In 'The Winter's Tale', what is the name of Leontes's son who dies?

In “The Winter’s Tale,” Leontes’s son who dies is Mamillius. He is the young prince of Sicilia and the child of Leontes and Queen Hermione.

Mamillius appears early in the play as a lively, affectionate boy. He tells his mother that a sad tale is suitable for winter, a line that gives Shakespeare’s romance its title and hints at the tragedy soon to come. His father’s sudden jealousy has already poisoned the Sicilian court.

Leontes wrongly suspects that Hermione has been unfaithful with his childhood friend, Polixenes. He publicly humiliates her, rejects the oracle’s declaration of her innocence, and continues his accusations. When Mamillius hears that his mother is on trial, he becomes ill and dies from grief and distress.

His death is one of the play’s darkest events and helps explain Leontes’s long repentance. The sixteen-year time jump that follows focuses on the survival of his daughter, Perdita, and the eventual reconciliation of the family. Mamillius is therefore not a rival prince such as Florizel or Polixenes, but Leontes’s own heir.