Prince William, Duke of Gloucester
Prince William | |||||
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Duke of Gloucester | |||||
Born | Hampton Court Palace, London, England | 24 July 1689||||
Died | 30 July 1700 Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England | (aged 11)||||
Burial | 9 August 1700 | ||||
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House | Oldenburg | ||||
Father | Prince George of Denmark | ||||
Mother | Anne Stuart (later Anne, Queen of Great Britain) |
Prince William, Duke of Gloucester (William Henry; 24 July 1689 – 30 July 1700
Anne was estranged from her brother-in-law and cousin,
Gloucester's precarious health was a constant source of worry to his mother. His death in 1700 at the age of 11 precipitated a succession crisis as his mother was the only individual remaining in the Protestant line of succession established by the
Birth and health
In late 1688, in what became known as the
Anne was married to Prince George of Denmark, and in their first six years of marriage Anne had been pregnant six times, which ended with two stillbirths, two miscarriages, and two baby daughters who died of smallpox in 1687 shortly after Anne’s first miscarriage. Her seventh pregnancy resulted in the birth of a son at 5 a.m. on 24 July 1689 in Hampton Court Palace. As it was usual for the births of potential heirs to the throne to be attended by several witnesses, the King and Queen and "most of the persons of quality about the court" were present.[3] Three days later, the newborn baby was baptised William Henry after his uncle King William by Henry Compton, Bishop of London. The King, who was one of the godparents along with the Marchioness of Halifax[4] and the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Dorset,[5] declared him Duke of Gloucester,[6] although the peerage was never formally created.[7] Gloucester was second in line to the throne after his mother, and because his birth secured the Protestant succession, he was the hope of the revolution's supporters.[8] The ode The Noise of Foreign Wars, attributed to Henry Purcell, was written in celebration of the birth.[9] Other congratulatory odes, such as Purcell's last royal ode Who Can From Joy Refrain? and John Blow's The Duke of Gloucester's March and A Song upon the Duke of Gloucester, were composed for his birthdays in later years.[10][11] Opponents of the revolution, supporters of James known as the Jacobites, spoke of Gloucester as "a sickly and doomed usurper".[8]
Though described as a "brave livlylike [
Throughout his life, Gloucester had a recurrent "ague", which was treated with regular doses of Jesuit's bark (an early form of quinine) by his physician, John Radcliffe. Gloucester disliked the treatment intensely, and usually vomited after being given it.[21] Possibly as a result of hydrocephalus,[22][14] he had an enlarged head, which his surgeons pierced intermittently to draw off fluid.[23] He could not walk properly, and was apt to stumble.[22] Nearing the age of five, Gloucester refused to climb stairs without two attendants to hold him, which Lewis blamed on indulgent nurses who over-protected the boy. His father birched him until he agreed to walk by himself.[24] Corporal punishment was usual at the time, and such treatment would not have been considered harsh.[25]
Education
Gloucester's language acquisition was delayed; he did not speak correctly until the age of three,[26] and consequently the commencement of his education was postponed by a year.[27] The Reverend Samuel Pratt, a Cambridge graduate, was appointed the Duke's tutor in 1693.[15] Lessons concentrated on geography, mathematics, Latin, and French.[17] Pratt was an enemy of Jenkin Lewis, and they frequently disagreed over how Gloucester should be educated.[15] Lewis remained Gloucester's favourite attendant because, unlike Pratt, he was knowledgeable in military matters and could therefore help him with his "Horse Guards",[28] a miniature army consisting of local children.[29] Over a couple of years from 1693, the size of the army grew from 22 to over 90 boys.[30]
Princess Anne had fallen out with her sister and brother-in-law, William and Mary, and reluctantly agreed to the advice of her friend, the Countess of Marlborough, that Gloucester should visit his aunt and uncle regularly to ensure their continued goodwill towards him.[31] In an attempt to heal the rift, Anne invited the King and Queen to see Gloucester drill the "Horse Guards".[32] After watching the boys' display at Kensington Palace, the King praised them, and made a return visit to Campden House the following day.[33] Gloucester grew closer to his aunt and uncle: the Queen bought him presents from his favourite toy shop regularly.[34] Her death in 1694 led to a superficial reconciliation between Anne and William, which occasioned a move to St James's Palace, London.[35] Gloucester having tired of him, Lewis only attended St James's every two months.[36]
On his seventh birthday, Gloucester attended a ceremony at
During the trial of
In 1697, Parliament granted King William £50,000 to establish a household for the Duke of Gloucester, though the King only permitted the release of £15,000, keeping the difference for himself.
Burnet lectured Gloucester for hours at a time on subjects such as the feudal constitutions of Europe and law before the time of Christianity.
Death
As he neared his eleventh birthday, Gloucester was assigned the rooms in Kensington Palace that had been used by his aunt, Queen Mary, who died in 1694.
The physicians could not agree on a diagnosis.
King William, who was in the Netherlands, wrote to Marlborough, "It is so great a loss to me as well as to all England, that it pierces my heart."[60] Anne was prostrate with grief, taking to her chamber.[61] In the evenings, she was carried into the garden "to divert her melancholy thoughts".[53] Gloucester's body was moved from Windsor to Westminster on the night of 1 August, and he lay in state in the Palace of Westminster before being entombed in the Royal Vault of the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey on 9 August.[62] As was usual for royalty in mourning, his parents did not attend the funeral service, instead remaining in seclusion at Windsor.[61]
In an allusion to Prince William's death, Tory politician William Shippen wrote:
So by the course of the revolving spheres,
Whene'er a new-discovered star appears,
Astronomers, with pleasure and amaze,
Upon the infant luminary gaze.
They find their heaven's enlarged, and wait from thence
Some blest, some more than common influence,
But suddenly, alas! The fleeting light,
Retiring, leaves their hopes involv'd in endless night.[63]
Gloucester's death destabilised the succession, as his mother was the only person remaining in the Protestant line to the throne established by the
Titles, styles, honours and arms
William was styled as: His Royal Highness Prince William, Duke of Gloucester.[68] The title became extinct on his death.[69]
Honours
- KG: Knight of the Garter, 6 January 1696[7]
Arms
Gloucester bore the
Ancestry
Ancestors of Prince William, Duke of Gloucester Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt | |||||||||||||||
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1. Prince William, Duke of Gloucester | |||||||||||||||
12. Charles I of England and Scotland | |||||||||||||||
6. James II of England and VII of Scotland | |||||||||||||||
13. Henrietta Maria of France | |||||||||||||||
3. Anne, Queen of Great Britain | |||||||||||||||
14. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon | |||||||||||||||
7. Anne Hyde | |||||||||||||||
15. Frances Aylesbury | |||||||||||||||
References
Informational notes
- ^ All dates in this article are in the Old Style Julian calendar in use in Britain throughout Gloucester's life; however, years are assumed to start on 1 January rather than 25 March, which was the English New Year.
- ^ Mrs Pack was said to be so ugly that she was "fitter to go to a pigsty than to a prince's bed".[16] She apparently failed to gain Gloucester's affection; on her death in 1694, he was asked by the Queen if he was sad at the news, to which he replied, "No, madam".[17]
Citations
- ^ Gregg, pp. 63–69; Somerset, pp. 98–110
- ^ Somerset, p. 109
- ^ Gregg, p. 72; Somerset, p. 113
- ^ Chapman, p. 21
- ^ Gregg, p. 72
- ^ Chapman, p. 21; Green, p. 54; Gregg, p. 72
- ^ a b Gibbs and Doubleday, p. 743
- ^ a b Chapman, p. 46
- ^ White, Bryan (Winter 2007). "Music for a 'brave livlylike boy': the Duke of Gloucester, Purcell and 'The noise of foreign wars'" The Musical Times 148 (1901): 75–83
- ^ Baldwin, Olive; Wilson, Thelma (September 1981). "Who Can from Joy Refraine? Purcell's Birthday Song for the Duke of Gloucester" The Musical Times 122 (1663): 596–599
- ^ McGuinness, Rosamund (April 1965). "The Chronology of John Blow's Court Odes" Music and Letters 46 (2): 102–121
- Duke of Hamilton, 26 July 1689, quoted in Gregg, p. 76 and Waller, p. 296
- ^ Waller, p. 296
- ^ a b Somerset, p. 116
- ^ a b c Chapman, p. 49
- ^ Somerset, p. 113
- ^ a b Somerset, p. 145
- ^ Chapman, p. 31
- ^ Chapman, pp. 31–32
- ^ Gregg, p. 100
- ^ Green, p. 64
- ^ a b Green, p. 55
- ^ Chapman, pp. 30–31; Curtis, p. 74
- ^ Chapman, pp. 57, 74–75
- ^ Somerset, p. 144
- ^ Gregg, p. 100; Waller, p. 317
- ^ Chapman, p. 43
- ^ Chapman, p. 54
- ^ Brown, p. 141; Chapman, pp. 53, 59
- ^ required.) (subscription required)
- ^ Gregg, pp. 98–99
- ^ Waller, p. 320
- ^ Chapman, p. 65
- ^ Waller, p. 317
- ^ Gregg, pp. 105–107
- ^ Chapman, p. 89
- ^ a b Green, p. 74
- ^ Churchill, vol. I, p. 401
- ^ a b Churchill, vol. I, p. 446
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 114
- ^ Chapman, p. 131
- ^ Green, p. 78; Gregg, p. 115
- ^ Somerset, p. 157
- ^ Chapman, p. 133; Green, p. 78; Gregg, p. 115
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 115
- ^ Gregg, p. 116
- ^ Churchill, vol. I, p. 433
- ^ Churchill, vol. I, pp. 433–434
- ^ a b c Chapman, p. 137
- ^ Chapman, p. 134
- ^ Lovell, C. R. (October 1949). "The Trial of Peers in Great Britain" The American Historical Review 55: 69–81
- ^ a b c d Waller, p. 352
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Somerset, pp. 162–164
- ^ a b Green, p. 79
- ^ Chapman, p. 138
- ^ Gregg, p. 120
- ISBN 978-0-300-19221-6.
- S2CID 207200131.
- ISBN 0-7509-3296-1.
- ^ Chapman, p. 142; Churchill, vol. I, p. 447
- ^ a b Somerset, p. 163
- ^ Chapman, pp. 143–144; Green, p. 80; Gregg, p. 120
- ^ Jacob, pp. 306–307
- ^ Green, p. 335
- ^ Starkey, p. 216
- ^ Starkey, pp. 215–216
- ^ Gregg, pp. 384, 394–397
- ^ Chapman, p. 90
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 128. .
- ^ Ashmole, p. 539
- ^ Paget, pp. 110–112
Bibliography
- Ashmole, Elias (1715). The History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Bell, Taylor, Baker, and Collins.
- Brown, Beatrice Curtis (1929). Anne Stuart: Queen of England. Geoffrey Bles.
- Chapman, Hester (1955). Queen Anne's Son: A Memoir of William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. Andre Deutsch.
- Churchill, Winston S. (1947) [1933–34]. Marlborough: His Life and Times. George G. Harrop & Co.
- Curtis, Gila; introduced by ISBN 0-297-99571-5.
- Complete Peerage. Volume V. St Catherine's Press.
- Green, David (1970). Queen Anne. Collins. ISBN 0-00-211693-6.
- Gregg, Edward (1980). Queen Anne. Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-0400-1.
- Jacob, Giles (1723). A Poetical Register: Or, The Lives and Characters of All the English Poets. With an Account of Their Writings, Volume 1. Bettesworth, Taylor and Batley, etc.
- Paget, Gerald (1977). The Lineage & Ancestry of HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. Charles Skilton. OCLC 632784640.
- ISBN 978-0-00-720376-5.
- ISBN 978-0-00-724766-0.
- Waller, Maureen (2002). Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-79461-5.
External links
- Media related to Prince William, Duke of Gloucester at Wikimedia Commons
- Portraits of William, Duke of Gloucester at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Samuel Pratt in the Dictionary of National Biography (Wikisource)