Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England and Regent of Portugal

Catherine of Braganza, queen of England and regent of Portugal (born 25 November 1638)

Lately I've been reading biographies of women who lived a little beyond my areas of expertise--as I've written before, I used to joke with my students that if something happened after 1603 (the date of Elizabeth Tudor's death) it was a little too recent for me.

And so, although I was obviously aware of Catherine of Braganza, who was--unfortunately for her--married to Charles II of England in 1662, I didn't know much about her, and what I knew, or thought I knew, wasn't all that significant. 

I "knew" that she had introduced tea into England--I put that in quotation marks here, because it's what I believed, though it isn't true. 

The 1660/61 portrait of
Catherine of Braganza
with her unfortunate hairdo
(National Gallery, London)

I also "knew" that Catherine had exceptionally bad hair. Upon seeing his bride-to-be for the first time, Charles is said to have exclaimed that he thought Catherine was a "bat" and not a woman. The nineteenth-century historian Alice Strickland provided an extended description of Catherine of Braganza's unfortunate hairdo: the Portuguese princess had "a rich profusion of chestnut hair," but it was

disposed on each side of her face in a waved pyramid, consisting of parallel lines of canon curls, descending in graduated rows to the waist in a most extraordinary and unaccountable fashion, as if in imitation of a lord chief justice's wig, but without the powder. The whole of a very beautiful head of hair was spread out thus fantastically in side wings, with the exception of one large tress called a top-knot, which was combed slanting across her forehead, and gave additional oddity. . . .

But neither of the things I thought I knew has proven to be true. 

Catherine of Braganza certainly popularized the drinking of tea in England, but there are several references to tea in London before her arrival. Most notably, the diarist Samuel Pepys records on 25 September 1660 that he had "a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before." But the drink was being served in London well before Pepys tried it; Thomas Garway, proprietor of the Sultaness Head coffee house, was serving the drink at least two years earlier. According to an advertisement in the London Gazette (2 to 9 September 1658), “That Excellent, and by all Physitians approved, China Drink called by the Chineans, Tcha, by other Nations Tay alais . . . Tee, is sold at the Sultaness-head, a Cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.”

As for the bad hair? Well, I've used a portrait showing Catherine's "bat" hairdo, above, and it's certainly not attractive. But within days of her arrival, Catherine had exchanged her Portuguese farthingales and manner of dressing her hair for English styles, and that "fixed" the hair issues. I should add, however, that many contemporary descriptions of Catherine--her bad hair, her bad teeth, her bad complexion, her bad figure, her bad demeanor, her bad temper, her bad clothes--seem to to have been made in order to excuse the king's execrable behavior toward her. Charles was unthinking and neglectful at best, and cruel at worst--it depends on how you judge his flaunting of his many mistresses, whom he refused to give up, in front of his humiliated queen. 

To give Charles credit, though, he himself seemed perfectly satisfied with his Portuguese bride, and while he continued to accrue mistresses who bore him many, many children, he refused to divorce his wife, even when pressed to do so for the sake of producing a legitimate heir. 

Jean Nocret's portrait of Catherine,
with far more acceptable hair
(Prado Museum)

He also protected the Catholic queen when she was supposedly involved in a "Popish plot" against his life, and Catherine was suspected of having conspired with Charles's physician to poison the king--a charge of high treason was laid against her in parliament. But, rather than taking advantage of the situation to rid himself of an inconvenient wife, Charles stood by his queen, organizing her defense. 

Catarina de Bragança was born on 25 November 1638, two years before her father, João II, duke of Bragança, proclaimed himself king, becoming João IV of Portugal. An extended war with Spain was the result. (Interestingly, his claim was made through the female line, from his grandmother Catarina of Portugal, who had claimed the throne after the death of King Henrique of Portugal in 1580).

Catarina's mother was Luisa de Guzmán, a Spanish noblewoman who seems to have been the driving force behind her husband's acceptance of the Portuguese throne when it was offered to him. (She is believed to have claimed that it was better to reign for an hour than to be a duchess for a lifetime.) 

After her husband's death in 1656, Luisa de  Guzmán acted as regent of Portugal for her minor son, Afonso, a role she maintained even after the boy reached the age of majority--the young king was said to be physically weak and mentally unstable, but he still managed to seize power in 1662 and confine his mother in a convent. (A few years later, Afonso was declared incapable by his brother, Pedro, who took power in Afonso's name and then married Afonso's wife, after her marriage to Afonso was annulled. Family values! Don't you just love them?)

Although the "war of Restoration" would not formally end until 1668, the infanta Catarina, as she was known after her father was proclaimed king of Portugal, became a desirable prospect in the marriage market. As early as 1644, he was negotiating with Charles I for the marriage of his daughter to the English king's eldest son, destined to follow his father on the throne.

The English Civil Wars disrupted whatever plans might have been concluded, however. Charles I was executed, his son Charles escaping to the continent.

Meanwhile, Catherine was being carefully and strictly educated in a convent. After the Portuguese king's death in 1656, the regency was left to the queen, and it was under Luisa María Francisca de Guzmán y Sandoval's regency that war with Spain ended and Portuguese independence ensured.

In order to strengthen ties with England, the dowager queen and regent of Portugal revived the marriage negotiations between the infanta and Charles, restored to the English throne in 1660. The English king knew the problems that marriage with a Catholic would cause--his mother, Henrietta Maria, was Catholic, her religion contributing to the many conflicts that precipitated the civil wars that led to her husband's deposition and execution--but, in need of money, Charles was eager for the huge dowry that would come with the Portuguese princess.

The Infanta Catarina arrived in England in 1662--now Catherine, she married the king on 22 May in an Anglican ceremony. There was also a secret Catholic marriage ceremony.

Before Catherine arrived in England for her marriage, the British consul in Lisbon, Thomas Maynard, had sent home a letter describing the princess. Something of the difficulties she would have as queen of England should have been clear from his communication. He described the princess as a young woman of great virtue, beauty, and "sweetness," but "bred hugely retired." She has "hardly been ten times out of the palace in her life." In fact, she hadn't been out of doors for the five years before the negotiations for her marriage, when, in an act of religious devotion, she paid a visit to two shrines in the city. She would find the English court--described by a contemporary as a "cross between a bear garden and a brothel"--an uncomfortable new home.

While her new husband was fond of his wife and insisted that members of the court treat her with respect, he did not hide his infidelities (or his mistresses) from her. (He even proposed his mistress as Catherine's Lady of the Bedchamber--Catherine resisted, but after the king sent home her Portuguese ladies, she capitulated.) The queen's difficulties with the English language and her religion also contributed to her isolation at court.

Her miscarriages (which seem to have occurred in 1663, 1666 and 1668) ultimately gave rise to talk of divorce. The king's advisers urged him to get rid of his problematic queen and find a replacement--a Protestant. To his credit, Charles refused. She was, he said, a "weak woman" who had some "disagreeable humours," but she was incapable of doing a single "wicked" thing. To "abandon her" would be "horrid," and he claimed that he could never be so "base."

Catherine of Braganza c. 1665,
as queen of England,
by Peter Lely

Still, the queen was a target of increasing anti-Catholic sentiment. She was suspected of trying to appoint a Catholic bishop in England, and although the hysteria of the Popish plot of 1678 resulted in the executions of some two dozen suspected Catholics and even more suspicion directed to the queen, Charles would not countenance persecution of her.

When Charles II died in 1685, Catherine, now dowager queen, hoped to return to Portugal, but her plan to do so was delayed for years. Not long after her husband's death, she sought permission to return from her brother Pedro, now king of Portugal, who was not keen to upset his alliance with England and, anyway, the necessary fleet to fetch his sister was needed elsewhere. 

She was treated kindly by James II, but he could not, or would not, arrange for her return to Portugal either. Then, when when her brother did manage to organize her return, she was too ill to travel; her ill health also prevented her from traveling when James II at last arranged for a ship to take his sister-in-law back to the land of her birth. 

And money was an issue. Her income, guaranteed by her marriage treaty and augmented by gifts from her husband and an inheritance from her mother-in-law, Queen Henrietta Maria, widow of Charles I, was left unpaid, and she discovered that her lord treasurer had retained a great deal of what was paid for himself. And so she went to court. (I love biographer Lillias Campbell Davidson's comment on the shock that was felt at Catherine's temerity of pursuing what she thought was right: "She had for so long meekly submitted to be robbed and slighted, that neither James nor those about her could understand the resolute fight she now made for her own hand.")

As a Catholic, Catherine was increasingly isolated and at risk during the reign of the staunchly protestant William and Mary, who took the throne as a result of the "glorious revolution." (Mary was James's elder daughter and heir, her husband, William, her first cousin, the son of Mary Henrietta Stuart, sister of Charles II and James II.)

 

Once again, the question of transport became an issue--the terms of her marriage treaty had guaranteed her right to return to Portugal, but how was she to get there? She was caught between her brother, unable to do what was necessary to arrange for her return, and the new English monarchs, unwilling to offer her any assistance. In July 1689, the House of Commons passed a bill against "papists" (and taking aim at the dowager queen), reducing her household to a handful of Catholic servants. A few months later, Catherine was again under suspicion, suspected of having attempted to poison Queen Mary.  

And still her departure from England was delayed--the effort dragged on until 1692, when Catherine was finally able to leave for Portugal. Her journey began on 30 March 1692, just a few weeks short of thirty years since her arrival in England. She sailed from Margate to Dieppe, then traveled overland through France. By June she had arrived in Moulins, and in September she had reached Avignon. In November, she was met at the Spanish border by Portuguese noblemen, and at long last, in January 1693, she entered Lisbon and was reunited with her brother.

Finally the trajectory of Catherine's life was reversed. The city not only welcomed her, but lavish celebrations greeted her return. Instead of hostility and suspicion, she was embraced by her new sister-in-law, Maria Sophia of Neuburg (Pedro's second wife, whom he had married in 1687). There does seem to have been a bit of upset, however--Pedro wished that Catherine would no longer dress in her English gowns but resume wearing Portuguese fashion . . . 

Returned to Lisbon, she soon earned another title, serving as regent of Portugal for her brother in 1701 and again in 1704-5. And she also assumed responsibility for her nephew, who would succeed his father on the throne as João V of Portugal. She oversaw the boy's education from 1699, when his mother died, until her own death.

Catherine of Braganza, queen of England and regent of Portugal, died on 31 December 1705. She had just turned sixty-seven. 

Catherine of Braganza's tomb,
House of Braganza Pantheon,
Sao Vicente de Fora Monastery, Lisbon

There is an extended biographical account of Catherine of Braganza in volume 8 of Alice Strickland's nineteenth-century Lives of the Queens of England. However romanticized, it is a rich, complete survey of the queen's life. S. M. Wynne's entry on the queen in the Dictionary of National Biography is accessible only to those with a subscription.

There are several historical novels, if you're interested. 

Marie de Guise, Queen and Regent of Scotland

Marie de Guise, queen and regent of Scotland (born 22 November 1515)

As I have noted many times in the years since I began writing this blog, its title--"The Monstrous Regiment of Women"--is drawn from the virulent political pamphlet published by the Scottish religious reformer John Knox. 

Knox published his blistering assessment of female rule, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, in 1558. His bitter, almost pornographic, indictment of "gynecocracy" was quickly followed in print by a series of pamphlets that echoed, expanded, disputed, and countered his argument that female rule was unnatural, unlawful, and contrary to scripture.

From Knox's point of view, the political situation could hardly seem worse. Not only had Mary Tudor succeeded to the throne of England, but Mary Stuart, wife of the dauphin of France, had become queen of Scotland, while her mother, Marie de Guise, was acting as regent in Scotland on Mary's behalf.*

Marie of Guise, c. 1537
portrait attributed to Corneille de Lyon

The daughter of Claude of Lorraine, duke of Guise (after 1528), and Antoinette Bourbon, Marie was the couple's firstborn and only child for the first four years of her life.

But after the birth of a son and heir in 1519, her father sent his daughter to the convent Clarisse to Pont-à-Mousson. There Marie joined her paternal grandmother, Philippa of Guelders. After an active career in Lorraine, where she had served as regent for her son, the duke of Lorraine (Claude's elder brother), the dowager duchess had retired there. (As only one more indication of Margaret of Austria's powerful influence for a generation of early-modern women, a young Philippa of Guelders spent time in her court.)

Marie remained in the convent with her grandmother until she was about fourteen years old. After visiting his mother in the convent, the duke of Lorraine must have seen the potential in his niece--he arranged for Marie to leave the convent and to prepare for a life in the French court. She made her first appearance there in 1531. A politically advantageous alliance was soon arranged. 

On 4 August 1534, when she was eighteen years old, Marie of Lorraine was married to Louis II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville and comte de Dunois. Her first child, a boy named François, after the French king, was born just over a year later. But Marie's husband died in 1537, just three years after their marriage. A posthumous son, Louis, was born two months after his father's death--and four months later, the baby was also dead.

Within months, it was clear that a second marriage would be arranged for the young widow. James V of Scotland, whose wife had recently died, was looking for a new queen, as was Henry VIII of England, whose offer was rejected by Marie in December 1537--the English king is said to have told the French ambassador that he was a big man, in need of a similarly sized wife (Marie was quite tall). Marie is said to have replied that, though she was a big woman, she had a very little neck (referring to Henry's execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn).

Happily for Marie, the French king decided to reject Henry's offer and to accept that of James of Scotland. Less happily, marriage negotiations were immediately underway--she was not eager for a second marriage. Despite her wish to delay, by January of 1538, just seven months after her first husband's death, the marriage contract with Scotland was complete.

The couple were married by proxy in France on 9 May 1538. On 10 June, Marie, now queen of Scotland, left France for her new home. As was customary, she left behind her three-year-old son.

After her arrival in Scotland, the new queen worked to reconcile her husband and his mother, Margaret Tudor, whose second marriage, subsequent divorce, and remarriage, had strained relations with the Scottish king. 

 

Marie gave birth to her son James in May 1539 and quickly became pregnant again. The second child was also a boy, but disaster struck in April 1541 when the two young princes died within a week of one another. Margaret, who knew only too well the pain of losing her children, comforted her son and his wife. Margaret Tudor herself died as the year ended, on 18 October 1541.

Double portrait of James V of Scotland and Marie of Guise,
artist unknown

Marie of Guise gave birth to a third child, a girl to be named Mary, on 8 December 1542. But the king of Scotland died just six days later, on 14 December. At her father's death, Mary Stuart became queen of Scotland. 

During the regency of James Hamilton, earl of Arran, Henry VIII made every effort to secure the marriage of Mary, queen of Scots, to his son, the infant Edward, moving from promises and inducements to war, when negotiations failed. Instead, Mary Stuart was betrothed to the French dauphin, another François, and in 1548 the little girl was sent to France to be reared alongside her future husband. 

Marie of Guise, the dowager queen, meanwhile, remained in Scotland. Only after the war with England ended and a treaty had been signed did she travel to France to see her young daughter. In September 1550 she left Scotland for the continent. She landed in Normandy and was able to travel to Longueville to reunite with the fifteen-year-old son from whom she had been separated a dozen years earlier. 

She also reunited with her daughter, the queen of Scotland, and she was able to visit with her recently widowed mother, Antoinette of Bourbon. (Marie's father, Claude of Bourbon, had died in April 1550). But before Marie of Guise returned to Scotland, she suffered one more blow--her son, François, died, still not sixteen years old.

Although the regency of Scotland had been in the hands of James Hamilton, earl of Arran, since James V's death, he was replaced as regent in April 1554. Marie of Guise's position as queen regent was "ratified by the Estates of Scotland." She served as regent until her death in 1560 and seems to have taken to heart the advice of her brother, the duke of Guise, to "deal in Scotland in a spirit of conciliation, introducing much gentleness and moderation into the administration of justice." 

She attempted to steer a judicious middle course for herself, acting in Antonia Fraser's words, "gently and slowly by the use of Parliament," introducing more equitable administration of the law into a country "where administration was either non-existent or archaic in the extreme," aiming for stability in economic matters, and proceeding with "balance and political acumen" in her dealings with the Scots lords, whom she judged to be "jealous and suspicious." She knew the difficulty of her task: "whenever it is a question of meeting out justice or punishment," Marie wrote, the lords "find these things insupportable, thinking always that one wants to give them new laws and change theirs, which in fact have much need of amendment."

Her family predicted that her "tender" methods would result in her failure. Her enemies condemned her as full of "craft and subtleties"; she had a "queenly mind," but "the heart of a man of war." John Knox, her most virulent critic, described her regency in an oft-quoted passage: "a crown [was] put upon her head, as seemly a sight . . . as to put a saddle upon the back of an unruly cow." But her supporters described her differently. The Catholic bishop John Lesley judged her to be a "princess most prudent and very well instructed in sweetness, comely and honest manners and integrity of life":  

Through use and experience, she knew much of our affairs and was very expert, in so far that none was of the nobility and of the common people except very few obscure persons whose engine, mind and manners she knew not perfectly and very well. . . . [S]he did justice with all diligence all her days. . . . [S]he likewise in virtues and many offices of humanity far overcame many other women. . . . [T]herefore she won the hearts of all . . . with wit and wisdom.

Lesley's view was surely as partisan Knox's, but, as Rosalind Marshall writes, "it is interesting to note" that the English chronicler Holinshed's estimation of the regent is much closer to Lesley's than to Knox's: In his view Mary of Guise was "wise and very prudent." During her regency "she kept good justice and was well obeyed in all parts of the realm." 

Marie of Guise, regent of Scotland, died in the sixth year of her regency, on 11 June 1560. She was forty-four years old.

In her extraordinary nineteenth-century history, Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses Connected with the Royal Succession of Great Britain, Alice Strickland provides an extended narrative of Marie of Guise (whom she refers to as Mary of Lorraine). The biography spans volume 1 and volume 2. 

In her 1969 biography of Mary, queen of Scots, Antonia Fraser (quoted here) writes about Mary's mother, Marie of Guise.

Rosalind Marshall's Mary of Guise (2001) is also quoted here. 

For a more recent biography, see Melanie Clegg's The Scourge of Henry VIII: The Life of Marie de Guise (2016). 

*This post has been adapted from The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe.