Henrietta Maria

Leanda de Lisle has brilliantly overturned nearly four centuries of misogynistic, religiously bigoted and politically motivated myths about Henrietta Maria, who now emerges as a fascinating, fearless, but ill-fated woman, wife and mother. This is revisionist history at its absolute best

ANDREW ROBERTS, author of George III: The Life of Britain's Most Misunderstood Monarch

This is popular history of the finest kind, vivid, immediate, well researched and telling a compelling story. It is also serves the first duty of biography, by making its subject more wholly understandable than before

RONALD HUTTON, author of The Witch

Leanda de Lisle's beautifully written and endlessly fascinating new biography of Henrietta Maria brings one of the 17th century's most misunderstood women to glorious life . . . This salutary and important book restores her to her rightful place as one of the most important figures of her time

ALEXANDER LARMAN, author of The Crown in Crisis

If the Stuarts are having their time in the sun at last, then Leanda de Lisle is one of the reasons they are. Masterful and pleasurable about a transformative century and a neglected, underestimated woman's role in it -- what more can one want from history?

SARAH FRASER, author of The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart

A fascinating book about a fascinating woman -- Henrietta Maria's story deserves to be better known, and this book brings her completely alive

FRANCES QUINN, author of The Smallest Man

Henietta Maria's perspective allows this book to become something much more than mere analysis of politics and war. De Lisle understands that history is a story of people; she possesses a visceral understanding of the emotions that swirled inside Henrietta Maria

The Times, *Book of the Week*

With grace and sensitivity, de Lisle cuts through the misogyny to reveal a different Henrietta Maria . . . De Lisle understands that history is a story of people; she possesses a visceral understanding of the emotions that swirled inside Henrietta Maria . . . she was not England's greatest queen, but she was probably the most remarkable

GERARD DEGROOT, The Times * Book of the Week *

With supreme skill and style, Leanda de Lisle provides not only a welcome revision of Henrietta Maria's reputation, but also a revival of her fierce energy and a reanimation of the entire age. A superb and vital biography

JESSIE CHILDS, author of The Siege of Loyalty House

A glorious resurrection of one of the most misrepresented queens of England . . . finally, thanks to Leanda de Lisle's meticulous research, she has a biography worthy of her fascinating life

AMANDA FOREMAN, author of A World on Fire

Brilliantly written, mesmerising, superb scholarship and totally immersive . . . a total game changer

KATE WILLIAMS, author of Rival Queens: the Betrayal of Mary Queen of Scotts

De Lisle has made a speciality of bringing Tudors and Stuarts back to blazing life... The result is deeply satisfying and makes an excellent companion to her earlier much-admired biography of Charles I, White King

Kathryn Hughes, Sunday Times

A thrilling biography

DANIEL BROOKS, The Daily Telegraph

A captivating, richly detailed historical tale that shines a light on the hidden genius of an extraordinary woman

Literary Review

A formidable historian

ALLAN MALLINSON, Country Life

A captivating, richly detailed historical tale that shines a light on the hidden genius of an extraordinary woman

Woman's Own

de Lisle turns her attention to [Charles I's] wife, Henrietta Maria, similarly shading with nuance a character who can sometimes be reduced to primary-colour simplicity

History Today

Henrietta Maria's remarkable life is recounted with gusto in this sharp, sparky book... it makes vivid use of recent work on her court and queenship, brings people and personalities to the fore and will be a particular delight to those new to the period

ANNA KEAY, Spectator

[A] thrilling story... a revisionist life of one of the most compelling and controversial women in British history... a book, like a life, should be measured against its own mission. And in this - to tell the story of Henrietta Maria's extraordinary life from her own perspective - Leanda de Lisle triumphs where her subject could not

The Critic

Lucid, entertaining and combative revisionist biography

Paul Lay, author of Providence Lost

A triumph of a book which will revise opinion of this 'reviled' queen

Annie Whitehead, author of Women in Power

Thanks to Leanda de Lisle's new biography, Henrietta Maria can finally answer the charges laid against her. In debunking and deconstructing these myths de Lisle gives an account of the politics of the time

Times Literary Supplement

A shrewd and elegant reassessment of Charles's I consort and widow... She was certainly a fighter

Clare Mulley, Spectator, *Books of the Year*

Competent, intelligent, fun... de Lisle...has a visceral understanding of the complex emotions that swirled inside Henrietta Maria

The Times, *Books of the Year*

The much-maligned Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, is thrillingly reassessed in de Lisle’s lyrical biography

Daily Telegraph