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 call Henrietta Maria simply "Maria", with the English people calling her "Queen Mary", alluding to Charles' Catholic grandmother. Henrietta Maria was very open about her Catholic beliefs, to the point of it being "flagrant" and "unapologetic"; she obstructed plans to forcibly take into care the eldest sons of all Catholic families with the aim of bringing them up as Protestants, and also facilitated Catholic marriages, committing a criminal offence under English law at the time. In July 1626, Henrietta Maria stopped to pray for Catholics who had died at the Tyburn tree, causing huge controversy – Catholics were still being