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RESEARCH CENTER
Henrietta
Maria
Namesake of Maryland
Michael Humphries, MA
The
Golden Age of Discovery provided adventurers and cartographers the
opportunity to name far and exotic new lands, their features, and
increase their knowledge of the geography of the earth. New colonies
were founded by European nations in search of riches and a more direct
passage to the treasures of the East Indies.
After landing and establishing a base of operations it became necessary
to name landmarks that would guide others and serve as reference points
in which to compose maps. Casually naming islands, rivers, and
mountains as they unfolded resulted in the early explorers becoming hard
pressed to continue supplying original names. Personal names, Indian
names, and names of English towns and counties reminiscent of home were
used as well as religious namesakes to describe the vast wilderness.
Captain John Smith on his epic voyage of exploration on the Chesapeake Bay
in 1608 named several land forms after his crew members and himself
including Smith Point, Smith Island and Russel’s Island. Indian names
have lasted throughout the years, although the spellings have changed
radically, and have placed in our minds and vocabulary the legacy of a
people that first inhabited this countryside. Names such as Chesapeake,
Chaptico, Potomac, Patuxent and Wicomico echo the traditions and culture
that preceded the English settlements by thousands of years. Today
these reminders offer mute testimony to those first Marylanders.
The
influence of religion on the adventures’ daily lives is revealed in the
names that were given to prominent islands and rivers on the trail from
England to
the colonies in America. The Chesapeake Bay was first known as St.
Michael’s Bay by the Maryland colonists and, of course, the first landed
on St. Clement’s Island and later established their capital at St.
Mary’s City. The freedom that allowed the colonists and adventurers to
put names on hand drawn maps as they encountered new and strange lands
did not extend to the naming of colonies themselves. This privilege was
reserved to the monarchs to name either for themselves or for members of
their families.
Returning from a recent ill-fated colonization attempt In the harsh
northern latitudes of Newfoundland,
George Calvert, the first Lord
Baltimore, approached Charles I for a substitute patent in a more mild
climate nearer Virginia. After agreeing
that Calvert would be granted a charter for lands north of the Potomac
River, the question of naming the new colony was mentioned. Calvert had
omitted the name of the colony in his petition in the hope that Charles
I would bestow his approval on the new venture by writing his choice on
the document. Charles I clearly wrote Henrietta Maria…after his
queen, Mary. The naming of Mary’s Land, Terra Maria, and the
founding of the colony offered a religious haven and opportunity to
begin again to colonists regardless of their religious beliefs. George
Calvert introduced a revolutionary concept of “Freedom of Conscience”,
which is another way of stating Religious Toleration, when religious
toleration would be included in the first Ten Amendments to the United
States Constitution and would be remembered as the “….Chief Glory of
this State…”
Henrietta Maria, namesake of Maryland, descended from a long line of
European nobility. Named after her father, King Henry IV of France she
was also the daughter of Marie de Medici, an Italian princess who later
would be crowned the Queen of France. Political marriages involving
royalty of different countries allowed monarchs to form alliances that
might otherwise be impossible to obtain. After the Protestant
Reformation, which allowed King Henry VIII to become both head of church
and state, England entered an era that was highlighted by religious
persecutions and dissension. In order to lessen the strained relations
between France and England, Prince Charles of England and Henrietta
Maria of France entered into a marriage contract that would unite the
royal families of both countries. Although Henrietta Maria was a
Catholic, she was allowed to marry Charles as a result of a prenuptial
agreement through the representative of both countries. It is
interesting to note that one of the stipulations of the marriage
agreement allowed the French to settle Canada without English
interference. Although only fifteen years of age, the new bride left
her native France to join her new husband, the newly crowned King of
England, Charles I.
Problems
within the realm were centered around religious disputes and the ensuing
regulations enacted to prevent religious dissenters from holding
government positions unless the office holder was a member of the Church
of England. This policy eliminated all Catholic and Puritans from
office and led to dissension within the ranks of both the nobility and
merchants. In 1629, Charles I reiterated his right to govern without
Parliament claiming his authority derived from the doctrine recognizing
the “Divine Right of Kings” with power emanating directly from Heaven.
With this, Charles I dismissed the Parliament although he was to convene
this body again in 1640 when the treasury was near bankruptcy. For
eleven year England would be ruled without benefit of the laws and
revenue producing efforts of Parliament.
With the
recall of Parliament, arrest warrants were issued for the king’s
advisors as a result of their ill-advised economic policies. Included
on the list were
two close personal friends of King Charles I, the Earl of Strafford and
Archbishop Laud. Queen Mary was not beyond being arrested herself and
during the trials of the king’s advisors an empty chair in the
defendant’s dock remained throughout the ordeal. This was a reminder to
the Catholic Queen Mary that her position as queen would not necessarily
protect her from the justice of the Puritan Parliament. After finding
the defendants guilty, Parliament took the unlikely step of sentencing
the Earl of Strafford to death by beheading. With the pleas of the
Queen to Parliament to spare the life of this nobleman going unanswered
the earl was soon put to death. The failure of the king and queen to
prevent this execution only further eroded their influence on Parliament
and to stop the rioting that was beginning to paralyze the city as mobs
roamed the streets of London calling for the abdication of the king and
the expulsion of this Catholic queen. In answer to the disorder, Queen
Mary implored assistance from her godfather, Pope Urban VIII, and the
King of France. These measures only added fuel to the fire that was to
ultimately result in the English Civil War. With the death of the Earl
of Strafford, Charles I made secret plans to rescue his surviving
friend, Archbishop Laud.
Forewarned, members of parliament quickly whisked the Archbishop to a
more secure hiding place and thwarted the plans of the king. As the
anger of Londoners grew toward the royal couple Charles and Queen Mary
fled London to the safety of Windsor Castle. Queen Mary they requested
permission for Parliament to leave the country to escort her ten year
old daughter, Mary, to her new home in Holland. Mary had recently
married William of Orange thus forming an alliance with the royal family
of Holland (Later William and Mary would return to rule England in
1688.) Reluctantly granting permission, Parliament allowed the queen
to leave England knowing fully well that her real mission was to raise
support for her husband.
After
selling the jewels that she had smuggled out of England, the Queen
bought enough munitions and armaments to fill fourteen ships. In her
absence, the situation had deteriorated with armies being raised to
support or defy the rule of the King. The fate of the kingdom, and that
of the infant colony of Maryland, was decided on the battlefields of
England in a murderous war that saw the nation brought to its knees.
The conflict saw England’s colonies languish as the echoes of the
conflict extended across the ocean to divide the sparse population of
Maryland into a local civil war that would result in the Calvert family
losing control of the settlement. Locally, Richard Ingle, a Puritan and
supporter of Parliament sailed into the St. Mary’s River in 1644
attacked St. Mary’s City, looted plantations, seized ships, and forced
the government of Leonard Calvert to flee across the Potomac to
Virginia. Later he would anchor off of St. Clement’s Island where he
would meet with the local planters that supported Parliament in the
Civil War.
Queen
Mary returned to England and although her entry was not a triumph, she
was able to field a small army in support of her husband. After the
delivery of her daughter, Henriette-Anne in 1645, the queen was forced
to leave her sanctuary at Exeter as the troops of Parliament laid siege
to the walled city. Fleeing to France the Queen was forced to remain
there even after the capture and imprisonment of her husband after his
defeat at Marston Moor. The English Civil War was over. The Puritans
had come to power under Oliver Cromwell and a Commonwealth was
proclaimed. The monarchy was abolished and the rights of the queen and
other members of the royal family were declared unlawful. After a trial
in which the king was found guilty by a majority of one vote, Charles I
declared the court was illegal and reaffirmed his belief in the “Divine
Right of Kings” to rule without exception.
On the
cold morning of January 30, 1649 England awoke to find her King, Charles
I, had walked bravely to the executioner where he knelt and removed a
miniature portrait of Queen Mary from around his neck before being
beheaded.
Denied
her position as Queen of England by her husband’s successor, William
Cromwell, remained in France in poverty supported only by her friends
and relatives. With her family either dead or distributed around
Europe, Queen Mary was able to muster enough funds to purchase the
Palace of Chaillot which she turned into a convent of Visitation of Our
Land and a retirement home for noble ladies. By 1660 Oliver Cromwell
was dead and Parliament recalled the son of Queen Mary, Prince Charles,
who was then crowned a Charles I of England. Queen Mary once again
returned to England where she was to witness her son’s coronation. Once
again disasters struck with the loss of her son Prince Henry and,
shortly thereafter, Princess Mary from an outbreak of smallpox. Leaving
England for France for the last time, Queen Mary was able to see the
marriage of her daughter Henriette-Anne to the brother of the King of
France, Philip. By 1669 the Queen, in ill health with pain and
discomfort as her constant companions, began to fail. Her daughter,
Henriette-Anne returned to nurse her and suggested she take a narcotic
to reduce her distress and allow her to sleep. After taking the drug,
Queen Mary, sixty years old faded into unconsciousness and never awoke.
The
following year Henriette-Anne followed her mother in death.
The
bravery and loyalty exhibited by Henrietta Maria, namesake of Maryland,
should not be forgotten.
Her character
surmounted the events that shaped her destiny and helped her maintain
her dignity through trying times that saw her family devastated by
disease, her father murdered, and her husband tried for treason and
executed.
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