Two months later the marriage between Princess Henrietta and the Duke of Orleans was solemnized at the Palais Royal; and when the young couple went to pass the summer at Fontainebleau, Queen Henrietta retired to her favorite château of Colombe, a few miles from Paris. The following year the Duke and Duchess of Orleans made her {175}a long visit, then accompanied her to Calais, where she embarked to return to England once more. [[A.D. 1662.]] Charles II. had married Catharine of Braganza during his mother's absence, and the royal couple received Queen Henrietta affectionately, and welcomed her to Greenwich Palace. She remained with them until the summer, when Somerset House having been handsomely renovated, she set up her court there; but her health began to decline, and she sent for her son, the king, and told him that she could only regain strength in her native land. He urged her to repair to the Bourbon baths, though it grieved him sorely to part from his mother again. [[A.D. 1665.]] She went first to her château of Colombe, where the King and Queen of France met and welcomed her, and after a short season of repose she proceeded to the baths of Bourbon. [[A.D. 1669.]] But her health declined from year to year, and although her daughter and son-in-law were indefatigable in their loving attentions, and summoned the most celebrated physicians of Paris to her bedside, she expired suddenly and painlessly at midnight of August 31, 1669. Charles II. and the Duke of York received the news with deep grief, and retired to Hampton Court, where they remained until all the mourning ceremonies were completed at Whitehall. Louis XIV. ordered a general mourning to be observed throughout France for his aunt,--not because she was a queen of England so much as because she was the last child of Henry IV. of France. {176} CHAPTER VII. CATHARINE OF BRAGANZA, QUEEN OF CHARLES II., KING OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. (A.D. 1638-1705.) |It was on St. Catharine's day that this princess was born, in the year 1638, and it was in honor of that saint that she was named. When she came into the world, Portugal was under the rule of Spain, and had been so for sixty years, not because the Portuguese were contented with the despotic laws that governed them, but because they did not feel strong enough to fight for liberty. When a nation considers itself oppressed by tyrannical laws, secret organizations are sure to be formed for the purpose of shaking off the yoke in one way or another. In all the principal towns of Portugal these patriotic associations were formed at the time we speak of, for the purpose of throwing off the Spanish yoke; and the period was rapidly approaching when their efforts were to be crowned with success.