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Prince William, Duke of Gloucester (24 July, 1689 – 18 August, 1769) was a muggle-born wizard. He was the son of Princess Anne, later Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1702, and her husband, Prince George of Denmark. He was their only child to survive infancy. Unbeknownst to muggle historians, William received his Hogwarts letter at the age of 11 in July of 1700. He was visited by a man who would later become the first Minister for Magic, Ulick Gamp, as well as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Vindictus Viridian, at the time, in the garden of Kensington Palace.
When Queen Anne heard, she refused to believe them, but then witnessed Gloucester perform accidental magic. That day, a local boy was found not far from Kensington Palace that bore a striking resemblance to Gloucester- the work of Polyjuice Potion, no doubt, but the Queen and the Prince of Denmark were convinced.
His supposed death precipitated a succession crisis in the muggle world, as his mother was the only individual remaining in the Protestant line of succession established by the Bill of Rights 1689. The English Parliament did not want the throne to revert to a Catholic, and so passed the Act of Settlement 1701, which settled the throne of England on Electress Sophia of Hanover, a cousin of King James II, and her Protestant heirs.
Gloucester attended Hogwarts under the name William Stuart and later married his step-sister, Viola Black. They had four children; however, as William's blood was of muggle nobility, the Black Family decided that their issue would carry the name of Black, and not Stuart. These descendants would have been the rightful rulers of Great Britain, had it not been for the Act of Settlement in 1701, passed when William was in his first year at Hogwarts and considered dead.
Some believe that William Stuart's welcome into the Wizarding World was actually yet another nefarious plot to install members of the Malfoy Family onto the British throne, as Viola's maternal grandfather orchestrated William's entire adoption, but this cannot be proven.
Gloucester was the father of Ophiuchus Black, who technically became Head of the House of Black after the death of Cepheus Black II in 1719. Ophiuchus was only five years old at the time, and thus the management of the estate went to Gloucester's wife, Viola, the only child of Cepheus Black II.
Biography
Early life (1689-1700)
In late 1688, in what became known as the "Glorious Revolution", the Roman Catholic King James of England, Scotland and Ireland was deposed by his Protestant nephew and son-in-law, Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange. William and his wife, James's elder daughter Mary, were recognised by the English and Scottish parliaments as king and queen. As they had no children, Mary's younger sister, Anne, was designated their heir presumptive in England and Scotland. The accession of William and Mary and the succession through Anne were enshrined in the Bill of Rights 1689.
Anne was married to Prince George of Denmark, and in their six years of marriage Anne had been pregnant six times, but none of her children had survived. 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. 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 and the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Dorset, declared him Duke of Gloucester, although the peerage was never formally created. 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. The ode The Noise of Foreign Wars, attributed to Henry Purcell, was written in celebration of the birth. 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. Opponents of the revolution, supporters of James known as the Jacobites, spoke of Gloucester as "a sickly and doomed usurper".
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. In an attempt to heal the rift, Anne invited the King and Queen to see Gloucester drill the "Horse Guards". After watching the boys' display at Kensington Palace, the King praised them, and made a return visit to Campden House the following day. Gloucester grew closer to his aunt and uncle: the Queen bought him presents from his favourite toy shop regularly. Her death in 1694 led to a superficial reconciliation between Anne and William, which occasioned a move to St James's Palace, London. Gloucester having tired of him, Lewis only attended St James's every two months.
On his seventh birthday, Gloucester attended a ceremony at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, to install him as a knight of the Order of the Garter, an honour the King had given him six months before. Gloucester became ill during the celebratory banquet afterwards and left early, but after his recovery went deer hunting in Windsor Great Park, where he was blooded by Samuel Masham, his father's page. Princess Anne wrote to the Countess of Marlborough, "My boy continues yet very well, and looks better, I think, than ever he did in his life; I mean more healthy, for though I love him very well, I can't brag of his beauty."
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. The establishment of Gloucester's own household in early 1698 revived the feud between Anne and William. William was determined to limit Anne's involvement in the household, and therefore appointed, against her wishes, the low church Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, as Gloucester's preceptor. Anne was high church, and Burnet, knowing she was unhappy, attempted to decline the appointment, but the King insisted he accept it. Anne's anger was only placated by an assurance from King William that she could choose all the lower servants of the household. The Earl of Marlborough, a friend of Anne's, was appointed Gloucester's governor, after the Duke of Shrewsbury declined the office on the grounds of ill health. Shortly before the King sailed for the Netherlands, he received Anne's choices from Marlborough but he refused to confirm them. His favourite, the Earl of Albemarle, eventually convinced him to agree to Anne's appointments, and the King's acceptance was sent from the Netherlands in September 1698. The Marlboroughs' twelve-year-old son, Lord Churchill, was appointed Gloucester's Master of the Horse, and became a friend and playmate. Abigail Hill, a kinswoman of the Countess of Marlborough, was appointed his laundress, and Abigail's brother, Jack Hill, was made one of Gloucester's gentlemen of the bedchamber.
Burnet lectured Gloucester for hours at a time on subjects such as the feudal constitutions of Europe and law before the time of Christianity. Burnet also encouraged Gloucester to memorise facts and dates by heart. Government ministers inspected Gloucester's academic progress every four months, finding themselves "amazed" by his "wonderful memory and good judgement". His childhood troop was disbanded, and King William made him the honorary commander of a real regiment of Dutch footguards. In 1699, he attended the trials in the House of Lords of Lord Mohun and Lord Warwick, who were accused of murder. Mohun was acquitted; Warwick was found guilty of manslaughter but escaped punishment by pleading privilege of peerage.
Discovery of Magic (1700)
Unbeknownst to muggle historians, William received his Hogwarts letter at the age of eleven in July of 1700. He was visited by a man who would later become Britain's first Minister for Magic, Ulick Gamp, as well as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Vindictus Viridian, in the garden of Kensington Palace.
When Queen Anne heard, she refused to believe them, but then witnessed Gloucester perform accidental magic. That same day, when the Minister and his men left the palace, a local boy was found not far from there, that which bore a striking resemblance to Gloucester- the work of Polyjuice Potion, no doubt, but the Queen and the Prince of Denmark were convinced he had been assassinated.
Gloucester was removed from the Palace upon his own free will, where he was then taken to Malfoy Manor, where he met Saturnius Malfoy, 10th Duke of Wiltshire. The Duke of Wiltshire was a wizard, and was instructed to acclimate the boy into the wizarding world. Malfoy had been often in the company of royalty before the introduction of the Statute of Secrecy, and may have been more accustomed to dealing with William than other pure-bloods with similar titles.
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." Anne was prostrate with grief, taking to her chamber. In the evenings, she was carried into the garden "to divert her melancholy thoughts". The boy's body, most likely a poly-juiced wizard who had recently deceased, was moved from Windsor to Westminster on the night of 1 August, and it 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. As was usual for royalty in mourning, his parents did not attend the funeral service, instead remaining in seclusion at Windsor.
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.
Crisis in the Muggle World (1700-1702)
Gloucester's death destabilised the succession, as his mother was the only person remaining in the Protestant line to the throne established by the Bill of Rights 1689. Although Anne had ten other pregnancies after the birth of Gloucester, none of them resulted in a child who survived more than briefly after birth. The English parliament did not want the throne to revert to a Catholic, so it passed the Act of Settlement 1701, which settled the throne of England on a cousin of King James, Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and her Protestant heirs. Anne succeeded King William in 1702, and reigned until her death on 1 August 1714. Sophia predeceased her by a few weeks, and so Sophia's son George ascended the throne as the first British monarch of the House of Hanover.
Rumours (1702)
A conflict ensued between William and Saturnius Malfoy, 10th Duke of Wiltshire, when Gloucester discovered that his death had been faked, leading Saturnius to pressure his daughter, Lavinia, and son-in-law, Cepheus Black II, to take in the young Prince, who had been presumed dead by his mother, Queen Anne of Great Britain. It is unclear exactly why Saturnius had been so keen on hosting the Prince in the first place, but it is rumoured that while a courtier of Queen Anne's father, King James II, he interacted with Anne, which may have resulted in him fathering the only successful pregnancy that the Queen ever had. Nobody was keen to believe this, however, as Saturnius eventually allowed his grand-daughter to marry William, who became known as William Stuart, "The Mudblood King." If this rumour was true, it would have meant that the union of Viola Black and William Stuart was incestuous, as in that of a niece and an uncle.
This plot remains little known of modern ears, as the modern descendants of Viola Black and William Stuart are often misrepresented as the descendants of Viola's father, Cepheus, and Saturnius's daughter, Lavinia.
Later life (1710s-1760s)
Gloucester attended Hogwarts under the name William Stuart and later married his step-sister, Viola Black. They had four children; however, as William's blood was of muggle nobility, the Black Family decided that their issue would carry the name of Black and not Stuart. These descendants would have been the rightful rulers of Great Britain, had it not been for the Act of Settlement in 1701, passed when William was in his first year at Hogwarts and considered dead.
Some believe that William Stuart's welcome into the Wizarding World was actually yet another nefarious plot to install members of the Malfoy Family onto the British throne, as Viola's maternal grandfather orchestrated William's entire adoption, but this cannot be proven.
Etymology
William comes from the Old Norman French Willaume, which is derived from the Old High German Willehelm, a compound name composed from the elements willeo (will, determination) and helm (protection, helmet): hence, "resolute protector."