IN JANUARY 1640, the English court assembled in a vast temporary room beside the Banqueting House in Whitehall to watch a dream unfold. At a safe distance from Rubens’s newly painted ceiling, candlelight flickered on the silver breeches and plumed helmet of Charles I as he climbed the craggy rocks of discord to reach a golden throne.
His French queen, Henrietta Maria — dressed by Inigo Jones in carnation red-pink and silver, a helmet on her head and sword at her side — then appeared from a heavenly cloud bursting through rays of light to be enthroned at his side and bring harmony to his fractious kingdom. Three years later the same queen was on the run from
