Mary Stuart, the First Princess Royal of England

1652 Portrait by Bartholomeus van der Heist

    I will be starting a podcast on history and specifically on the history on Royal Women, but I am open to other topics. I decided to start with something simple and wanted to start with the Princess Royals of England. The project ended up being far more complicated and interesting than I originally thought. The first Princess Royal of England was Mary Princess Royal of England and Princess of Orange, daughter of King Charles I of England, wife of Prince William II of Orange, and mother of King William III of England and Prince of Orange. 

    She was born on  4 November 1631 in St. James Palace, London, England, the oldest daughter of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France. The Stuarts were descendants of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was Catholic but her son was raised Protestant. The Bourbons came from Henry IV who was a Protestant who converted to Catholicism to be a king. At age 9, she married William, the son of the Prince of Orange. In 1647, she and her husband became Prince and Princess of Orange and her husband became the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. Mary was only 15 years old and was already over court functions. She lived in the Netherlands while her family was fighting the English Civil War. Because of her position, she could help her family in exile. Her father was beheaded in 1649 and England became a Republic. Mary was no longer the daughter of a king. What became of her life? Was she popular in The Dutch Republic during the height of the Dutch Golden Age? Was she influential and what was her legacy? Those are some topics that will be discussed.