To Sell England’s Jewels: Queen Henrietta Maria’s visits to the Continent, 1642 and 1644

In the pursuit of raising much needed finance for the English Royalist cause, Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I of England, twice visited the European mainland in the 1640s in attempts to sell items of the English Crown Jewels. On both occasions her attempts were beset with problems including a perceived lack of legitimacy of any right she or the king had to sell such items. By association, extremely low offer prices were made by would-be buyers. The English Parliament did its best to track the queen’s activities using both overt and covert approaches. Her visits in 1642 and 1644 m... Mehr ...