For as the years rolled on the union between Charles and Henrietta proved to be no passing affection born of youth and beauty, but the deep and increasing love of true marriage. It was as impossible for Henrietta as for any other good wife, whether princess or peasant, to consider a course of action apart from the interests of her husband, and those who had dealings with her had to learn, sometimes painfully, that her first consideration must always be he of whom she was accustomed to write, with pretty formality, as "le roi Monseigneur."
She is considered, and rightly, to be a Queen of Tragedy. But in any estimate of her life it must be remembered that she had at least twelve years of such happiness as seldom falls to the lot of a royal woman. If later she was to find out that
"There is no worldly pleasure here below Which by experience doth not folly prove,"
now she was learning
"But among all the follies that I know The sweetest folly in the world is love";[102]
and thus rank and riches, which to the unhappy are but an aggravation of their misery, could yield to her their truest pleasure. Moreover, she never had to learn, like poor Anne of Austria, how
"Rich discontent's a glorious Hell."[103]
Sorrow, when it came, stripped her bare of the mocking accessories of joy.
[ [61]In England Henrietta Maria was known as Queen Mary, but she always used the signature "Henriette Marie."