ABSTRACT
In 1625, the French princess Henriette Marie de Bourbon, daughter of Henri IV and Marie de Médici, was married to the future English king, Charles I. This alliance was to be in many ways decisive for Anglo-French relations. Before explaining why this was so, I would like to turn briefly to Shakespeare’s play Henry V which had first been performed only 26 years before Henrietta Maria, as she was called in England, travelled across the Channel.
