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1647 Document Signed by Charles II and Mother 1647 Marriage Contract signed by Queen Henriette Marie

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1647 Document Signed by Charles II and Mother 1647 Marriage Contract signed by Queen Henriette Marie
<B>1647 Marriage Contract signed by Queen Henriette Marie, wife of King Charles I of England, and her son, the future King Charles II</B></I> Manuscript DS: <I>"Henriette Marie R", "Charles P", "Charles de lux", "Henriette Marie/Coignet"</B></I> and 25 others, 6p, 8.5" x 13.5". Paris, February 20, 1647. Also signed by members of the families of the bride and groom, Charles de lux and Henriette Marie Coignet, and by members of the court. In May, 1625, 24-year-old Charles, Prince of Wales, married 15-year-old Princess Henriette Marie, daughter of King Henry IV of France and Marie de Medici. Henriette Marie's marriage to Charles required a special dispensation from the Pope because it was the first time that a Catholic princess had married a Protestant prince. They had nine children; their eldest son Charles was born in 1630. Fearing she might be taken hostage in the civil war then ensuing, Queen Henrietta Maria escaped to France in 1644. Granted a small allowance by the French government, she established her household at the Palace of St. Germain near Paris. She kept up an intimate correspondence with her husband the King in England, trying to persuade him to be more flexible in negotiations after his military defeat in 1645. Charles, Prince of Wales, then 15, left England in February, 1646, joining his mother at St Germain in June 1646. Eight months later, he and his mother signed this marriage certificate as guests at the marriage of, coincidently, a bride named Henrietta and a groom named Charles. On January 30, 1649, King Charles I was beheaded. In 1660, Charles, Prince of Wales, was finally invited to return to England when the death of Oliver Cromwell and the collapse of the Protectorate resulted in political turmoil in England. He was declared rightful King of England by the newly-elected Convention Parliament on May 8, 1660. His coronation at Westminster Abbey took place on April 23, 1661, but King Charles II always considered his reign to have begun on January 30, 1649, when his father died. His mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, died in 1669. The document has been tied together with pink ribbon and is in very fine condition.