Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester

Infobox British Royalty|royal
name = Henry Stuart
title = Duke of Gloucester


caption = Prince Henry, c. 1653, by Adriaen Hanneman
royal house = House of Stuart
father = Charles I
mother = Henrietta Maria of France
date of birth = 8 July 1639
place of birth = Oatlands Palace, Surrey
date of death = Death date and age|1660|9|18|1639|7|8|df=yes
place of death = Palace of Whitehall, London
place of burial = Westminster Abbey, London|

Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester (8 July 1639 – 18 September 1660) was the third adult (and youngest) son of Charles I and his queen, Henrietta Maria of France. He is also known as Henry of Oatland.

Potential heir

After his father's defeat at the end of the English Civil War, the six year old prince (unlike his older brothers, who escaped with their mother to France) was captured and brought to London. He was lodged in the royal apartments in the white tower of the Tower of London, under the "protection" of the Republican army. During the debates among Republican army leaders Oliver Cromwell and Henry Ireton about what kind of regime should succeed the now abolished rule of Charles I, it was briefly suggested that the young prince might be placed on the throne, and made to govern as the kind of limited, constitutional monarch that Parliament wanted. Part of the motivation for this came from the perception that, unlike his brothers Charles and James, he was sufficiently young to have not yet been "corrupted" by the Catholic and absolutist views of his mother and father, and might be brought up by tutors who shared the Parliamentary perspective. However, this option quickly faded away, as the Rump Parliament opted instead for the establishment of a Republican Commonwealth. Henry was moved to more comfortable surroundings and allowed to live with relative freedom under the eyes of his Parliamentary guardians.

Paris

Eventually, in 1652, Oliver Cromwell agreed to release him, and he travelled to join his mother and brothers in Paris. However, at least some of the influences that Cromwell hoped to have appeared to have been successful, as Henry had become a staunch Protestant, and quarrelled bitterly with his mother over matters of religion and politics. Their dislike for one another reached such a level that Henrietta virtually expelled him from Paris, and he went to join the Spanish armies fighting at Dunkirk. He consistently distinguished himself in battle, and gradually gained a reputation as one of Europe's foremost Protestant soldiers. It was during the course of the campaign that he met the renegade French military commander Prince Louis Condé, who was leading the Spanish forces. Their common dislike for the Catholic Church (Condé was an agnostic, and one of the leading defenders of the Huguenots), created a strong bond between them and, shortly before his death, it was suggested that Henry might marry Condé's niece.

Restoration

After the conclusion of peace between France and Spain, Henry resided at one of Condé's estates, until the death of Oliver Cromwell and the gradual collapse of the Commonwealth, led to calls for the restoration of the monarchy, and he was reunited with Charles. He returned to England as part of Charles' triumphant progress through London in May 1660, and took up residence in Whitehall.

Later life

He was created Duke of Gloucester and Earl of Cambridge by Charles II, but died suddenly of smallpox not long afterwards, much to his brother's distress. Decades later, during the exclusion crisis, Henry was looked back on as a kind of 'lost leader'; as what might have been a legitimate, warlike, Protestant alternative to the equally unpalatable choices of the Dukes of York (later James II) and Monmouth (James Scott).

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles

*Prince Henry
*13 May 1659 – 18 September 1660: The Duke of Gloucester

He is styled the Duke of Gloucester in a letter directed to Theobald Lord Taafe in 1642/3.

Honours

*KG: Knight of the Garter, "4 April 1653"

Arms

Henry's arms were those of the kingdom, differenced by a "label argent of three points, on each a rose gules". [ [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/cadency.htm Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family] ]

Ancestors

References