Was Queen Henrietta Maria (of England) known for scratching her initials into things?
score:7
Short Answer
The reference to "that famous east window on which Henrietta Maria had once cut her name with a diamond" seems most likely to be a conflation of two or more of various events and artefacts connected to Henrietta Maria and / or her husband, Charles I. These events / artefacts involve Henrietta Maria breaking a window, Charles I purportedly inscribing messages to her on glass with a diamond, a window with an anti-Henrietta Maria inscription made with a diamond, and a marble tablet with her name inscribed on it above a window.
Details
Although there does not seem to be any evidence that Henrietta Maria performed an act of 'petty vandalism' by using a diamond to carve her name, the following are certainly of interest:
Henrietta Maria is recorded as breaking a window with her fists (Harley Mss 383, f. 33., in the British Library) when she learned (in 1626) that most of her French servants were being dismissed by Charles I (whom she had married in 1625). The entry reads:
It is said the Queen, when she understood the designs grew very impatient and broke the glass windows with her fists...
Cited in Carolyn Harris, 'Queenship and Revolution in Early Modern Europe: Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette' (2016)
Charles I is purported to have used a diamond to inscribe romantic messages (and his initials) to Henrietta Maria on diamond-shaped glass panes. Although there is no evidence that Charles is the author of these messages, C. S. Lewis may well have been aware of this attribution. This from the Victoria and Albert Collection:
This panel comprises nine quarries (small diamond-shaped panels) of green tinted glass, each diamond engraved with an inscription. They are purported to have been written by Charles I (1600-1649) to his wife Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) on the window of his prison at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, where he was detained in 1646. There is, however, no evidence to support this supposed provenance. The glass is hand blown and extremely thin, qualities compatible with a 17th-century date.
There was a story of an 'anti-Henrietta' inscription, made with a diamond, on a windowpane in Whitehall.
Perhaps there had come to the ears of the little heir [the future Charles II] the story of the inscription scratched with a diamond upon a window-pane at Whitehall. "God save the King" so it ran "confound the Queen and her children,..."
Source: Ida A. Taylor, 'The life of Queen Henrietta Maria' (1905)
- At the Queen's House, Greenwich, the interior design of which Henrietta Maria was at one time involved, there is a window with a marble tablet above it inscribed 'Henrica Maria Regina 1635' (though presumably she didn't do this herself).
A final thought which may or may not be relevant: the passage in C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength which mentions Henrietta Maria and the window inscription appears in a chapter titled 'The Liquidation of Anachronisms'. The chronological aspect that Lewis might be getting at seems obscure, but he could possibly have invented an anachronism relating to a diamond signet Charles I gave his wife about two years after their marriage by substituting the window breaking incident with using the diamond signet to inscribe her name. However, this is admittedly highly speculative and Lewis may not have intended an anachronism when writing "that famous east window on which Henrietta Maria had once cut her name with a diamond."
More post
- 📝 Did Britain send convicts to Canada during the colonial era?
- 📝 Is there a difference between "post-medieval" and "modern"?
- 📝 What's the date of this army uniform?
- 📝 How did US anti-Irish sentiment decline?
- 📝 What led to American air superiority over the Axis in World War II
- 📝 How many people did the Islamic Caliphate send to the Maghreb during the Arabization of North Africa?
- 📝 Whereabouts of the ancient Korean cannon in Kamchatka
- 📝 What criteria are used to determine the popularity of Medieval European rulers?
- 📝 Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian?
- 📝 Was Julius Caesar a hippie?
- 📝 Were Western (French, US or other) powers involved in the coup against Captain Sankara of Burkina Faso?
- 📝 Connection between "lingua franca" and Frankish people
- 📝 Why were the ship names "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" used together?
- 📝 Why did the United States enter World War I?
- 📝 Was there a British Royal tradition associated with the name Elizabeth?
- 📝 What were medieval, Viking-Era, Scandinavian laws regarding rape?
- 📝 When and why did Gujarat and Maharashtra separate?
- 📝 Was there ever a treaty between 2 entities with significantly different translations to the detriment of one party?
- 📝 What is the purpose of this Roman siege tactic as shown in this Illustration?
- 📝 Has there ever been a massacre or genocidal act via people thrown off a cliff?
- 📝 How did historians sync up historical dates of different cultures?
- 📝 Has an underequipped army ever won a major war?
- 📝 Australian towns / cities with Aboriginal names
- 📝 What are the major religious 'families' which formed independently of other families?
- 📝 Would modern aerodynamic design be recognizable to a vehicle expert 100 years ago?
- 📝 How much of an impact did the Roman emperors' civil wars have on their decision to debase the coinage?
- 📝 Which European country sent the most slaves to the Americas?
- 📝 Did Germany have treaties imposed upon it after WWII that mirrored the weight of the Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Where were the British Forces located during Napoleon's Egypt Campaign?
- 📝 Medal of Honor for retreating before an enemy?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was Queen Henrietta Maria (of England) known for scratching her initials into things?
- 📝 Have there been known instances in history when a queen consort slept with someone other than her husband, and no one got hurt? How was that possible?
- 📝 Why was the area now known as Liberia chosen as the location for repatriation of African slaves in the US?
- 📝 Was Hiroshima targeted because its mountains would "rebound the explosion back into the city for more damage"?
- 📝 Was the "natural born citizen" requirement for the President inserted into the US Constitution by Alexander Hamilton's enemies?
- 📝 Was the Battle of Tours really the turning point for the Umayyad expansion into Europe?
- 📝 By what legal mechanism was Catherine Howard deprived of her title of Queen of England?
- 📝 What was the motivation for the Church of England to begin recording births, marriages and deaths in 1538?
- 📝 What was the procedure for prosecuting criminals in England between the World Wars?
- 📝 What was the Soviet reasoning for developing their Airborne Forces (VDV) into a powerful military branch?
- 📝 Does any evidence exist that suggests Hitler’s primary reason for declaring war on America was an attempt to draw Japan into his war with Russia?
- 📝 Why was 17th Century England a particularly supportive place for groundbreaking thought?
- 📝 Was it customary for an executioner in Elizabethan England to ask for forgiveness from the executed?
- 📝 What was the name for a group of 12 men in old England responsible for each others actions?
- 📝 What was the route for ships from England to South Africa in 1840?
- 📝 How possible was it for Japan to convert her naval aircraft to land uses?
- 📝 How much was cost for a regular (standard class) passenger to come on passenger ship from Liverpool England to Canada between 1906-1908
- 📝 Was the sprouting of seeds for food production known in Europe before 1800?
- 📝 Was there ever a queen or female ruler who killed her child to preserve her power?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 Was England called England in the days of King Arthur?
- 📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- 📝 Why was it "acceptable" for Prince Charles to marry a divorced woman, when Edward VIII had to abdicate for marrying divorcee Wallis Simpson?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 Why was "leaping into the river" a valid trial outcome to prove one's innocence?
- 📝 Was it militarily possible to "island hop" the Philippines if not for MacArthur?
- 📝 Was there a plan to use nuclear weapons for terrain modification in North America?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 Why was no Nobel Prize for Literature awarded in 1935?
- 📝 How long was a sea journey from England to East Africa 1868-1877?