Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1640-1660)
Pieter Thys (Antwerp 1624 - Antwerp 1677)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1659 - 1660
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
370 x 290 mm
Collection
Knole, Kent
NT 129878
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1640-1660) by Pieter Thys (1624 - 1677). A three-quarter-length portrait, in profile to left, head facing the spectator, in a cuirass over yellow doublet, silver and yellow striped sleeves, and pink satin sash tied in a bow at the left shoulder; a baton in his right hand, his left on his helmet. Born at Oatlands Palace, Surrey 8 July 1640, styled Duke of Gloucester from birth, created Duke of Gloucester and Earl of Cambridge in 1659. Died at Whitehall Palace in 1660, buried in Westminster Abbey. Third and youngest son of King Charles I and Henrietta Maria. In the custody of the Duke of Northumberland at Sion House (see the Lely at Petworth) until the escape of his brother, James, Duke of York; then transferred to that of the Countess of Leicester at Penshurst; from 1650 held at Carisbrooke Castle, until the end of 1652, when permitted to go abroad. He joined his mother in Paris, until 1654, when her attempts to persuade him to become a Catholic prompted Charles II to send for Henry to be with him, first at Cologne, and from 1656 at Bruges. He entered the English regiment of foot in the Spanish army in the Netherlands (hence his armour), and acquitted himself bravely alongside his brother James at the Battle of Dunkirk (1658). Accompanied Charles back to England at the Restoration in 1660, but died in September of smallpox. Bishop Burnet (1833 edn. I. 308) says: "He was active, and loved business ... and had an insinuating temper", and that Charles II "was never in his whole life seen so much troubled" as at his death.
Provenance
Purchased by the National Trust from the Sackville family in 1988 with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, as Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth (1596-1661) by Henry Tilson.
Credit line
Knole, The Sackville Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to the National Trust in 1988)
Makers and roles
Pieter Thys (Antwerp 1624 - Antwerp 1677) , artist previously catalogued as attributed to Henry Tilson (Yorkshire c.1659 - London 1695), artist