In my honest opinion according to the character that Jean Plaidy created, Henrietta Maria should have stayed in France. She was the most spoiled, willful, whiny Queen it has ever been my misfortune to read about. Of course, she wasn't a very good person historically, but I wish Ms. Plaidy had given me a reason to like her.

From the beginning, Henrietta does everything to sabotage her marriage to Charles I by ignoring her English attendants in favor of her French ones and disrespecting the Church More...

It was a struggle to get through this book and I kept the myth alive that it would get better. Unfortunately it did not.

There were contradictions throughout the story which were annoying as was the repetition and flat characters.

Henrietta is a Catholic queen in Protestant England married to Charles I; Plaidy has her mention her faith about a million times. I get it, you are Catholic and want to convert your husband ( and everyone else). That is fine, but I didn't need to be reminded endlessly. More...

Read this in a whirlwind, a well written account of a rigid, unbending Catholic queen in a Protestant land. Reckless, impetuous,"spoiled" Henrietta Maria is ever contentious and eager to convert King Charles I and by extension, his country. However the irrepressible rush of history is against her most dear wishes. This clash can have no good outcome, and ultimately takes the King's life.

Henrietta Maria is, against the odds, sympathetically portrayed, but her rigidity as regards the True Faith in More...

This isn't the best book I've ever read but it's a his fic classic. I wish I had read all the classics first, to get a better base in the genre before I started reading his fic all willy nilly. Now I've been reading his fic for years and still haven't read the novels that started it all!

I don't find the main character, Henrietta Maria, to be particularly likeable but she wasn't a particularly likeable person in real life, so I was ok with it. I empathized much more with her than I thought I wou More...

I decided to try and switch things up a bit and read more about another royal family I’m interested in – the Stuarts. A book like this always makes me wish I could have known the characters during their actual life times; to have conversations with them and try to understand what is going on in their heads. I spent much of this book being both fascinated and frustrated by Henrietta at the same time. I cannot remember the last time I wished I could just take a main characters face in both my hand More...

This book was difficult as I wanted to slap the heroine (Queen Henrietta Maria)! Arrogant, controlling, whining and without a clue to the real world outside her palace. Her casual attitude towards her children, her desire to "rule through her husband the king", and her political machinations seemed a bit far-fetched.

Will try some of the other books by this author to see if this one was just a "glitch".

Enjoyed it as I do all of Jean Plaidy's books, but have never found Henrietta-Maria to be a very sympathetic character! Knowing how the Civil War ended for Charles I kind of ruined the story a bit, but since there doesn't seem to be a lot of fictioon about this couple, it was pretty interesting.

2.5/5 stars. This novel is written from the point of view of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I of England. The back of the book described Henrietta as "adorable", but to me she was anything but that. She was obnoxious, irritating, narrow-minded and shallow (at least as portrayed in this novel). She was RIGHT, and anyone who disagreed with her was WRONG, and she never outgrew that way of thinking. I nudged the book from 2 to 2.5 stars because some parts towards the end were actually interesting More...

My return to reading biographys (sort of) as it is a novel based on history. This book has renewed my interest in learning more about english history albiet thru a novel. I am now reaching further back and reading about Richard III.

I do not know how I finished this book. This is historical fiction at its worst. Drama, upon more drama and a whiney over zealous queen to boot.

Great attention to detail and accuracy, and brings to life a time that I didn't know much about. A great introduction into the reign of Charles I.

If this has any historical truth to Henriette Marie's real personality, she was a very arrogant woman and annoyed me throughout the book.

Loyal in Love, by Jean Plaidy. Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I of England and daughter of Henry IV of France.

What an irritating woman! Decent book, but I cannot imagine how awful it must have been to try to live with her ...

Interesting but a very frustrating heroine.

#1 in series - #8 in historical order

Plaidy often does a good job of bringing to life women from history...Henrietta Maria is the french catholic wife of Charles I - the English king who loses his head and crown. I've always read more about the profligate ways of Charles II and found this an intersting (although I have no idea how historically accurate, but Plaidy is pretty well researched) view into how he ended up a king without a country before the restoration.

The original title of this book is Myself the Enemy. This would be much more appropriate. Queen Henrietta Maria was portrayed as highly self-centered and the cause of many of her own problems. I liked how her marriage was portrayed however. Plaidy's books always lend quite an interesting view toward history, with tons of details.

This book is about the daughter of Henry IV of France. She is married off to Charles I of England. Henrietta Maria becomes the cause for civil war in England. The story follows her life from her marriage to Charles to puritan rule in England all the way to the restoration of the crown to her son Charles II.

This book was good. I enjoy learning about English history and these books allow that. I was happy to finally see a king Charles I who actually treated his wife with some respect and seemed to truly love his family. Reading about a Queen's life during these times though floors me. I would never make it!

It took me a long time to read because I got distracted by 3 other books..lol. This was actually quite good despite the slow start. I thought it was going to be romancey but it actually wasn't so much. I want to read more in the series.

Long winded, wordy. Perhaps the problem was I didn't like the main character.
i didn't finish the book

Great read; what a horrid thing happened to her husband, Charles I of England.

Couldn't finish, just lost interest in a made up dialog.