Henrietta Maria, Queen, consort of Charles I, King of England, 1609-1669
After this matters went from bad to worse. Henrietta tried to please her
husband, but she always found herself in the wrong, as when, for instance,
she attempted to conciliate him by appointing to the offices created by a
grant to her of houses and lands a preponderance of English Protestants.
She found that her submission was entirely thrown away, because,
injudiciously indeed, she had appointed to the office of Controller, which
was only honorary, the Bishop of Mende. She was curtly informed that the
post was required for the Earl of Carlisle, who was particularly odious to
her on account of the indecent zeal which had prompted him within a few
months of signing her marriage contract to urge the persecution of the
Catholics. Goaded by such treatment, she claimed, with some warmth, the
right to appoint her servants, and thus another cause of dispute arose
between her and her husband, whose unkindness even extended to keeping her
so short of money that she was reduced to borrowing from her own
servants.[46]
So the summer of 1626 wore on amid misunderstandings and recriminations
until, in the month of June,[47] an event occurred which probably
precipitated the inevitable crisis.
One afternoon the Queen and her principal attendants, among whom the
courtly figure of her Grand Almoner was conspicuous, were walking in that
which even then was known as Hyde Park. In their walk they turned aside,
and, to the astonishment of those of the public who observed their
movements, were seen directing their steps towards Tyburn, the place of
public execution, which was near the present site of the Marble Arch.
Arrived at this ill-omened spot, the royal lady and her suite fell upon
their knees as upon holy ground, and so, indeed, in their eyes it was, for
was not this spot, wet with the blood of malefactors, watered also by the
blood of those whom a tyrannical and heretical Government had slain for the
crime of confessing the true faith? The airing of the Court had become a
pilgrimage to the unsightly shrine of the English martyrs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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