Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/114

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it to be fever, were unable further to determine its nature. A general opinion prevailed that he had been poisoned, some even hinting that he owed his death to the king's jealousy of his popularity, while other rumours pointed to Somerset, who was said to have been a rival with the prince for the affections of the Lady Essex. These surmises have been set at rest by the pamphlet of Dr. Norman Moore ‘On the Illness and Death of Henry, Prince of Wales,’ in which it is conclusively demonstrated that the case was one of typhoid fever.

The sudden illness and death of such a promising and popular heir to the throne caused a profound sensation throughout the kingdom, and occasioned an extraordinary number of elegies and lamentations, in prose and verse (see list in Nichols, Progresses of James I, pp. 504–12). ‘The lamentation made for him was so general,’ wrote Sir Simonds D'Ewes, ‘as men, women, and children partook of it.’ Bacon described him as slow of speech, pertinent in his questions, patient in listening, and of strong understanding. Bishop Goodman, in his ‘Diary’ (ed. Brewer, i. 250–251), states that ‘he did sometimes pry into the king's actions, and a little dislike them, … and truly I think he was a little self-willed.’ Henry was at least honest and courageous. Probably his abilities were considerably greater than those of his brother Charles; but he was equally headstrong, and there is every reason to suppose that he possessed quite as strict and stern notions in regard to kingly prerogatives.

Portraits by Mierevelt, C. Jonson, G. Honthorst, Paul Van Somer, and G. Jamesone were exhibited at the Stuart Exhibition in 1889, together with two miniatures and a painting of the prince and Anne of Denmark by an unknown artist (Catalogue, pp. 24, 26–8, 32, 70). A portrait by Mytens is engraved in Doyle's ‘Official Baronage,’ and a second portrait by Van Somer is in the National Gallery; at Windsor there is a miniature by Isaac Oliver, which has been engraved by Houbraken. There are other numerous engraved portraits (Bromley, Catalogue of Engraved Portraits, p. 47).

[An Account of the Baptism, Life, Death, and Funeral of the most incomparable Prince Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, by Sir Charles Cornwallis, knt., his Highness's treasurer, reprinted 1751; Birch's Life of Henry, Prince of Wales, 1760; Doyle's Official Baronage, s.v. ‘Cornwall;’ Sir James Melville's Memoir (Bannatyne Club); D'Ewes's Journal, ed. Halliwell; Moyse's Memoirs (Bannatyne Club); Coke's Detection; Goodman's Court of James I, ed. Brewer; Osborne's Secret Hist. of James I; Nichols's Progresses of James I; Calderwood's Hist. Church of Scotland; Register Privy Council of Scotland; Calendars of State Papers during reign of James I; Dr. Norman Moore's Illness and Death of Henry, Prince of Wales, in 1612, an historical case of Typhoid Fever, 1882; Burton's Hist. of Scotland; Gardiner's Hist. of England; Jesse's Memoirs of the Court of England during the Time of the Stuarts.]

T. F. H.

HENRY, Duke of Gloucester (1639–1660), styled sometimes Henry of Oatlands, third son of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria, was born at Oatlands, Surrey, on 8 July 1639. In his infancy he was committed to the care of the Countess of Dorset, but on the surrender of the city of Oxford in April 1646, he was placed, along with his brother the Duke of York and his sister the Princess Elizabeth, under the charge of the Earl of Northumberland (Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion, ed. 1819, iii. 94). They were sent to the earl's house at Sion, and when the king their father came to Hampton Court, had liberty to attend on him when he pleased (ib. p. 109). The Duke of Gloucester, the youngest of the three, was specially enjoined by the king ‘never to be persuaded or threatened out of the religion’ (ib.), but it is uncertain whether Charles feared that the puritans or the catholics would seek to convert him. The king also entreated him ‘never to accept or suffer himself to be made king whilst either of his brothers lived, in what part soever of the world they might be’ (ib. p. 110). After the escape of the Duke of York, while under the care of the Earl of Northumberland, Gloucester and the Princess Elizabeth were transferred to the keeping of the Countess of Leicester. The two had a last interview with their father on the day preceding his execution (29 Jan. 1648–9) [see Elizabeth, 1635–1650] (Herbert, Two last Years of Charles I). In June following they were sent to Penshurst, a seat of the Earl of Leicester in Kent, orders being given by parliament ‘that they should be treated without any addition of titles, and that they should sit at their meat as the children of the family did.’ Lovel, a gentleman of royalist sympathies, was also permitted to be Gloucester's tutor, and accompanied him also to Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight, whither the children were sent in August 1650. Elizabeth died at Carisbrooke (8 Sept. 1650); Gloucester remained there till the close of 1652, when Cromwell gave him permission to go abroad, 500l. being granted to defray the expenses of the journey. He set sail for Holland, and afterwards, at the special request of his mother, joined her in Paris. When his elder brother, Charles, left Paris for Germany in 1653, he proposed to take Gloucester with him, but