ABSTRACT
The Virgin Mary endured as a vital aspect of early modern Protestant theology because of her incontrovertible position as Christ's mother. It was after Shakespeare's death, with the arrival of the French Henrietta Maria into the English court in 1625, when both the popularity and insidious nature of the Virgin Mary took center stage. Henrietta Maria boldly practiced her Catholic faith, and, as Dolan tells us, her "elaborate new chapel at Somerset House was dedicated to the Virgin and became the center for the Arch-Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, which the queen led". Once again, England found itself fearing Roman Catholic influence from within: an English queen who unapologetically brought to England her steadfast loyalty to Roman Catholicism, and her devotion to the Virgin Mary herself. Henrietta Maria's religious audacity was the stuff of Shakespearean plays. It portended future civil strife, future insecurities about England's religious and gendered identity, and the future fracture in England's conception of community.
