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.

Notes

1 Caroline Hibbard, ‘The Queen’s Patronage of Artists and Artisans’, in Erin Griffey (ed.), Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and Patronage (Aldershot, 2008), p. 119 and n. 21.

2 Edward Chamberlayne, Angliæ Notitia, or The Present State of England (London, 1669), p. 311.

3 On her finances during exile, see Erin Griffey, On Display: Henrietta Maria and the Materials of Magnificence at the Stuart Court (New Haven and London, 2015), pp. 153-71.

4 See, for example, G. E. Aylmer, The King’s Servants: The Civil Service of Charles I, 1625–1642 (London, 1961), pp. 26-7; Sharon Kettering, ‘Household Service of Early Modern French Noblewomen’, French Historical Studies 20-1 (1997), pp. 55-85, p. 65-6.

5 The National Archives, London [hereafter TNA], 351/2715.

6 The quotation comes from Chamberlayne’s Angliæ Notitia, pp. 307-08, in listing the members of the Queen Mother’s ‘court’.

7 For this, see Griffey, On Display, ch. 8.

8 7 September 1663: ‘Entry Book: September 1663’, in William A. Shaw (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 1, 1660–1667 (London, 1904), pp. 543-7, accessed via British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books/vol1/pp543-547 [last accessed 22 October 2020].

9 Duchy of Cornwall Office [hereafter DCO], 742-49; TNA, E351/1947, Declared account from 31 December 1668 to 1 September 1669 (in livres, for paying French servants and claimants during this period); TNA, E351/2714, Declared account for Michaelmas 1668–69 (in pounds); E351/1948, Declared account for September–December 1669; E351/2714, Declared account for 1669–71. With the exception of two rolls, these are all calculated in pounds sterling; the others, E351/2715, E351/1947 and E351/1948 use livres tournois.

10 Chamberlayne, Angliæ Notitia, pp. 305-11.

11 TNA, LR5/57, Establishment of 1626–27; LR5/57, Establishment of 1628–29; DCO, 742, Declared account for 1630–31; National Library of Wales [hereafter NLW], Wynnstay 168, Book of Wages and Pensions for 1641–42.

12 See in particular, Caroline Hibbard, ‘The Role of a Queen Consort: The Household and Court of Henrietta Maria, 1625–1642’, in Ronald G. Asch and Adolph M. Birke (eds), Princes, Patronage and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, 1450–1650 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 393-414; idem, ‘Henrietta Maria in the 1630s: Perspectives on the Role of Consort Queens in Ancient Régime Courts’, in Ian Atherton and Julie Sanders (eds), The 1630s: Interdisciplinary Essays on Culture and Politics in the Caroline Era (Manchester, 2006), pp. 92-112. Caroline has been very generous in sharing unpublished work on the Queen’s household.

13 Noted above.

14 R. Malcolm Smuts, ‘The Puritan Followers of Henrietta Maria in the 1630s’, The English Historical Review 93, no 366 (1978), pp. 26-45; and idem, ‘Religion, European Politics and Henrietta Maria’s Circle, 1625–41’, in Erin Griffey (ed.), Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and Patronage (Aldershot, 2008), pp. 13-37.

15 Sara J. Wolfson, ‘The Female Bedchamber of Queen Henrietta Maria: Politics, Familial Networks and Policy, 1626–40’, in Nadine Akkerman and Birgit Houben (eds), The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-Waiting Across Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2013), pp. 311-41; Karen Britland, Drama at the Courts of Henrietta Maria (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 55-6.

16 Ruth Kleinman, ‘Social Dynamics at the French Court: The Household of Anne of Austria’, French Historical Studies 16-3 (1990), pp. 517-35; Kettering, ‘Household Service’, pp. 65-6.

17 Aylmer, King’s Servants, esp. pp. 81-2.

18 Kleinman, ‘Social Dynamics’, p. 524.

19 Aylmer, King’s Servants, p. 82.

20 On 21 May 1668, he is described as ‘Mr. Tompkins, now belonging to the Queen Mother’s Council and whose father was hanged for the King, is to have a year’s pension’; ‘Minute Book: May 1668, 18-29’, in William A. Shaw (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 2, 1667–1668 (London, 1905), pp. 322-37, on British History Online, accessed October 23, 2020, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books/vol2/pp322-337 [last accessed 23 October 2020].

21 See the lists of her shared household with Christine and her independent household from 1622 to 1625 in Eugène Griselle, État de la Maison du Roi Louis XIII, de celles de sa mère, Marie de Médicis; de ses sœurs, Chrestienne, Élisabeth et Henriette de France; de son frère, Gaston d’Orléans; de sa femme, Anne d’Autriche; de ses fils, Le Dauphin (Louis XIV) et Philippe d’Orléans, comprenant les années 1601 à 1665 (Paris, 1912), pp. 81-8.

22 DCO, Roll 746.

23 Archives Nationales, Paris [hereafter AN], Minutier Central [hereafter MC], ET/XXIV/307–ET/XXIV/365, ET/XXIV/4–ET/XXIV/314.

24 On the Garnier family’s prominence in her household, see Hibbard, ‘The Queen’s Patronage of Artists and Artisans’, pp. 135-6; Kleinman, ‘Social Dynamics’, pp. 517-35; Kettering, ‘Household Service’, pp. 65-6.

25 Griselle, État de la Maison du Roi Louis XIII, p. 83.

26 Henar Pizarro Llorente, ‘Isabel de Borbón: de princesa de Francia a reina de España (1615–1623)’, in J. Martínez Millán and María Paula Marçal Lourenço (eds), Las relaciones discretas entre las monarquías hispana y portuguesa. Las casas de las reinas (siglos XV–XIX), vol. I (Madrid, 2008), pp. 383-5.

27 There is little biographical information, but a Jacques Bardon, named as the Princess’s tailor and a widower, is recorded as marrying Genevieve Garnier in 1624; see AN, MC, ET/XXIV/307–ET/XXIV/365; ET/XXIV/4–ET/XXIV/312.

28 On her early religious household and religious practices, see Caroline Hibbard, ‘Translating Royalty: Henrietta Maria and the Transition from Princess to Queen’, The Court Historian 5-1 (2000), pp. 15-28.

29 Anon, A true discourse of all the royal passages, tryumphs and ceremonies, obserued at the contract and mariage of the high and mighty Charles, King of Great Britaine, and the most excellentest of ladies, the Lady Henrietta Maria of Burbon …  (London, 1625), p. 21.

30 This number is an estimate, based on the household listed as accompanying her into England in British Library, Kings MS 136, fols 418v-23v. See also another list of gift and pension payments by Louis XIII for servants accompanying her to England, fols 424r-9r. See also fols 432r-5v for the list of the fifty-five servants that apparently did not come with her, some of which seem to have eventually come to London, such as her a dancing master, Jacques Cordier, and an upholsterer, Gilles Alix.

31 For her position in the Princess’ households, see Griselle, État de la Maison, pp. 81, 83. See TNA, SO 3/8, for a June 1625 warrant to pay the ‘Lady Marquis de St George the first lady of Honor to the queen’ £1,000.

32 See for example, Pizarro Llorente, ‘Isabel de Borbón’, pp. 343, 348.

33 Hibbard, ‘Translating Royalty’; Smuts, ‘Religion, European Politics and Henrietta Maria’s Circle’, esp. pp. 16-20; and Wolfson, ‘Female Bedchamber’.

34 Wolfson, ‘The Female Bedchamber of Queen Henrietta Maria’, esp. pp. 330-37.

35 Joseph Browne’s edition of Mayerne’s works, Opera Medica (London, 1703), in particular the final section with medical and cosmetic recipes for both queens, Variae Medicamentorum Formulae, Quae Serenis. Reg. Annae: & Mariae.

36 TNA, LR5/57.

37 Hibbard, ‘The Role of a Queen Consort’, pp. 409-11.

38 Smuts, ‘Religion, European Politics and Henrietta Maria’s Circle’, p. 19. On Dorset and his role as Lord Chamberlain from July 1628, see David L. Smith, ‘The Fourth Earl of Dorset and the Personal Rule of Charles I’, Journal of British Studies 30-3 (1991), pp. 257-87.

39 Chamberlayne, Angliæ Notitia, p. 308.

40 Archives départementales de Val d’Oise, 68.H.8, troisième liasse, ‘Papiers de Richard Forster, trésorier de la reine d’Angleterre’. See also Lambeth Palace Archives, MS 883, which I have not yet been able to consult. On his conversion and position in the Queen’s household as treasurer, see Thomas Birch (ed.) The Court and Times of James the First; Illustrated by Authentic and Confidential Letters, from Various Public and Private Collections (London, 1848–49), vol. I, pp. 482-7. On his life generally, see Michael Foster, ‘Sir Richard Forster (?1585–1661)’, Recusant History 14 (1977–78), pp. 163-74 (on his appointment as Treasurer General, pp. 167-68).

41 On St Albans, see in the first instance the entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by Anthony R.J.S. Adolph.

42 Caroline Hibbard did extensive research on the Carlells, which was presented as a conference paper at the 2007 Northeast Conference on British Studies in Nova Scotia: ‘Versatility and Service at the Early Stuart Court: Ludovick and Joan Carlell’.

43 Julie Sanders, ‘Carlell [Carlile], Lodowick (1601/2–1675), courtier and playwright’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Hibbard, ‘Versatility and Service’.

44 TNA, SP 78/128, fol. 200v.

45 See The Shepherd’s Paradise, ed. Sarah Poynting (Oxford, 1997).

46 TNA, E351/2715.

47 TNA, E351/2714.

48 NLW, Wynnstay 168.

49 Elizabeth de Plancy no longer appears.

50 See ‘Minute Book: April 1668, 1-15’, in Shaw (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 2, pp. 287-301.

51 Chamberlayne, Angliæ Notitia, p. 308.

52 TNA, E351/1947. This payment for ‘house rent’ was for 750 livres.

53 For Madame Frances Civet: £700; for the duchess of Cleveland: £5,050.

54 DCO, Roll 742

55 13 March 1661: ‘Entry Book: March 1661’, in Shaw (ed.) Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 1, pp. 217-32; 22 January 1662: ‘Minute Book: January 1662’, in Shaw (ed.) Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 1, pp. 321-27.

56 Dorothy Seymour appears in the 1627 and 1629 Establishments as Maid of Honour, and is still in the accounts for 1641–2 in this role. It is notable that the King endeavoured to organise a match with Edward, earl of Bath, in 1633, but she did not in fact marry him. There are numerous references to her petition in the account books, which refer to her as Maid of Honour to the Queen, which I suspect relates to her previous role as Maid of Honour; she is not in any of the declared accounts of the 1660s as a member of the household. See for example 22 October 1661; ‘Entry Book: October 1661’, in Shaw (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 1, pp. 290-300.

57 Kleinman, Anne of Austria, p. 531.

58 On musicians in her household as queen, see Ian Spink, ‘The Musicians of Queen Henrietta-Maria: Some Notes and References in the English State Papers’, Acta Musicologica 36-2/3 (1964), pp. 177-82; Hibbard, ‘Henrietta Maria in the 1630s’, pp. 99-100.

59 See for example TNA, E351/1947.

60 TNA, PROB 11/360/499, will of 25 August 1679.

61 N. R. R. Fisher, ‘The Queen’s Courte in her Councell Chamber at Westminster’, English Historical Review 108, no 427 (1993), pp. 314-37.

62 TNA, E351/1947; Mary Anne Everett Green (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the reign of Charles II, vol. II: June 1661–December 1662 (London, 1861), p. 30.

63 TNA, E351/1947.

64 See for example 22 February 1666: ‘Entry Book: February 1666’, in Shaw (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 1, pp. 716-18; and 24 September 1667: ‘Minute Book: September 1667, 16-30’, in Shaw (ed.) Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 2, pp. 83-96. Yet she was constantly in arrears: see 29 October 1668: ‘Minute Book: October 1668, 16-30’, in Shaw (ed.) Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 2, pp. 461-72.

65 TNA, E351/2715.

66 TNA, E351/2715.

67 See for example his itemised bill for Michaelmas quarter, TNA, LR5/64. Fosse appears in the declared accounts throughout the 1660s, including the final account, TNA, E351/2715, being paid 100 shillings in ‘full payment of what was owing in wages’.

68 TNA, E351/1948.

69 DCO, 747.

70 DCO, 747; TNA, E351/2714.

71 TNA, E351/2714.

72 TNA, E351/2715.

73 TNA, E351/194.

74 The accounts show that Bond was a major lender to the Queen throughout the 1660s. See for example the astronomical sums owed to him in the final account, TNA, E351/2715. The other big lender was the merchant Thomas Verberg.

75 TNA, E351/2714.

76 Household of Queen (from 1685 Queen Dowager) Catherine 1660–1705 (compiled by J.C. Sainty, Lydia Wassmann, and R. O. Bucholz): The Database of Court Officers: 1660–1837, http://courtofficers.ctsdh.luc.edu/indices/Index%2002%20Household%20of%20Queen%20Catherine%201662b.pdf [accessed 22 October 2020].

77 TNA, E351/1947.

78 TNA, E351/2714 and E351/2715. The trustees are listed as: St Albans, Kenelm Digby (deceased), Sir John Wintour, Sir Charles Harbord, Sir Robert Long, Sir Peter Balle and Sir Henry Wood.

79 TNA, E351/2714.

80 TNA, E351/2715. And even then he only received a portion of what he was owed. He was owed £150 but paid just £75.

81 Aylmer, King’s Servants, p. 474.

82 The courtier William Saunderson — married to Henrietta Maria’s long-serving laundress, Bridget — uses this phrase in his A Compleat history of the life and raigne of King Charles from his cradle to his grave (London, 1658). For the modern usage, see David Cressy’s, Birth, Marriage and Death: Ritual, Religion and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England (Oxford, 1997).

83 On this in relation to the Queen’s post-mortem inventory, see Erin Griffey and Caroline Hibbard, ‘Henrietta Maria’s Inventory at Colombes: Courtly Magnificence and Hidden Politics’, Journal of the History of Collections 24-2 (2012), pp. 159-81, esp. pp. 160-61, 165, and Griffey, On Display, pp. 224-5.

84 Calendar of State Papers, Venice, 1666–1668, Allen B. Hinds, ed. (London. 1935), p. 63.

85 Ibid., p. 139.

86 For the Treaty, see John Miller, After the Civil Wars. Government in the Reign of Charles II (London, 2000), pp. 200-01; and Ronald Hutton, ‘The Making of the Secret Treaty of Dover, 1668-70’, The Historical Journal 29-2 (1986), pp. 297-318.

87 F. M. Warren, ed., Selections from the Funeral Orations of Bossuet (Boston, 1907), p. 18.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erin Griffey

Erin Griffey

Erin Griffey is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Auckland and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London. She is a specialist in early modern visual and material culture and has published widely on the Stuart court, including On Display: Henrietta Maria and the Materials of Magnificence at the Stuart Court (2015). Most recently she co-authored and edited Sartorial Politics at the Early Modern Court: Fashioning Women (2019). She is the editor of Early Modern Court Culture for the Routledge series, Early Modern Themes (forthcoming, November 2021), and is writing a monograph with the provisional title, Facing Decay: Beauty, Wrinkles and Anti-Aging in Early Modern Europe.