MI249/23  5.63gr. Tribute to Henrietta Maria. Henrietta Maria was the youngest daughter of King Henry IV of France and Maria de Medici. She was married by proxy to the future King Charles I of England when only 15. As a devout Catholic, Henrietta was unpopular with the English public who were angered at the French persecution of the protestant Huguenots. When Charles I became king in 1625, she was not crowned as queen because her religious beliefs would not allow her to be crowned by a protestant cleric. This also didn’t sit well with the public. Later in the reign as the tide of the English civil war turned against King Charles she was forced to flee with her children back to France.  After the restoration of her son as Charles II in 1660, she returned briefly to England, but suffering from severe bronchitis, she left again in 1665 dying in France in 1669.  A Dix auction in 2022 sold aa VF example for L400 plus buyers fee.  Much original brilliance remains AU.