Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate Princess Palatine Benedicta Henrietta (Benedicta Henrietta Philippina; 14 March 1652 – 12 August 1730) was Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, or of Hanover, by her marriage to Duke John Frederick. She was the third and youngest daughter of Prince Palatine Edward and the political hostess Anna Gonzaga. Born in Paris to the landless Prince Palatine Edward, "Bénédicte Henriette"'s paternal grandparents were Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Elizabeth Stuart, the "Winter Queen". Her maternal grandparents were Charles I, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat and his French wife Catherine de Mayenne, daughter of Charles de Lorraine-Guise, Duke of Mayenne.
Henrietta Maria of France Princes James and Henry to Catholicism, her attempts with Henry angering both Royalists in exile and Charles II. Henriette, however, was brought up a Catholic. Henrietta Maria had founded a convent at Chaillot in 1651, and she lived there for much of the 1650s. Henrietta Maria returned to England following the Restoration in October 1660 along with her daughter Henrietta. Henrietta Maria's return was partially prompted by a liaison between the Earl of Clarendon's daughter Anne and Henrietta Maria's son, the Duke of York – Anne was pregnant, and the Duke had proposed marrying her. Henrietta Maria still disliked Clarendon,