Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza | |
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Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland | |
Tenure | 21 May 1662 – 6 February 1685 |
Born | Palace of Vila Viçosa, Vila Viçosa, Portugal | 25 November 1638
Died | 31 December 1705 Bemposta Palace, Lisbon, Portugal | (aged 67)
Burial | |
Spouse | |
Roman Catholicism | |
Signature |
Catherine of Braganza (
Owing to her devotion to the
Catherine produced no heirs for Charles, having suffered three miscarriages.
Early life and family
Catherine was born at the
Commonly regarded as the power behind the throne, Queen Luisa was also a devoted mother who took an active interest in her children's upbringing and personally supervised her daughter's education. Catherine is believed to have spent most of her youth in a convent close by the royal palace where she remained under the watchful eye of her protective mother. It appears to have been a very sheltered upbringing, with one contemporary remarking that Catherine, "was bred hugely retired" and "hath hardly been ten times out of the palace in her life".[4] Catherine's older sister Joana, Princess of Beira, died in 1653, leaving Catherine as the eldest surviving child of her parents. Her husband was chosen by Luisa, who acted as regent of her country following her husband's death in 1656.[1]
Marriage
Negotiations for the marriage began during the reign of
On 30 September 1662, the married couple entered London as part of a large procession, which included the Portuguese delegation and many members of the court. There were also minstrels and musicians, among them ten playing
Catherine possessed several good qualities, but had been brought up in a convent, secluded from the world, and was scarcely a wife Charles would have chosen for himself. Her mother-in-law, the Queen Mother, was pleased with her, and wrote that she is "the best creature in the world, from whom I have so much affection, I have the joy to see the King love her extremely. She is a Saint!" In reality, her marriage was plagued by infidelities on Charles's side.[6]
Little is known of Catherine's own thoughts on the match. While her mother plotted to secure an alliance with England and thus support Portugal's fight for independence, and her future husband celebrated his restoration by dallying with his mistresses, Catherine's time had been spent in the sombre seclusion of her convent home, with little opportunity for fun or frivolity. Even outside the convent, her actions were governed by the strict etiquette of the royal court of Portugal. By all accounts, Catherine grew into a quiet, even-tempered young woman.
Catherine became pregnant and miscarried at least three times, and during a severe illness in 1663, she imagined, for a time, that she had given birth. Charles comforted her by telling her she had indeed given birth to two sons and a daughter. Her position was a difficult one, and though Charles continued to have children by his many mistresses, he insisted she be treated with respect, and sided with her against his mistresses when he felt that she was not receiving due respect. After her three miscarriages, it seemed to be more and more unlikely that the queen would bear an heir. Royal advisors urged the monarch to seek a divorce, hoping that the new wife would be
Queen consort (1662–1685)
Catherine was not a particularly popular choice of queen, since she was a
Although her difficulties with the English language persisted, as time went on, the once rigidly formal Portuguese Infanta mellowed and began to enjoy some of the more innocent pleasures of the court. She loved to play cards and shocked devout
She did not involve herself in English politics, instead she kept up an active interest in her native country. Anxious to re-establish good relations with the pope and perhaps gain recognition for Portuguese independence, she sent Richard Bellings, later her principal secretary, to Rome with letters for the pope and several cardinals. In 1669 she involved herself in the last-ditch effort to relieve Candia in Crete, which was under siege by the Ottoman Empire and whose cause Rome was promoting, although she failed to persuade her husband to take any action. In 1670, as a sign of her rising favour with the then-new Pope Clement X, she requested and was granted devotional objects.[4] The same year, Charles II ordered the building of a Royal yacht HMY Saudadoes for her, used for pleasure trips on the River Thames and to maintain communications with the Queen's homeland of Portugal, making the journey twice.[8]
Catherine fainted when Charles's official mistress,
Catholicism
Though known to keep her faith a private matter, her religion and proximity to the king made her the target of
In 1675 the stress of a possible revival of the divorce project indirectly led to another illness, which Catherine's physicians claimed and her husband cannot fail to have noted, was "due as much to mental as physical causes". In the same year, all Irish and English Catholic priests were ordered to leave the country, which left Catherine dependent upon foreign priests. As increasingly harsher measures were put in place against Catholics, Catherine appointed her close friend and adviser, the devoutly Catholic Francisco de Mello, former Portuguese Ambassador to England, as her lord chamberlain. It was an unusual and controversial move but "wishing to please Catherine and perhaps demonstrate the futility of moves for divorce, the King granted his permission. De Mello was dismissed the following year for ordering the printing of a Catholic book, leaving the beleaguered Catherine even more isolated at court".[4] One consolation was that Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, who replaced Barbara Palmer as reigning mistress, always treated the Queen with proper deference; the Queen in return showed her gratitude by using her own influence to protect Louise during the Popish Plot.
Popish plot
The
As the highest-ranking Catholic in the country, Catherine was an obvious target for Protestant extremists, and it was hardly surprising that the Popish Plot of 1678 would directly threaten her position. However, Catherine was completely secure in her husband's favour ("she could never do anything wicked, and it would be a horrible thing to abandon her" he told Gilbert Burnet), and the House of Lords, most of whom knew her and liked her, refused by an overwhelming majority to impeach her.[4] Relations between the royal couple became notably warmer: Catherine wrote of Charles's "wonderful kindness" to her and it was noted that his visits to her quarters became longer and more frequent.
After Charles's death
During Charles's final illness in 1685, she showed anxiety about his reconciliation with the Roman Catholic faith, and she exhibited great grief at his death. When he lay dying in 1685, he asked for Catherine, but she sent a message asking that her presence be excused and "to beg his pardon if she had offended him all his life." He answered, "Alas poor woman! she asks for my pardon? I beg hers with all my heart; take her back that answer."[11] Later in the same year, she unsuccessfully interceded with James II for the life of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Charles's illegitimate son and leader of the Monmouth Rebellion – even though Monmouth in rebellion had called upon the support represented by the staunch Protestants opposed to the Catholic Church.
Catherine remained in England, living at
Initially on good terms with William and Mary, her position deteriorated as the practice of her religion led to misunderstandings and increasing isolation. A bill was introduced to Parliament to limit the number of Catherine's Catholic servants, and she was warned not to agitate against the government.
According to
Back in Portugal
She finally returned to Portugal in March 1692.
In 1703, she supported the Methuen Treaty between Portugal and England. She acted as regent for her brother, Peter II, in 1701 and 1704–05. Catherine was a mentor for her nephew, Dom João Prince of Brazil, from 1706 on the Portuguese Sun King (o Rei-Sol Português). His reign saw the rise of Portugal and its monarchy to new levels of prosperity, wealth, and prestige among European courts.
She died at the Bemposta Palace in Lisbon on 31 December 1705 and was buried at the Pantheon of the House of Braganza.
Legacy
Catherine's marriage had an important result for the later history of India and of the
Catherine is often credited with popularizing tea drinking in Britain, which was uncommon in her time.[14][15] Beyond tea, her arrival brought and promulgated goods such as cane, lacquer, cottons, and porcelain and so revolutionized taste, manners, craftsmanship, and history in both England and America.[16]
After the tri-centennial of the establishment of Queens County in 1983, the Portuguese-American "Friends of Queen Catherine" society began raising money to erect a 35-foot statue of Queen Catherine on the East River waterfront in Long Island City. Audrey Flack was hired by the society to serve as the sculptor of the proposed statue, and the project received support from several notable public figures in New York City, including Claire Shulman and Donald Trump. However, the project was well into development when opposition to the statue arose from multiple parties; historians objected to the statue on the grounds that there was no evidence that Queens was actually named after her, and thought that the location of the proposed statue was misplaced. Meanwhile, the African-American Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church opposed plans for the statue after allegations that Queen Catherine and the House of Braganza had profited from the slave trade emerged, while Irish-Americans in Queens were upset that the proposed statue would eclipse the Calvary Cemetery, which had been established for the Irish immigrant community in the United States. As a result of this public opposition, Shulman was forced to withdraw her support, and the statue was never erected.[21][22] A quarter-scale model survives at the site of Expo '98 in Lisbon, Portugal, facing west across the Atlantic.
Catherine Street, formerly Brydges Street, in central London is named after her.[23]
Novelists, notably Margaret Campbell Barnes in With All My Heart,
Arms
The
Ancestry
Ancestors of Catherine of Braganza | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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See also
- List of English consorts
- History of tea in the United Kingdom
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8108-5779-7. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- ^ Herman (2005, p. 61)
- ^ Laufer (1999, p. 83)
- ^ a b c d e f Heidi Murphy. "Biographies of Great Men & Women of England, Wales and Scotland". Britannia.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
- ^ required.)
- ^ Herman (2005, pp. 58–59)
- ^ HMC 6th Report (Sir H. Ingilby) (London, 1877), pp. 367–368.
- ISBN 0901281743
- ^ Herman (2005, p. 60)
- ^ Herman (2005, pp. 61–62)
- ^ Laufer (1999, p. 83)
- ^ British empire; British isles (1856). The land we live in ... the British Islands. pp. 157–. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- ^ "C'est celle avec qui le comte de Feversham, frère des maréchaux de Duras et de Lorges, était si bien qu'on ne douta pas qu'il ne l'eût épousée dans l'intervalle de la mort de Charles II et de son départ." (It is she with whom the Earl of Feversham, brother of the marshals de Duras and de Lorges, got on so well that there was little doubt he had married her in the time between the death of Charles II and her going away) Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon. "VIII". Mémoires. Vol. 1. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ "Catherine of Braganza", UK Tea Council. Retrieved 1 March 2013
- ISBN 978-0-8048-3724-8.
- ^ Thomas, Gertrude Z. (1965). Richer than spices; how a royal bride's dowry introduced cane, lacquer, cottons, tea, and porcelain to England, and so revolutionized taste, manners, craftsmanship, and history in both England and America. New York: Knopf.[ISBN missing][page needed]
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2248-7. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-7385-6308-4. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-8232-1985-8. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-1894378789.
- ^ New York Times, 11 October 1990 and 9 January 1998.
- ^ Catherine Of Braganza: The Fall Of A Queen Archived 19 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Queens Tribune
- ^ Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1992). The London Encyclopaedia (reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 130.
- ISBN 0-900455-25-X
public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Catherine of Braganza". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in theSources
- Herman, Eleanor (2005). Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge. The Contempt of the World: William Morrow Paperbacks. ISBN 0-06-058544-7.
- Laufer, Guida Myrl Jackson (1999). Women rulers throughout the ages: an illustrated guide. ABC-CLIO. p. 83. ISBN 1-57607-091-3.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-7451-7528-7.
- Plaidy, Jean. (2008). The Merry Monarch's Wife: The Story of Catherine of Braganza. Broadway. ISBN 0-307-34617-X
- Plaidy, Jean. (2005). The Loves of Charles II: The Stuart Saga. Broadway. ISBN 1-4000-8248-X
- ISBN 978-0-7524-3948-8.
- ISBN 0-307-33992-0
- ISBN 0-7538-1403-X.
- Sousa, Manuel E. (1995). Catherine of Braganza. Howell Press Inc. ISBN 978-972-9019-73-9
- Elsna, Hebe. (1967). Catherine of Braganza : Charles II's Queen. Hale.
- Mackay, Janet. (1937).Catherine of Braganza. J. Long, Limited; First Edition.
- Barnes, Margaret Campbell. (1951). With All My Heart: The Love Story of Catherine of Braganza. Macrae-Smith Company.
External links
- Media related to Catherine of Braganza at Wikimedia Commons
- Portraits of Catherine of Braganza at the National Portrait Gallery, London