Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester

Henry Stuart
Duke of Gloucester
Prince Henry, c. 1653, by Adriaen Hanneman
Born	8 July 1640 Oatlands Palace, Surrey
Died	13 September 1660(1660-09-13) (aged 20) Palace of Whitehall, London
Burial	21 September 1660 Westminster Abbey, London
House	Stuart
Father	Charles I
Mother	Henrietta Maria of France

Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester (8 July 1640 – 13 September 1660) was the youngest son of Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, the third son to survive to adulthood (his eldest brother, Charles, Duke of Cornwall and of Rothesay was born and died the same day). He is also known as Henry of Oatlands.

After his father's defeat at the end of the English Civil War, Henry (unlike his older brothers, who escaped with their mother to France) was captured and brought to London. His captivity was largely shared by his elder sister Elizabeth. 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.