page_title: Prince William, Duke of Gloucester
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Prince William, Duke of Gloucester / Education
caption_attribution_description: William, Duke of Gloucester, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt (died 1723). See source website for additional information. This set of images was gathered by User:Dcoetzee from the National Portrait Gallery, London website using a special tool. All images in this batch have been confirmed as author died before 1939 according to the official death date listed by the NPG.
context_page_description: Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, was the son of Princess Anne and her husband, Prince George of Denmark. He was their only child to survive infancy. Styled Duke of Gloucester, he was viewed by contemporaries as a Protestant champion because his birth seemed to cement the Protestant succession established in the "Glorious Revolution" that had deposed his Catholic grandfather James II the previous year.
  Anne was estranged from her brother-in-law and cousin, William III, and her sister, Mary II, but supported links between them and her son. He grew close to his uncle William, who created him a Knight of the Garter, and his aunt Mary, who frequently sent him presents. At his nursery in Campden House, Kensington, he befriended his Welsh body-servant, Jenkin Lewis, whose memoir of the Duke is an important source for historians, and operated his own miniature army, called the "Horse Guards", which eventually comprised 90 boys.
  Gloucester's precarious health was a constant source of worry to his mother.
context_section_description: Gloucester's language acquisition was delayed; he did not speak correctly until the age of three, and consequently the commencement of his education was postponed by a year. The Reverend Samuel Pratt, a Cambridge graduate, was appointed the Duke's tutor in 1693. Lessons concentrated on geography, mathematics, Latin, and French. Pratt was an enemy of Jenkin Lewis, and they frequently disagreed over how Gloucester should be educated. Lewis remained Gloucester's favourite attendant because, unlike Pratt, he was knowledgeable in military matters and could therefore help him with his "Horse Guards", a miniature army consisting of local children. Over a couple of years from 1693, the size of the army grew from 22 to over 90 boys.
  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."
  During the trial of Sir John Fenwick, who was implicated in a plot to assassinate King William, Gloucester signed a letter to the King promising his loyalty. "I, your Majesty's most dutiful subject," the letter read, "had rather lose my life in your Majesty's cause than in any man's else, and I hope it will not be long ere you conquer France." Added to the letter was a declaration by the boys in Gloucester's army: "We, your Majesty's subjects, will stand by you while we have a drop of blood."
  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 Countes
caption: Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, c. 1698
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