Henrietta Maria's inventory at Colombes

ISSN： 0954-6650

Source： Journal of the History of Collections, Vol.24, Iss.2, 2012-07, pp. : 159-181

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Abstract

The story of Henrietta Maria's death, and the inventory that documents her possessions, offers new insight into the constant and indeed connected flow of political missions, confessional loyalty, finances and artworks during the middle decades of the seventeenth century. The making of the inventory was more than a routine bureaucratic procedure; it provides a valuable entre into high political intrigue, as those who were drawing up the inventory were also engaged in secret negotiations for the Treaty of Dover (1670). The assessment of the inventory itself, particularly the Queen's art collection, reveals a refined taste for old and moderne masters, as well as a sense of her purpose as the handmaiden of the Catholic faith for a Protestant country. The inventory's significance to the history of collecting and display goes well beyond her space at Colombes, shedding new light on her rooms at the post-Restoration Somerset House, treasures she maintained from the 1630s, and possible acquisitions of the 1640s and 1650s. An online appendix is provided of paintings in Henrietta Maria's inventory at Colombes.