Queen Henrietta Maria | Autograph letter signed, to her brother, begging for help for her son, Charles II, 1649

Queen Henrietta Maria

Autograph letter signed ("Henrietta Maria R") , to her brother Gaston, Duc d'Orleans

begging him for the second time to make it possible for her son, Charles II, to return to France ("...son pere estant mort il est sy presse dans ses afferes uue yl sera tout a fait perdu sans soni retour..."); she also reminds her brother of her own and Charles's service to him, stresses that in caring for her son she is only following his earlier advice and attributes his failure to act before not to lack of generosity or a kindly nature but to the pressures of his own concerns, integral address leaf, armorial seals with traces of silk ties, contemporary endorsement "Le Reyne dangre", no place or date [c.1649-50]

Henrietta Maria had retired to her native France as the Royalist cause started to collapse, and she here pleads that France provide shelter for her son. Charles II had moved from France to the Hague in 1648 and spent the next two years attempting to win back his crown by force with Dutch naval support and allies in Scotland and Ireland. These efforts ended with defeat at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. He then returned to France and took up residence with his mother as the head of an exiled court.

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 13 March 1979, lot 16