Transcripts). Soon after this she again talked of visiting the continent, on the plea of her ill-health. This time she was to go to Spa. The commons believed that she was about to take with her the crown jewels in order to pawn them, and took measures which effectually put a stop to the scheme for the time. She did not, however, abandon it, and when her mother left England in August she expressed her intention of following her unless times changed.
Henrietta indeed had not quite abandoned hope. The king was now in Scotland, looking forward to the re-establishment of his power in England with the help of a Scottish army. She knew well how difficult it was to carry out any such scheme without more money than Charles had at his command, and before the end of August she again pleaded with the pope for a supply. As the hopes of Scottish intervention grew dim, the prospects of forming an episcopalian party in England increased, and in October the queen's court at Oatlands was the rallying-point of such of the lords as were discontented with the progress of puritanism. On 25 Nov. she joined in her husband's triumphal reception at the Guildhall. She was, however, very angry at the strong measures taken in parliament against the catholics, and did her best to urge the king to a complete breach with his opponents. In the early part of January 1642 she believed, truly or falsely, that the parliamentary leaders intended to impeach her (Giustinian to the Doge, 7–17 Jan.; Venetian Transcripts in Record Office; Heenvliet to the Prince of Orange, 7–17 Jan.; Groen van Prinsterer, 2nd ser. iii. 497). It was by her and Digby that Charles was urged to make his unfortunate attempt on the five members, and it is probable that her ill-advised discovery of the plan to Lady Carlisle [see Hay, Lucy] led to its failure. When on 10 Jan. Charles left Whitehall, he was accompanied by the queen, and when on 13 Feb. he gave his consent at Canterbury to the Bishops' Exclusion Bill, he did so on her recommendation. As a catholic she had no interest in supporting the bishops of what she regarded as an heretical church. On 23 Feb. she sailed from Dover, carrying with her a great part of the crown jewels. She hoped not merely to raise money by pawning them, but to obtain armed support from Denmark and the Prince of Orange, as well as from other continental sovereigns, who would be ready, she fancied, to sustain the cause of a falling monarch. By her letters she urged the king to secure Hull, and it is probable that it was on her advice that he offered to head the army preparing for the re-conquest of Ireland, a proposal which, had it been accepted by parliament, would have given Charles a military force entirely at his disposal. She herself played her part vigorously. Before the middle of June it was known in England that she had been selling or pawning jewels at Amsterdam, and had purchased large stores of munitions of war for the king's service. Before long a vessel was despatched to the Humber with the first consignment.
After the beginning of the civil war the queen's operations were still more vigorous, but it was difficult for her to keep her plans secret, and on 26 Nov. parliament learnt from an intercepted letter that the Prince of Orange had advanced her money, and that she had either sent, or had ready to send, no less than 1,200,000l. for her husband's service. It further learnt that she was to land in person on the east coast with an armed force. She actually set sail on 2 Feb. 1643 with a large sum of money, reckoned, probably with exaggeration, at 2,000,000l. She was overtaken by a violent storm, but maintained her high courage. ‘Comfort yourselves,’ she said to the frightened ladies; ‘queens of England are never drowned.’ She was driven back to the Dutch coast, but put out again, and landed at Bridlington Quay on the 22nd. Though she brought no troops with her, her vessels were loaded with warlike stores; and early in the morning of the 23rd a parliamentary squadron, under Captain Batten, attempted to destroy them. The shot flew into the houses of the port, and the queen, springing from her bed, fled for safety, but returned to save her lapdog. Finally she took refuge with her ladies in a ditch, while the shot flew over her head (Mémoires de Mme. de Motteville, i. 210). On 5 March she set out for York, the headquarters of the royalists in the north. Here she was visited by Montrose and Hamilton, each anxious to win her support for their respective policies in Scotland [see Graham, James, first Marquis of Montrose, and Hamilton, James, first Duke of Hamilton]. Whatever may have been her personal predilections, she was bound by her husband's orders, and rejected the warlike pleadings of Montrose. On 23 May she was impeached by the House of Commons.
The threads of Charles's foreign policy ran through the queen's hands, and on 27 May she advised him to abandon Orkney and Shetland to the king of Denmark in return for the assistance of a fleet and army (the queen to the king, 27 May, in Mrs. Green, Letters of Henrietta Maria). In England she won over Sir Hugh Cholmley and the
