art darts

Eat your spinach, Prince Charles.   

It is all very well to be heir to the throne of England, but if you want to be remembered you had better stick around and get yourself crowned. This is the message I took home from “The LostPrince,” the handsome exhibition now at London’s National Portrait Gallery. The fact that there ever was a Henry, Prince of Wales--the youth who is the subject of this show (see below with his sword)--comes as a surprise to lots of people, as its title telegraphs. .  

 Born in 1594, Henry was the son and heir of King JamesVI of Scotland and I of England and his consort Anne of Denmark, He seems to have been a golden lad, much loved by those at court and it the populace. Even his younger brothers is said to have adored him although no evidence in support of this dubious claim is advanced. In 1612, when Henry, Prince of Wales died of typhoid at the age of eighteen, the procession to Westminster Abbey was made up of over 2,000 official mourners—hundreds more than had accompanied the body of Queen Elizabeth nine years before. “Multitudes” lined the streets. Musicians composed mourning music; poets wrote elegies. With all that, no monument was erected to the youth who-- had he outlived his father-- would have been King Henry IX. Today, even well-educated, gray haired English people who went to school when children still learned history never have heard of him. So with all its portraits and letters, books and maps this is an enlightening as well as an enjoyable show.  It certainly provokes thoughts about “what might have been?”  Henry’s younger brother Charles became the heir. Charles I was a great art collector but an unpopular, misery- making king who waged and lost two civil wars and was executed.