by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2013
Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, Credit – Wikipedia
In the summer of 1689, Princess Anne was nearing the end of her seventh pregnancy. Anne, who was married to Prince George of Denmark, was the younger of the two surviving children of King James II of England and his first wife Lady Anne Hyde. Earlier in 1689, Mary, Anne’s elder sister, had become joint monarch with her husband and first cousin Willem III, Prince of Orange after the Glorious Revolution had overthrown her father King James II. King William III and Queen Mary II were childless, so Anne was the next in the line of succession.
Anne’s six previous pregnancies had resulted in two miscarriages, two stillbirths, and two live births. Unfortunately, Mary and Anna Sophia, the two children who were born alive, died, probably of smallpox, within six days of each other in 1687. The House of Stuart needed an heir for its survival. Anne gave birth to a live child on July 24, 1689, at 5 AM at Hampton Court Palace. The baby was christened William Henry three days later and was declared, but never created, Duke of Gloucester by his godfather King William III. The other godparents were his paternal uncle King Christian V of Denmark and the Marchioness of Halifax. After William’s birth, his mother went on to have ten unsuccessful pregnancies: two premature babies who lived for about two hours, four stillbirths, and four miscarriages.
When William was born, he was described as “a brave lively-like boy” by George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville, but shortly thereafter, he had convulsions that caused the doctors to worry that he would die. Little William was given his own household at Campden House near the Kensington gravel-pits because of the purer air. He was taken outside every day in a tiny coach pulled by Shetland ponies. William did not walk or talk until the age of three, and as he grew older it became more apparent that something was wrong.
Some modern medical experts feel that William had hydrocephalus, a condition in which there is an excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain. Some symptoms of hydrocephalus are an enlarged head, problems with balance, poor coordination, difficulty walking, slowing or loss of developmental progress, lethargy, drowsiness, and irritability. Certainly, some of these symptoms can be seen in the writings of William’s devoted Welsh servant Jenkin Lewis: “[William’s] head was grown very long and was so big round that his hat was big enough for most men [William was five years old]…[it] made it difficult to fit his head with a peruke [wig]. Although he was active and lively yet he could not go up and down stairs without help, nor raise himself when down; and he tottered when he walked…”
William loved stories of war and had a troop of local boys called “Horse Guards” whom he loved to drill before King William and Queen Mary. William was close to his aunt and uncle and his childless aunt enjoyed showering him with gifts of toys. His education had been delayed due to his speech difficulties, but eventually, a tutor was appointed and William had lessons in geography, mathematics, Latin, and French. On his seventh birthday, William was installed as a Knight of the Order of the Garter at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. When William was eight, he began lessons in government and religion and was making good academic progress.
William in the robes of the Order of the Garter, Credit – Wikipedia
William celebrated his eleventh birthday at a party held at Windsor Castle. Jenkin Lewis, his servant, reported, “He complained a little the next day, but we imputed that to the fatigues of a birthday so that he was much neglected.” In the evening, William complained of a sore throat and chills. Two days later, he was no better and had developed a fever and was delirious. The doctors suspected smallpox, but no rash appeared, so they used the usual treatments of the time, bleeding and blistering, which no doubt, made William’s condition worse. William died on the morning of July 30, 1700, at Windsor Castle. His body was taken to the Palace of Westminster where it lay in state in his apartments.
William was interred in the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey during the evening of August 7, 1700. His uncle, King William III wrote to the Duke of Marlborough, that William’s death was “so great a loss to me as well as to all of England, that it pierces my heart.” Indeed, the House of Stuart had no Protestant heir and it was William’s death that caused Parliament to enact the 1701 Act of Settlement giving the British throne to Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant heirs, a granddaughter of King James I, who was the nearest Protestant in the line of succession. Upon the death of Queen Anne, William’s mother, Sophia of Hanover’s son ascended to the British throne as King George I.
So what killed William? There was an autopsy done on William’s body the day after his death and a detailed post-mortem report was written. Frederick Holmes in his book The Sickly Stuarts: The Medical Downfall of a Dynasty reprinted the report and analyzed it. Holmes writes, “This autopsy report painstakingly describes inflammation and infection in the throat and larynx, with a grossly swollen neck and pus expressed from lymph nodes in this region. The lungs are described as both being full of blood, likely this was pus or fluid stained with blood. Put in context with the clinical course of the illness, this is a picture of an acute bacterial infection of the throat with an associated pneumonia in both lungs.” Holmes further writes, “Interestingly, the surgeons opened the head and took fluid from the ventricles (the cavities within the brain), and found it to be greatly increased in amount…This confirms the diagnosis of hydrocephalus…”
When Virginia’s General Assembly created Williamsburg as the colony’s capital in 1699, it ordered that its main street “in honor of his Highness William Duke of Gloucester shall for ever hereafter be called and knowne by the Name of Duke of Gloucester Street.” If you visit Colonial Williamsburg, you can walk on Duke of Gloucester Street which runs from the House of Burgesses to the main entrance of The College of William and Mary. It’s called DOG Street by the locals and college students. My son is a William and Mary alumni so I’ve spent lots of time on DOG Street.
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