This lady was the second
daughter of Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife Victoria,
she was brought up in a family that valued education and intellectual pursuits.
Her mother, Vicky, was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of England,
so our lady would grow up in close proximity to her British cousins.
Despite her royal upbringing, she was known for her independent spirit
and her interest in social justice issues.
Yet she had a fractious childhood and a lethargic attitude in school.
She had trouble getting along with her overbearing mother.
And her natural tendency for spreading rumours
and stirring up trouble only increased as she matured.
She married Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen in 1878, at the
tender age of seventeen, to free herself from her parents’ authority.
She was infamous for her antics throughout her brother’s rule,
and she spent her life in both hospital stays
and wallowing in frivolous and costly pursuits.
Culminating in an extraordinary scandal at court in 1891.
Join me now as we look back on the tumultuous years
of Princess Charlotte of Prussia.
Charlotte, the second child
and eldest daughter of Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife Victoria,
also known as Vicky, was born on July
24, 1860, at the Neues Palais in Potsdam.
Charlotte’s birth was smooth and uneventful
compared to that of her older brother Wilhelm nineteen months earlier.
Her grandmother, Great Britain’s esteemed Queen Victoria, wanted her
first granddaughter to be named after her, but the Prussians had other plans.
They considered giving the baby girl the name Charlotte, after the Prussian
princess who would later become Russia’s Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
Finally, everyone agreed on Victoria, though she would be known as Charlotte,
and the name stuck.
Charlotte was only eleven months old when her parents,
took her to England to meet Queen Victoria in June 1861.
But just six months later, Albert would pass away.
Around the middle of the nineteenth century,
the family split their time between Berlin in the winter and Potsdam in the summer.
The occasional trip to the countryside was also a hit with the children.
Vicky and Frederick William bought a dilapidated property
in 1863 and turned it into a farm,
giving their children a taste of rural life.
As an officer in the Prussian army, Frederick William
was increasingly required to be away from home on business.
On the other hand, Vicky was an intellectually demanding parent
looking for moral and political leadership in her offspring.
Because her husband was away for work, she was responsible
for her children’s upbringing and education.
But Vicky’s relationship with her eldest daughter, Charlotte, was fraught
with difficulties.
Charlotte, the second eldest of eight children, had already earned the nickname
“sweet naughty little Ditta” by the time she turned two.
and had begun to exhibit signs of anxiety
and restlessness even as a young child.
She had a history of nail-biting, prompting her parents to implement
preventative measures like making her wear gloves.
Charlotte also had trouble digesting her food,
became underweight, and had violent tantrums.
Her mother was heartbroken because she was such a disinterested student,
her governess complained that she had never dealt with “more difficulties”
than the princess.
It was stories like this that opened up a rift between mother
and daughter.
People always assumed Charlotte was much older than she was.
Her mother, Vicky, said that
she still looked like a young girl of ten by the time she was fourteen.
However, it was her state of health that baffled her doctors
in which she suffered with mental restlessness and erratic excitement.
Charlotte also had some very peculiar physical traits.
Her mother had hoped she would outgrow her childish ways of flirting,
spreading malicious rumours and causing mischief,
but these behaviours continued and soon became commonplace.
Charlotte’s mother was worried about her daughter’s romantic interests,
but she ignored her and got engaged to her second cousin,
Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen when she was sixteen.
Potentially motivating her decision to wed Bernhard
was a need to establish her own identity apart from her parents,
especially in the face of her mother’s criticism.
Vicky had hoped that time and marriage would help steer her daughter
in a more positive direction,
but Charlotte did not share her husbands pursuits or interests.
Although the couple finally tied the knot on
February 18, 1878.
As the first grandchild of the Crown Prince and Princess
and the first great-grandchild of Queen Victoria, Charlotte’s daughter Princess
Feodora made history when she was born one year after the couple tied the knot.
To her mother’s dismay, Charlotte decided that Feodora would be her only child
because she hated the limitations imposed on her during her pregnancy.
After the birth life went back to how it was for Charlotte
who now dove headfirst into Berlin’s thriving social scene
and took extended vacations, leaving her daughter in Vicky’s care,
who at the time was happy to serve as a makeshift nursery.
Feodora spent a lot of time at Friedrichshof,
the estate of her maternal grandmother, but it became clear
that the lonely princess lacked parental guidance and support.
Feodora, like her mother, had difficulty focusing on her schoolwork
due to chronic health problems, particularly severe migraines.
Vicky explained it away by saying she lacked parental guidance
because Charlotte and Bernhard were always travelling.
However, Vicky made an astute observation: “The
atmosphere of her home is not the best for a child of her age...
with Charlotte as an example, what else can one expect.”
Emperor Wilhelm gave Charlotte and Bernhard
a lavish villa in central Berlin, close to the Tiergarten.
It was an excellent spot for Charlotte to mingle with other well-heeled women,
one of her favourite activities.
Charlotte was a natural-born party-thrower, skilled at hosting
dinner parties, ice skating, and gossiping.
Her exquisite taste in clothing,
which she had to have shipped in from Paris, made headlines, too.
Charlotte had a stunning appearance.
Many people found out the hard way that she was an intimidating presence.
She was known for her sharp tongue, which earned her the trust of her friends,
but only to betray their confidence to others.
A life changing moment for Charlotte occured
when her father became German Emperor Frederick III.
Although he had been ill for sometime, Charlotte and her siblings did visit him,
but sadly he passed away after a battle with throat cancer.
The reign would now fall to her brother
Wilhelm II, Charlotte’s status in Berlin society skyrocketed.
She surrounded herself with an eccentric assortment of nobility,
diplomats, and courtly young officials.
Despite having made peace with her mother during Frederick’s
illness, Charlotte was at odds with her siblings over Wilhelm’s rule.
Charlotte sided with Wilhelm when he complained to her
that he should have attended Queen
Victoria’s Golden Jubilee instead of his ailing father.
But that irritated her mother, Vicky, who her three younger daughters defended.
Vicky wrote that Charlotte was “most odd”
and “hardly coming near her” in one letter.
As time went on, the tension between mother and daughter
only increased, creating a family saga that would be told for years
to come.
During the first few months of 1891,
a scandal that was unlike any other occurred in Berlin.
It all began with anonymous letters to the court’s most influential figures.
Some of these letters were written in the same hand,
including slanderous accusations against the royal family
and pornographic images superimposed on official portraits.
Emperor Wilhelm and Empress Dona were among the recipients of these letters.
Over four years, hundreds of letters were dispatched.
Wilhelm demanded an enquiry, but the author’s identity was never determined.
Charlotte’s reputation for having a sharp tongue and a penchant for gossip
led some to suspect she was involved.
Strangely, Charlotte’s diary was lost during the scandal, and within its pages
were family secrets and critical reflections on various family members.
Wilhelm read the journal and was enraged by its contents when it reached him.
It led to Charlotte and her husband Bernhard being effectively exiled
when he was transferred to a regiment in the sleepy town of Breslau.
Then, in 1896, there were claims that Charlotte had an affair
with a court official.
Charlotte strongly refuted the claims, but the scandal
severely shook the royal family’s standing.
As she matured, many
potential suitors were considered for Feodora’s hand in marriage.
Prince Henry of Reuss came out top, and the couple became engaged in late
1897 and married the following year.
The fact that the groom was fifteen years older than the bride
and neither wealthy nor highly placed surprised many relatives.
However, her marriage to Prince Henry did not help her relationship
with her mother.
Charlotte described Feodora as “incomprehensible” and “shrinks away,
whenever I try to influence her, concerning her person & health.”
Charlotte was also not fond of her son-in-law, whom she found ugly
and criticised for being unable to tame his independent wife.
Feodora longed to start a family, unlike her mother, but
she was heartbroken when she discovered she was infertile.
However, Charlotte was pleased by the news because she had no interest
in having grandchildren.
Both Charlotte and Feodora were “strong-willed creatures
who loved gossip and were too ready to believe the worst of each other.”
But it was Charlotte who cut off all contact with Feodora and Henry
after their relationship deteriorated to the point where she no longer wanted them
in her home.
Many family members had attempted to repair the rift
between mother and daughter over the years but to no avail.
Nearly a decade passed before Charlotte wrote to Feodora again
after the latter had undergone a risky procedure to help her conceive.
Feodora asked Charlotte to visit her daughter at the sanatorium,
and despite her outrage that the operation had been approved,
she did so.
When Charlotte went to England in June 1911 to witness her
cousin George V’s coronation, her life changed dramatically.
Her face swelled, and her limbs hurt so severely that
she had to stay in bed through a heat wave at the time.
In 1914, her husband inherited the duchy from his father,
and the following year, they were thrust into the middle of World War I.
While Bernhard went to war, Charlotte stayed behind to run the duchy
as a figurehead.
However, Charlotte’s health continued to deteriorate as the war raged on.
She eventually turned to opium as her only solace for the chronic pain,
swollen legs, and kidney problems she was experiencing.
By the end of the war in 1918 all of Germany’s duchies were abolished,
signalling the political end of the German Empire.
Charlotte went to Baden-Baden for heart treatment the following year
after Bernhard was forced to abdicate as ruler of Saxe-Meiningen.
On October 1, 1919, at the age of 59, Charlotte passed away.
Bernhard outlived Charlotte by nine years and was laid to rest next to her
at Schloss Altenstein in Thuringia.
Charlotte’s life as a noblewoman and a figurehead ended
in the political upheaval of World War I.
Charlotte lived through a time of tumultuous upheaval.
What had once been described as the natural order
came along to dispence her with a short sharp prod.
Charlotte struggled to grace her role in society
but being expected to remain subservient was never going to happen
and although you’d assume being born into such a way of life
within a royal family may be great and carefree.
Her experience demonstrates that nobody is immune to life’s hardships
and tragedies, not even those in positions of authority and privilege.