Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester (8 July 1640 – 13 September 1660) was the youngest son of Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and Henrietta Maria of France. He is also known as Henry of Oatlands.
From the age of two, Henry and his sister Elizabeth were separated from their family during the English Civil War and became prisoners of Parliament. For several years, the children were constantly transported from one residence to another due to the plague raging in London. They also periodically changed their governesses and guardians to those more loyal to the government. In 1645, Henry and Elizabeth were joined by their elder brother James, Duke of York, who found himself in a difficult financial situation. In 1647, Charles I was arrested and during the years 1647–1648, he was allowed to see his children several times. In April 1648, James fled the country; it was probably planned that he would take Henry with him, but Elizabeth was afraid to let her younger brother go. When in 1649 Charles I was sentenced to death, he, fearing that Henry would be proclaimed king and made a puppet of the government, took an oath from his 8-year-old son not to take the crown for anything while both of his older brothers were alive.
After the execution of Charles I, Scotland proclaimed his eldest son Charles II as their sovereign. In the summer of 1650, he landed in Scotland, which prompted Parliament to send the children of the late monarch to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, where their father had previously been imprisoned. Before leaving for Carisbrooke, Henry and Elizabeth were stripped of all titles and privileges. Shortly after arriving on the Isle of Wight in September 1650, Henry's sister fell ill and died. Henry remained at Carisbrooke until the following year, when, with the permission of Oliver Cromwell, he returned to the continent, where he eventually joined his mother in Paris. With Henrietta Maria, whom the prince had not seen for eleven years, Henry did not have a good understanding: the prince was an ardent Protestant, and his mother was an implacable Catholic. The Queen, against the wishes of her late husband and eldest son, tried to convert Henry to Catholicism, but this only deteriorated their relationship. Henry went to his brother Charles in Cologne. In 1657, the prince fought on the side of the Spanish against France with his brother James. In May 1659, Charles restored to his brother the title of Duke of Gloucester, which Henry had been deprived of by Parliament in 1650, and bestowed the title of Earl of Cambridge.
After the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, Henry accompanied his brother during his return to Britain. There Henry received a number of appointments, but before the coronation of Charles II, he contracted smallpox and died. He was buried in the vault of Mary, Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey, where his elder sister Mary, who also died of smallpox, was buried a few weeks later.
Birth and early years Henry was born on 8 July 1640 at Oatlands Palace near Weybridge in Surrey as the youngest son and penultimate child of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. In total, the royal couple had nine children—four sons and five daughters; the eldest son of the royal couple, Charles James, was either stillborn or died immediately after birth, the fourth daughter, Catherine, died less than half an hour after baptism, and the third daughter, Anne, died at the age of three. Since Henry was born after the death of Charles James, throughout his life he was the third son of the King. With the deaths of Catherine and Anne, the boy also became the fifth child of the royal couple to survive infancy.
His paternal grandparents were King James VI of Scotland and I of England (the first one of the House of Stuart in England) and his wife Anne of Denmark, and his maternal grandparents were King Henry IV of France and his wife Marie de' Medici; of all his grandparents at the time of Henry's birth, only Marie de Medici was alive. The prince was baptized on 22 July 1640, and his only godmother was his elder sister Mary, for whom this ceremony was her first public appearance. From birth, Henry received the title of Duke of Gloucester.
In the spring of 1641, Henry's elder sister and godmother, nine-year-old Mary, was betrothed to William, the eldest son and heir of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. It was planned that until reaching the age of twelve (the minimum age of marriage consent) the princess would remain in England, but by the beginning of 1642 the situation in the country was tense, and in February Mary and her mother left for The Hague. Henrietta Maria hurriedly said goodbye to Henry and Elizabeth at Hampton Court Palace and did not see her son again until 1653: in August 1642, the English Civil War broke out, and two-year-old Henry and his sister were held as hostages in the hands of the English Parliament.
English Civil War
As a result of the civil war that began in August, Charles I and Henrietta Maria were forced to leave their two youngest children at that time, Henry and Elizabeth, in the care of Parliament. In October 1642, the plague reached the outskirts of Hampton Court Palace, where the siblings lived together. Elizabeth, who had not been in good health since childhood, fell ill again and was so weak that she could not leave the capital. On the recommendation of the governess, the Countess of Roxburghe, and with the permission of the House of Lords, the children were transferred to St James's Palace for lack of a more suitable residence. Although Parliament did not intend to punish the children for the actions of their father, at the same time, the amount of expenses for the court of the prince and princess was considered, and in the process of discussion it was decided to dismiss without payment of salary almost all the servants who, in the opinion of Parliament, were papists, sympathizers or simply opponents of Parliament. However, Elizabeth achieved some mitigation for the court, although the children were replaced by a chaplain and cut costs for the wardrobe, which became truly puritanical.
In December 1642 and January 1643, Henry and Elizabeth were visited by two of the King's squires, with the permission of Parliament, to make sure that the children were healthy and did not need anything. Later, the prince and his sister were completely deprived of wardrobe payments: this was the result of the confrontation between Charles I and the Parliament; as the representative of the House of Commons wrote: "...if the King wants to fight with us, they [children] must pay for clothes at their own expense!". This action angered not only the King, but also the children's governess, the Countess of Roxburghe, who wrote a letter to the Parliament. After an investigation by the House of Commons and a second discussion, it was decided to return the payments; however, all expenses of Henry and Elizabeth had to be announced publicly. In addition, an investigation and discussion were held by the House of Lords, which confirmed the decision of the House of Commons. The royal children were allotted an amount of £800 a month each, the expenditure of which was overseen by an officer, Sir Ralph Freeman. The Parliament also conducted an investigation into the activities of the clerics of the chapel of the royal palace to make sure that children were brought up in the "correct" religion. On 20 July 1643, the staff of the servants of the royal children were again revised: the Countess of Roxburghe was replaced by the Countess of Dorset, who was loyal to the government.
In the summer of 1643, Parliament decided to transfer Henry and his sister to Oxford under the protection of the local garrison, but in the fall during a game, Elizabeth fell and broke her leg, and Parliament decided to postpone the move. By the summer of 1644, the princess had fully recovered from her injury, but soon fell ill. In July, doctors recommended that Elizabeth change the climate, so the children were moved to Chelsea, to the residence of Sir John Danvers, who would later become one of the signatories of the death warrant of Charles I. During the move, Henry and Elizabeth were denied the honorary escort that was due to members of the royal family. At the same time, the plague epidemic did not weaken the position, so the prince and princess were moved from time to time from one residence to another: St James's, Whitehall and Chelsea. By winter, the royal children were again transported, but not as planned to St James's Palace, next to which the plague was raging, but to Whitehall, which seemed more reliable.
At the beginning of 1645, the governess of the children, the Countess of Dorset, fell seriously ill and died. Shortly before her death, Henry and Elizabeth were placed under the care of the Earl and Countess of Northumberland, which was reported in the newspapers on 13 March 1645. The Earl was a close friend of the King and therefore treated his children with all respect and care. Under the care of the Northumberlands, the royal children spent a happy summer at one of the Earl 's residences, probably Syon House. Elizabeth wrote about this to her older sister, Mary, on 11 September 1645. On the day on which the letter to Mary is dated, hearings were held in Parliament on the maintenance of the royal children; the composition of the servants, the amount required for the maintenance of the children and their court, as well as the place of their permanent residence were agreed. The Earl of Northumberland was asked to choose one of the royal residences, and he chose St James's Palace, where Henry and Elizabeth were soon transferred. Also, the Earl managed to achieve a reduction in the number of protection of children for their comfort.
In September, the prince's brother, the Duke of York, found himself in a difficult position: he was in Oxford, where the plague was creeping up, accumulated debts and lost all provisions. In a letter to his father, he asked permission to join his brother and sister in London. The prince did not wait for an answer from his father, but Parliament approved the move and the placement of the prince under the guardianship of the Earl of Northumberland and with a magnificent escort delivered the boy to St James's Palace. The Duke of York remained with his brother and sister until April 1648.
Father's arrest and execution
In March 1647, the Earl of Northumberland moved the royal children to Hampton Court Palace, but almost immediately they were recalled back to St James's Palace. At the same time, the Scots handed over Charles I to the English Parliament. According to the decision of Parliament, the King was to be placed under arrest in Caversham, and before leaving, Charles I, having learned how close his children were to him, asked to see them. In the summer of 1647, due to a new epidemic, the Earl of Northumberland was forced to transport the royal children from one residence to another and ended up staying at Syon House. In August, the arrested King was again transported to Hampton Court Palace, from where on the 23rd he was allowed to leave for Syon House and see his children there. On 31 August, the visit was repeated, and on 7 September, Henry, with his brother and sister, arrived at Hampton Court Palace to see their father. On one of these visits, the King insisted that his youngest son should not be subjected to religious pressure; it is not clear whether he feared the influence of Catholics or Protestants. At the same time, Charles I gave all three children a conflicting instruction "to be faithful to the Anglican Church, but more than that, to their Catholic mother".