This Princess was the only
child of King George IV and his wife Caroline of Brunswick.
And was expected to ascend the British throne.
Her parents had a strained relationship and she was primarily
raised by governesses and servants.
Despite pressure from her father to marry William the hereditory Prince of Orange
she ultimately chose Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.
It was to be a very happy state of affairs
but one that simply didnt have a happy ending.
Yet this lady was affectionate with an independent spirit.
She adopted awkward poses, argued against her father’s requests,
and once even ran away from home just to see him lose his cool.
She became pregnant but gave birth to a still born boy.
Appearing unaffected by the death of her baby
her focus turned to that of her husband Leopold.
Doctors kept George, Prince of Wales, informed with news that the Princess
was doing well in her recovery, news which was welcome to hear.
Yet, The opposite was true.
Join me now as we look back at the tragic
life of Charlotte Augusta, The Princess of Wales.
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In 1794, Prince
George of Wales began searching for a wife for a raise in salary.
He chose his distant cousin Caroline of Brunswick, despite not having met her.
They married in April 1795,
but quickly separated and rarely saw each other afterwards.
However, their daughter was born in January 1796,
but George’s relationship with Caroline did not improve.
He left everything to his lover in his will and only left Caroline one shilling.
Despite George’s unpopularity, the birth of the princess was celebrated
and she was baptized Charlotte Augusta by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The King and Queen were her godparents.
Despite giving birth to the second-in-line to the throne, George forbade
Caroline from seeing their daughter and had no say in her upbringing.
Although, some caring household members disobeyed him
and gave Caroline some alone time with her daughter.
George had no idea because he rarely spoke to Charlotte.
Yet, Caroline was so confident in their relationship that she and her
daughter rode a carriage through the streets of London
while the onlookers cheered.
Charlotte was a healthy and happy child,
but her parents used her as a tool in their ongoing conflicts.
Her mother moved out and left Charlotte behind, but the father
did not limit her access to her daughter.
Despite attempts at reconciliation, its lack of success meant
that it became doubtful that George would have a legitimate son
who would stand in the way of Charlotte’s path to the British throne.
In 1805, Prince George arranged for Charlotte’s
education by assembling a team of teachers,
including the Bishop of Exeter, with high hopes for her future as Queen.
However, these lessons did not significantly impact Charlotte,
who only chose to learn what she wanted to know.
By 1807, Princess Caroline’s
strange behaviour led to accusations of infidelity
and an inquiry, referred to as “the Delicate Investigation”.
The Prince of Wales hoped this would reveal evidence of infidelity
that would permit him to obtain
a divorce and prohibit Charlotte from visiting her mother.
Despite George’s disappointment, the investigation found
no evidence of infidelity, but it did cause a rift between Charlotte
and her mother.
Members of the Court
deemed Charlotte’s behaviour dishonourable when she entered adolescence.
Charlotte’s ankle-length underwear reportedly disturbed Lady de Clifford.
Lady Charlotte Bury, a lady-in-waiting to Princess Caroline
and a diarist whose writings have been preserved,
described the Princess
as a “beautiful and lively person who had a straightforward manner
and rarely chose to affect a formal demeanourr.”
George III’s last spiral into madness started in late 1810.
Charlotte and her father, the King, shared a deep and abiding affection,
and the young Princess was devastated by the news of his illness.
As her father was sworn in as Prince Regent before the Privy Council
on 6 February 1811.
While growing up, George was subjected to a regimented
upbringing that he eventually resisted.
He tried to impose even more stringent rules on his daughter,
who looked like a full-grown lady despite being just 15.
Charlotte was forced to spend most of her time in Windsor with her
maiden aunts due to the Prince Regent’s preoccupation with state matters.
After growing tired of her mundane existence,
Charlotte fell in love with her cousin George FitzClarence,
the illegitimate son of Prince William, Duke of Clarence.
Shortly after, FitzClarence received orders to report to Brighton
to join his regiment.
Charlotte’s attention was drawn to Lieutenant Charles Hesse of the Light
Dragoons, who was rumoured to be the illegitimate son of Charlotte’s uncle,
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.
Once the tide of the Napoleonic Wars shifted in 1813, George
seriously considered the prospect of Charlotte getting married.
William, Hereditary Prince of Orange, son and heir presumptive of Prince William
VI of Orange, was the consensus choice of the Prince Regent and his advisors.
Britons’ sway over the region of Northwest Europe would grow with such a union.
When William and Charlotte first met, on 12 August, during George’s
birthday party, he was drunk and left a wrong impression on both of them.
Charlotte knew
of the planned marriage from rumours floating around the palace,
even though no one in authority had directly informed her of the plan.
Charlotte was hesitant about the match since she believed a future
British queen should not marry a foreigner.
But this was soon a distant memory when on 12 December,
the Prince Regent set a dinner date for Charlotte
and the Prince of Orange and invited Charlotte to make a choice.
She expressed approval.
During the months-long engagement contract talks,
Charlotte insisted that she not be forced to leave Britain.
The diplomats agreed that if the couple produced two sons,
the older one would inherit Britain,
and the younger one would take over the Netherlands;
if they only had one son, the Dutch crown would fall
to the German branch of the House of Orange.
Charlotte put the ink to paper on 10
June 1814.
Although there is debate over why Charlotte suddenly fell in line,
this was only complicated further
when she first set eyes on Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.
Upon receiving an invitation from the Princess, Leopold visited her
and spent half an hour with her
before writing a letter of apology to the Prince Regent.
Though George was impressed by Leopold’s letter,
he still didn’t see the poor man as a serious suitor for his daughter.
The Prince of Orange, was once again at the top of the agenda.
Charlotte made it clear that her mother would need to be accepted into the family.
As we know this condition was guaranteed to be unacceptable to the Prince Regent.
The Princess angered by the lack of support and compromise
from her father called off her engagement with the Prince of Orange.
Her father’s responce was to have Charlotte stay at Warwick House (next
to Carlton House) until she could be taken to Cranbourne Lodge at Windsor,
where she would be kept from all visitors except the Queen.
Charlotte heard the news and bolted out into the street.
An onlooker saw the young Princess in distress and offered
to help her hail a hackney cab, which took her to her mother’s home.
But after talking through her problems with members of the whig party,
she was finally convinced to move back home.
The public became obsessed with Charlotte’s escape and return.)
The Prince Regent
had her taken to Cranbourne Lodge and kept her under close supervision.
Charlotte would eventually adjust to her new life.
At the end of July 1814, the Prince Regent informed Charlotte
that her mother was leaving England for an extended stay
And Charlotte was further irritated by her mother’s casualness
“for God knows how long, or what events may occur before we meet again.”
Charlotte’s relationship with her mother was irretrievably severed.
Charlotte, became
more obsessed with Leopold, a Prussian, as her future
husband, despite pressure from her family to marry the Prince of Orange.
Despite her father’s refusal, Charlotte continued to communicate with Leopold
through intermediaries and that would lead to her ultimately
asking her father’s permission to marry him in a formal letter.
However, due to political instability, the Prince Regent was unable
to consider the proposal.
In January 1816, the Prince Regent took his daughter
Charlotte to Brighton and she begged him to give his blessing
to her marriage to Leopold, the Prince of Coburg.
Despite initial resistance, George eventually consented
and Leopold visited Brighton
in late February for an informal meeting with the Prince Regent.
Charlotte was happy with the match and later wrote: I find him endearing,
and I’m happier than ever before when we finally call it a night together.
The good Lord has blessed me immensely, and I am eternally grateful for that.
I don’t think a princess ever plans their life or gets married
with the expectation of having a happy home life.
The Prince Regent had finally approved of Charlotte’s choice of Leopold
as her future husband, and on March 14th, 1816,
the engagement was announced to widespread applause.
Leopold received a large sum of money and a house as a gift from parliament,
and was almost given the title “Duke of Kendal”, but ultimately
it was decided that it would cause too much political tension.
Even then Charlotte and Leopold were only allowed to see each other at dinner
when she moved back to Brighton.
Charlotte and Leopold’s wedding was set for
May 2nd, 1816.
The ceremony took place at Carlton House’s Crimson Drawing Room,
with Leopold in his first British General’s uniform.
The couple exchanged vows in front of a crowd of guests,
and Charlotte was overheard giggling during the ceremony as poor Leopold
promised to give her everything he owned.
The newlyweds spent their honeymoon
at the Duke of York’s Surrey home, Oatlands Palace.
They did not enjoy the stay, Neither one felt good, and the Yorks’ dogs
and the smell of animals permeated the place.
However, Charlotte described Leopold as “the perfection of a lover” in her diary.
They returned to London for the social season,
where Charlotte fell ill and had a miscarriage.
The news was announced to the public.
The newlyweds, Princess Charlotte and Prince
Leopold, had a happy and contented marriage.
Physician Christian Stockmar observed that Charlotte had become more composed
and self-assured under Leopold’s mentoring
and they spent most of their time together.
Leopold told the Prince Regent at the end of April 1817
that Charlotte was pregnant again and hopefully this time
would likely give birth to a healthy child.
Charlotte’s pregnancy was the talk of
the town, with bets being placed on the child’s sex.
Experts predicted
a boost in the stock market for a princess and even more for a prince.
Charlotte, who sat for a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence,
was put on a strict diet to limit the baby’s size at delivery,
but she didn’t follow it well and didn’t exercise much.
Stockmar found the treatment interesting, but as a foreigner,
he avoided joining the medical team due to concerns of being held responsible
for any complications.
Sir Richard Croft, was responsible for Charlotte’s day-to-day needs.
Though her due date was October 19th, she had not gone into labour
by the end of the month.
On November 3rd, she and Leopold left for their trip as planned.
But contractions began that evening, and Sir Richard pushed her to work out
but forbade her from eating.
Later that night, he summoned the officials
who would swear to the royal birth.
As the night turned into November 5th, it became clear
that Charlotte might not be able
to give birth, so Croft and Charlotte’s physician, Matthew Baillie,
called in obstetrician John Sims, but Croft did not let Sims
view the patient or use forceps, which might have saved her and the infant.
Charlotte gave birth to a
stillborn boy at nine o’clock on the evening of 5 November.
All attempts to revive him were futile, but the noble onlookers agreed that
he was a gorgeous youngster who looked like a member of the Royal Family.
They left after being told the mother was doing fine.
Despite her exhaustion, Charlotte took the news with composure,
saying it was God’s will.
She broke her long fast and appeared to be doing better after eating.
Leopold, stuck by his wife’s side the whole time,
but reportedly dozed off after taking an opiate.
Around midnight,
Charlotte started complaining of stomach aches and vomiting violently.
When he arrived, Sir Richard was startled to find that his patient
was uncomfortably chilly, was having trouble breathing, and was bleeding.
She continued to bleed even after he applied hot compresses
to her, the standard treatment for postpartum haemorrhage at the time.
He contacted Stockmar and strongly suggested that he bring Leopold along.
After Stockmar had
trouble rousing Leopold, he went to see the Princess,
who clutched his hand and said, “They have made me tipsy.”
Stockmar left the chamber
to try to wake the Prince again, but he heard Charlotte’s voice calling.
He then returnd and walked into the room and discovered her body.
The death of his child left the Prince Regent so distraught
that he was bedridden and unable to attend the funeral.
After hearing the news
from a passing messenger, Princess Caroline passed out from shock.
As she began to feel better, she said, “England,
that magnificent country, has lost everything in losing my ever
cherished daughter.” Prince of Orange wept upon receiving the news,
and his wife declared a period of mourning for her court’s women.
Prince Leopold was the one who took the biggest hit.
Years later, Stockmar would write,
“November saw the collapse of this happy family, and the destruction
at one blow of every dream and happiness of Prince Leopold.” He was never able
to reclaim the joy that had characterised his brief wedded existence.
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