‘Epiques chang’d to Doleful Elegies’: The Poems on the Death of Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the elegies written in 1660 in response to the death of Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester. It analyses the elegies to show how Henry’s death meant the joys of the Restoration shifted to emotions of grief and that doubts about the security of the new royalist regime were brought to the fore. The poems on Henry’s death reveal the ideological fissures within royalist culture in 1660 concerning how best to ensure the restored royal family’s safe future.