Their next child, Katherine, born in 1639, died shortly after birth but Prince Henry, duke of Gloucester, who came into the world as troubles were mounting for his parents in 1640, was a healthy boy. . .

 . . . the newest addition to the Stuart line, slept peacefully in his cradle but he would never really know his father, or experience the light-hearted childhood of his siblings. The world around them all was changing and they would be as severely affected by it as the humblest of their father’s subjects. . .

. . . Mary wished fervently to keep her little brother with her indefinitely. Like most people who met him, she found him endearing. Elizabeth of Bohemia also wrote warmly of ‘my sweet nephew’. But sadly for the two ladies, and, as events would show, even more tragically for Henry, he did not stay long at The Hague. Scarcely a month later, it was made clear by Charles II that his youngest brother must come to Paris. His mother had not seen Henry since 1641 and he felt it wrong to deny her request to have the boy by her side. . .