Eagles and Lymphads. A Lymphad is an heraldic name for a Galley or Ship and is primarily used in Scottish Heraldry. The word comes from the Scottish Gaelic long fhada, meaning a long ship. (The Lymphad was chosen by the author as the main Charge on his Shield as our family (our surname was originally spellt Murdoch) is from Scotland and is of the Clan MacDonald.)
In 1475, James III discovered the Lord of the Isles' actions, and the Lordship became subject to forfeiture. MacDonald later regained his position, but James IV again deprived him of his titles in 1493 after his nephew provoked a rebellion. In 1540 James V of Scotland granted the Lordship to the heirs apparent to the Crown.
There appears to be no real evidence that Henry Frederick made use of the Scottish side of his heraldic inheritance before his Father ascended the English Throne as well. Naturally, he then took on the plain white three-pointed Label of the Heir to Throne, placed on his Father's/the Monarch's Arms and it is presumed that this came from his Investiture as Prince of Wales in 1610. The Investiture was celebrated with a pageant during which his Mother gave him a sword encrusted with diamonds, intended to represent justice.
Largely an invention or conglomeration of Arms for the present Duke of Rothesay in the 1970's, the Arms of the Heir to the British Throne whilst in Scotland incorporate the blue and white chequered Band across a gold background - to represent the Great Steward of Scotland and a black Galley with red Flags on a white background to represent the Lord of the Isles. Superimposed in the centre is a small gold Shield with the red Lion rampant within a red Double Tressure on it, charged with a blue Label of 3 points which represents the Duke of Rothesay as heir to the Scottish Throne. (The Earldom of Carrick is not directly represented.)
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia ("The Winter Queen")
She was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. William Shakespeare is reputed to have relaesed his play 'The Tempest' as part of the wedding celebrations. The title of Winter Queen came about because of the brief period of just one winter when the royal couple reigned before defeat by the Habsburg Emperor after which they then fled to the safety of The Hague. Frederick died in 1632 leaving Elizabeth destitute and needing financial support from Lord Craven who had been a loyal friend to her husband.
After the restoration, Elizabeth was able to return to London with a small pension from Charles I and lived in a number of houses, including Ashdown House, which was owned by Lord Craven. Her had it built in about 1660, supposedly as a refuge for the Queen from plague ridden London, but sadly she died of pneumonia before it was completed.
The above print shows Elizabeth's Arms (those of her Father) alongside those of her husband. Elizabeth was not granted a Label. Heraldry was still largely patriarchal in those days and so Elizabeth used her Father's Arms. In 1156 Conrad of Hohenstaufen, brother of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa became Count Palatine. The old Coat of Arms of the House of Hohenstaufen, the single Lion, became the Coat of Arms of the Palatinate. By marriage, the Palatinate's arms also became quartered with those of Wittelsbach or Bavaria. The lozengy Arms of Bavaria were used with reference to the elector's holdings in that area. This came into effect upon the ascension of Maximilian I to the position of Elector of the Palatinate in 1623. The orb represented their position as Arch-Steward of the Holy Roman Empire. (What a coincidence that a member of the Scottish steward family married into a German steward family...) |
Elizabeth and Frederick's third son was the famous Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Army officer, admiral and scientist, Rupert was the most talented Royalist commander of the English Civil War. His tactical genius and daring as a cavalry officer brought him many victories early on, but his forces were eventually overcome by the more highly disciplined Parliamentary army. Rupert took charge of the small Royalist fleet in 1648 and began to prey, not too successfully, on Parliamentary shipping. In 1653 he returned with only one ship and a few prizes to France, where his cousin Charles, later Charles II, had his court in exile. After quarreling with Charles, Rupert went into retirement in Germany. But, after the Restoration of 1660, Rupert was made a privy councillor and given naval commands in the second and third Dutch Wars (1665–67 and 1672–74). Charles II also made him Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness. During the years before his death, Rupert dabbled in scientific experiments and introduced the art of mezzotint printmaking into England. |
Elizabeth's death caused little public stir at the time. However, when William Duke of Gloucester, the only surviving child of the future Queen Anne, died in 1700 and King William III did not look as if he was going to re-marry after the death of Queen Mary II, there was a need for a Protestant heir. The Act of Settlement was brought in the following year and settled the future of the British Crown on Elizabeth's youngest daughter Sophia of Hanover and her issue, as long as they were Protestants or, more accurately, as long as they weren't Catholics. The Sophia Naturalization Act of 1705 reinforced this. Not considered to be an Englishwoman as she had not been born in England, this Act naturalized Sophia and "the issue of her body" as English subjects. Any person born to a descendant of Sophia could claim to be the "issue of her body", which is what Prince Frederick of Prussia succeeded in doing in 1947. Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia also succeeded even after the Act was repealed in 1948 as they had been born when the Act was still in force. |
HM King Charles I
He was a sickly child, and, when his father became king of England, he was temporarily left behind in Scotland because of the risks of the journey. Devoted to his elder brother, Henry, and to his sister, Elizabeth, he became lonely when Henry died and his sister left England in 1613 to marry Frederick V, Elector of the Rhine Palatinate.
All his life Charles had a Scots accent and a slight stammer. Small in stature, he was less dignified than his portraits suggest. He was always shy and struck observers as being silent and reserved. His excellent temper, courteous manners, and lack of vices impressed all those who met him, but he lacked the common touch, travelled about little, and never mixed with ordinary people. A patron of the arts (notably of painting and tapestry), he brought both Van Dyck and another famous Flemish painter, Peter Paul Rubens, to England). He was sincerely religious, and the character of the court became less coarse as soon as he became king. From his Father he acquired a stubborn belief in the Divine Right of Kings and his earliest surviving letters reveal a distrust of the unruly House of Commons with which he proved incapable of coming to terms.
Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch. His religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic (Henrietta Maria of France), generated antipathy and mistrust from Reformed religious groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters, who thought his views were too Catholic. He failed to aid continental Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years' War and his attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops' Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments, and helped precipitate his own downfall.
From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War. After his defeat in 1645, he surrendered to a Scottish force that eventually handed him over to the English Parliament. Charles refused to accept his captors' demands for a constitutional monarchy, and temporarily escaped captivity in November 1647. Re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight, Charles forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648 Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army had consolidated its control over England. Charles was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason in January 1649. The monarchy was abolished, and the Commonwealth of England was established as a republic. The monarchy, as we have seen previously, would be restored to Charles's son, Charles II, in 1660.
Charles was appointed Duke of York in 1604, having been created Duke of Albany two years earlier, and, whilst installed as a Knight of the Garter in 1611, he had no Stall Plate to confirm what his Label was at the time. Elias Ashmole in The History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (1715) apparently maintains that he bore a white Label of three Points each each of which was charged with three Torteaux (or red discs) as shown in the graphic above. This was the traditional Label of Plantagenet/Yorkist dukes of York. He may have followed Henry VIII, who as Duke of York had an ermine Label, just as Charles’s own second Son, James (II & VII), did.
Either way, with the death of his elder Brother, Henry Frederick, Charles became Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay and changed to the plain white Label. He was then invested as Prince of Wales in 1616.
Interestingly, J. H. & R. V. Pinches in The Royal Heraldry of England (1974) show an illustration of a rather battered seal saying that it shows Charles’s Arms as Prince of Wales with the usual Shield with a plain Label. The Supporters appear to be an English Lion (though whether guardant or not isn’t entirely clear) and a Dragon with a tail nowy (or tied loosely in a knot) both with a Label of three Points.
Charles retained his Father's Coat of Arms as King.
Charles married Henrietta Maria of France shortly after the death of his Father and after the failed plans by his Father and the Duke of Buckingham to marry him off to the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain.
Henrietta Maria of France
In 1625, at the age of 15, she was married to Charles. At first, she was treated rudely and disrespectfully by Charles’s favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and this severely strained her relationship with the King. But after the assassination of Buckingham in August 1628, Charles fell in love with his wife and their first child, Charles James, though a stillbirth, was born the following year.
(It hadn't helped that a decree by her husband stated that she was to be known in England as Queen Mary. She did not like this name and signed her letters "Henriette R" as her given name in France was Henriette Marie.)
She was a patron of drama and generally presided over a lively court, but, as the Civil War approached, Henrietta Maria began to meddle in politics. She sought without success to instigate a military coup to overthrow the Parliamentarians, and her efforts to enlist support for the King from the Pope, the French and the Dutch infuriated many Englishmen. When war broke out in August 1642, she was in the Netherlands raising funds for her husband. She landed at Bridlington, Yorkshire, in February 1643 and set about reinvigorating the Royalist cause in northern England. Deterioration of the Royalist position caused her to flee to France in July 1644, and she never saw her husband again.
In Paris she settled for a time in the Louvre and later in the Palais Royal, but she played little further part in politics. An attempt to convert her youngest son, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, to Roman Catholicism alienated her from her eldest surviving son, Prince Charles (the future Charles II).
She founded a convent at Chaillot where she spent much time and, after the Restoration she visited England, being granted a pension of £60,000 a year. She paid two further visits to England but was not comfortable there and finally returned to France in 1665. She died from an overdose of prescribed opiates to cure her bronchitis at Château de Colombes, near Paris, four years later.
Her Arms were those of her Husband (Great Britain) and her Father (France and Navarre). Henry inherited the French Throne on the assassination of his Brother-in-Law and distant Cousin King Henry III who was childless. He had already inherited the Throne of Navarre on the death of his Mother, Jeanne III.
Henrietta Maria brought France Modern (Azure, three Fleurs-de-Lys or) to the British Royal Coat of Arms again as the Kings of England had a longstanding and largely now ceremonial claim to the French Throne themselves. Henrietta Maria and all of Henry IV's descendants impaled the Arms of France with those of Navarre. This small country, on the French-Spanish border, is now a region of Spain. The blazon is as follows:
Gules, a Cross, Saltire and Orle of Chains linked together or, in the Fess point an Emerald vert.
An early appearance of the symbol was in a seal of Theobald I of Navarre. This design may have been based on the heraldic Carbuncle symbol of eight radially arranged rods, which has its origins in the iron bands and bosses historically used to strengthen shields By the 15th century, mythology would trace its origin back to the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 involving Sancho VII of Navarre, where the cavalry broke the chains of the caliph's slave-warriors and captured an emerald. Following the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre in 1512, the Coat of Arms of Navarre was incorporated into that of Spain, and it is currently positioned in the fourth Quarter. From 1589, when Henrietta Maria’s Father also became King of France, to the French revolution in 1792, the royal Arms of France also used the Arms of Navarre and they are now part of those used by the French Départment of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The Coat of Arms of the Basque Country adopted in 1936 included the Arms of Navarre in the fourth Quarter, but these were soon suppressed by Franco. Following his death, they were revived. But, following a legal suit by the Navarre government, the Constitutional Court of Spain forced the Basque government to remove the chains of Navarre in 1986, leaving the Quarter plain red. |
Having said all that, some representations of Henrietta Maria's Coat of Arms drop the Arms of Navarre and have only France Modern impaling Britain. This may largely be because of Henrietta Maria's own seal. Whilst the one side shows her Arms in full, the other side, showing her as Queen, with a regal canopy and carrying an orb and scepter even though she was never crowned as she refused to go through a Protestant ceremony, the two separated crowned shields show Britain on one side of the canopy and France Modern alone on the other side. Henrietta Maria's paternal Supporter is an Angel. This had been France's Supporter since about the 1420's. With the accession of Henry IV, the Angels began to be adorned with clothing or a Tabard showing Fleurs-de-Lys. The Angels replaced previous Supporters, such as the emblems of the Four Evangelists, and Saint Denis and Saint Remi. |
Children of Charles and Henrietta Maria
- Charles James, Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay (13th May 1629). Born and died the same day. Buried as "Charles, Prince of Wales".
- Charles II (29th May 1630 - 6th February 1685). See previous Blog.
- Mary Henrietta, Princess Royal (4th November 1631 - 24th December 1660). Married William II, Prince of Orange (1626–1650) in 1641. She had one child: William III. See below.
- James II & VII (14th October 1633 - 6 September 1701). See previous Blog.
- Elizabeth (29th December 1635 - 8th September 1650). No issue.
- Anne (17th March 1637 - 5 November 1640). Died young.
- Catherine (29th June 1639). Born and died the same day.
- Henry, Duke of Gloucester (8th July 1640 - 13th September 1660). No issue.
- Henrietta Anne (16th June 1644 - 30 June 1670). Married Philip, Duke of Orléans (1640–1701) in 1661. See below.
Mary Henrietta, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange
She became Countess of Nassau at the age of nine by her marriage to Prince William II. She didn't move to the Dutch Republic until she fled England with her Mother in 1644.
In the meantime, her Father had designated her as the first Princess Royal in 1642, thus establishing the tradition that the eldest daughter of the British sovereign might bear this title. This came into being when her Mother wished to reflect the way the eldest daughter of the French king was styled (Madame Royale). Until that time, the eldest daughters of English and Scottish kings were variously titled lady or princess. (The younger daughters of British sovereigns were not consistently titled princesses and styled Royal Highness until the accession of George I in 1714).
In March 1647, Mary's husband, William II, succeeded his father as Stadholder and she became Princess of Orange as a consequence. However, in November 1650, just after his attempt to capture Amsterdam from his political opponents, he died of smallpox. William and Mary's son was born a few days later and named after his deceased Father. Mary acted as co-regent for her son William III during his minority from 1651 to 1660.
Her only child later married his cousin, also Mary, and reigned jointly with her as King and Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, as we saw in a previous Blog.
Henry, Duke of Gloucester
Henry was held in custody at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight as a pawn of the Parliamentarians and a potential heir or puppet king. He was released in 1652 and allowed to cross the Channel to Dunkirk, where he joined his elder Brother Charles in exile. He was with Charles when he landed at Dover on the Restoration, but suddenly died the same year of smallpox. He death was also regretted as Henry might have formed an acceptable Protestant alternative for the Throne.
Henry was assigned Arms, also in 1659, although he had been created a Knight of the Garter six years earlier. There was, at the time, no chance of him having a stall plate in St George's Chapel, Windsor anyway. He received a three-pointed Label, each Point charged with a red Rose. This Label had never been used before and has not been used again since.
Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orléans (‘Minette’)
Fleeing England with her governess at the age of three, she moved to the court of her first cousin Louis XIV of France, where she was known as Minette. After she married Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, known as Monsieur, and brother of King Louis XIV, she became known as Madame. Her marriage, though, was marked by frequent tensions.
Henrietta Anne was instrumental in negotiating the Secret Treaty of Dover. It was signed on 1st June 1670 and Henrietta Anne died on the 30th of the same month. The cause of death was officially gastroenteritis but many believed that she may have been poisoned.
One Jacobite claim to the throne of Great Britain, following the death of Henry Benedict Stuart, descends from Henrietta Anne through her daughter Anne Marie, Queen of Sardinia.
As would be expected, Minette marshalled her Father's Arms with those of her Husband. Please note the use of the plain white Label by the second son of a sovereign of France. (The white Label has been associated with the Dukedom of Orléans since the late 14th Century and Philippe 'inherited' the title from his Uncle Gaston. Philippe had already been granted the Dukedom of Anjou and would go on to be granted the Dukedoms of Valois, Chartres and Nemours, the Marquisates of Coucy and Folembray, and the Countships of Dourdan and Romorantin!)
Whilst the plain white Label in British heraldry is reserved for the first son and heir to the Throne, the eldest son of the King of France was called the Dauphin and quartered the French Coat of Arms with the Dolphin of Viennois.
The Dukes of Orléans formed a collateral line of the French Royal Family, with an eventual right to succeed to the throne should more senior princes of the blood die out. Louis XII had been a Duke of Orléans and succeeded his cousin Charles VIII, who died without a closer heir in 1498. Charles's Father, Louis XI had forced Louis Orléans to be married to his disabled and supposedly sterile cousin Joan, hoping to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois. Louis XII married twice more (his second wife was Charles's widow, Anne of Brittany) and had two daughters, one of whom - Claude - married her Father's successor and her own distant cousin, Francis I.