Abstract
This chapter uses Henrietta Maria’s court masques to trace the queen’s transformation from a young French princess in a foreign land to a powerful queen consort who pushed her agendas in a variety of personal, political and theatrical ways. The chapter examines the ways in which Henrietta Maria sought to carve out a space for Catholic worship in her new Protestant home. In particular, the chapter will consider Henrietta Maria’s religious and political interests and alliances as presented in three of her well-known masques Chloridia, The Temple of Love and Luminalia. In these masques, feminine beauty and chastity act in ways that foreground the female sacred as a source of authority and support the queen’s desire to restore Catholicism to England.
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Dunn-Hensley, S. (2017). Henrietta Maria: The Esther to Her Oppressed People. In: Anna of Denmark and Henrietta Maria. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63227-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63227-8_6
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