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Mary of Modena

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Mary of Modena
Queen consort of England, Ireland, and Scotland (more...)

Consort	6 February 1685 – 11 December 1688
Coronation	23 April 1685
Consort to	James II
Issue
Catherine Laura, Isabel, Charles, Elizabeth, Charlotte Maria, James, Louise
Full name
Italian: Maria Beatrice Eleanor Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este
Detail Titles
The Queen The Duchess of York Princess Mary of Modena
Royal house	House of Stuart House of Este
Father	Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena
Mother	Laura Martinozzi
Born	5 October 1658(1658-10-05) Ducal Palace, Modena
Died	7 May 1718 (aged 59) Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris
Burial	Chaillot

Mary of Modena (Mary Beatrice Eleanor Anne Margaret Isabel; born Este; later Queen Mary of England, Scotland and Ireland; 5 October 1658 – 7 May 1718) was queen consort to James II & VII.

1 Early life
2 Marriage
3 Revolution
4 Later life
5 Legacy
6 Titles, styles, honours and arms
- 6.1 Titles and styles
7 Issue
8 Notes and sources

Early life

Daughter of Alfonso IV d'Este, Duke of Modena and Laura Martinozzi (niece of Jules Cardinal Mazarin), she was born in the Ducal Palace of Modena. She had a strict Roman Catholic upbringing, and thought briefly of becoming an abbess in an order of nuns founded by her mother. At the age of fourteen, she was the candidate favoured by Louis XIV to provide a suitable Roman Catholic bride for James, Duke of York and heir presumptive to the thrones of England and Scotland, who had converted to Roman Catholicism. The marriage was celebrated by proxy on 30 September 1673.

Marriage

The marriage had urgent dynastic and political aspects. James had two Protestant daughters, Mary and Anne, from his first marriage to Anne Hyde. A son by James' second marriage would be king one day, a Roman Catholic king. Though Mary was beautiful and charming — Charles II quickly came round to her — the people of England detested her for her Roman Catholicism. Scurvy wits lampooned her in broadsheets under the name "Madame East." Rumours spread that she was an agent of the pope, Clement X, who had pressed her case as a suitable bride. During the so-called "Popish Plot" (1678), to which her secretary Coleman was a victim, she and James discreetly went abroad. The dynastic considerations demanded a son. Their first male child was stillborn (1674), and numerous others died in infancy or early childhood. Following James's accession to the throne in 1685, the question of whether Mary would ever bear a son became more significant, because such a child would be brought up in the Roman Catholic faith and would be heir to the throne. In 1688, Mary finally gave birth to a living son, James. The event caused much speculation. It was suggested that the child had been born dead and a changeling smuggled into the room in a warming pan in order to conceal the death, or that the Queen had never actually been with child. Broadsheets depicting the queen stuffing pillows into her gown or cuckolding her husband with her confessor were common. For political reasons, a royal birth was a very public event, and many people would have had to be privy to this unlikely conspiracy. Nevertheless the rumours were disquieting enough that James called two extraordinary sessions of his Privy Council to hear testimony proving that the young Prince of Wales was his son by the Queen, though James's Protestant daughters fervently disputed the child's legitimacy. Mary's influence with James, whose attention was diverted by a series of mistresses, favoured the Jesuits and absolutism on the French model.

Revolution

Within a few months of the heir's birth, the coup of Whig aristocrats called the Glorious Revolution erupted. Mary consented to escape to France (10 December, 1688) with her son. James's elder daughter, Mary, with her husband, William of Orange, had been invited by the Whig magnates to take the throne. In exile, as guests and dependants of Louis XIV at the Chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Mary gave birth to one more child, Princess Louisa Maria, who died of smallpox at the age of nineteen.

Later life

When James died on 6 September 1701, Mary succeeded in inducing Louis to recognize her son as king of England and Scotland, an act that accelerated English participation in the War of the Spanish Succession. She supported Jacobite exiles to the best of her ability. Queen Mary died in Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris of breast cancer. Her tomb, in the abbey of Chaillot, was destroyed during the French Revolution.

Legacy

Dutchess County, New York was named in her honour while she was Duchess of York.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Styles of Queen Mary as consort

Reference style	Her Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Ma'am

Titles and styles

5 October 1658–30 September 1673: Princess Mary of Modena
30 September 1673–6 February 1685: Princess Mary, Duchess of York
6 February 1685–11 December 1688: Her Majesty The Queen
11 December 1688–7 May 1718: Queen Mary in exile
- Jacobite: Her Majesty The Queen

Mary's full style during James's reign was: "Her Majesty Mary, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland"

Issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Catherine Laura	10 January 1675	3 October 1676	died of convulsions.^[1]
Isabel	28 August 1676	2 March 1681
Charles, Duke of Cambridge	7 November 1677	12 December 1677	died of smallpox^[2]
Elizabeth	1678	c. 1678
Charlotte Maria	16 August 1682	16 October 1682	died of convulsions^[3]
James, Prince of Wales Old Pretender	10 June 1688	1 January 1766	married 1719, Mary Sobieski; had issue
Louise	28 June 1692	20 April 1712

Notes and sources

British royalty
Mary of Modena House of Este Born: 5 October 1658 Died: 7 May 1718
Preceded by Catherine of Braganza	Queen consort of England and Ireland, Queen consort of Scotland 1685 – 1688	Succeeded by Prince George of Denmark