ABSTRACT
The marriage of Charles I to Henrietta Maria took place by proxy on 1 May outside of the west door of Notre Dame. Charles’s accession was greeted with ‘universal applause and rejoicing’, a reflection of the optimism and zeal which had attached to him after his return from Spain and his championing of an aggressive Protestant foreign policy. Despite his experience of attending parliaments, Charles was clearly unacquainted with some of the constitutional proprieties surrounding the process of summoning one. Charles, residing at the royal manor at Woodstock just outside the city, travelled in on 4 August and addressed both Lords and Commons in Christ Church Hall. Charles also reconfigured his Council, exacting a degree of revenge for what he and Buckingham believed was disloyal conduct in the recent parliamentary session. Charles’s coronation had been delayed by the plague.
