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Princess Charlotte of Wales
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portrait of Princess Charlotte on the back of the Vale & Rotherham gold watch |
The only daughter of George, Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent and George IV) by his wife Caroline of Brunswick, she was born at Carlton House, London in the early morning of 7 January 1796. She was baptised Charlotte Augusta by the archbishop of Canterbury in the Great Audience Chamber of Carlton House on 11 February 1796, her godparents being her paternal grandparents (the king and queen) and her maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Brunswick.
The separation of the prince and princess of Wales soon after their daughter's birth led to a somewhat disrupted childhood and upbringing, as she spent time first with one parent and then with the other. She developed a dislike for her grandmother, Queen Charlotte, because of the latter's hostility towards her mother, and nicknamed her the 'Merry Wife of Windsor'. Her father, on hearing this, reprimanded her: 'Don't you know my mother is the queen of England?' 'But you seem to forget,' his daughter replied, 'that my mother is the princess of Wales.'
Princess Charlotte, who grew up high-spirited and pleasure-loving, found a devoted companion and governess in the person of Miss Cornelia Knight. When her father began to seek a husband for the 18-year-old Charlotte, there was no lack of suitors in view of her position as the next heir to the British throne. The prince regent favoured the suit of the prince of Orange, who had been educated in England and served under Wellington in the Peninsular War, but Charlotte would have none of him, which was hardly surprising as his looks had earned him the nickname of 'the Young Frog'. Her refusal enraged her father, who dismissed Miss Knight and the rest of her personal attendants in July 1814 and kept Charlotte virtually imprisoned in her own house. She managed to escape, however, and took a hackney coach to her mother's house in Connaught Place, from which she was only persuaded to return by, among others, her uncles, the dukes of York and Sussex.
Among the many foreign royal personages who visited England in 1814 was Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, six years older than Princess Charlotte. When she met him, it was a case of love at first sight. The prince regent favoured his suit and the wedding took place in the Crimson State Room at Carlton House in the evening of 2 May 1816. After a honeymoon spent at Oatlands in Surrey, the country seat of the duke of York, the young couple took up residence at Claremont House, near Esher, which had been purchased for them. In addition, Parliament had voted to give the princess a dowry of £60,000 and an income of £60,000 a year.
Princess Charlotte miscarried twice in the early months of her marriage, but a third pregnancy in 1817 appeared to be going well. However, on the evening of 5 November, after a protracted labour of over 50 hours, she was delivered of a stillborn son at Claremont House. Her treatment following the birth was grossly mismanaged, and she died of post-partum haemorrhage and shock at two o'clock in the morning of 6 November. She was buried in the Royal Tomb House at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with her infant at her feet. The outpouring of public grief at her death was not matched until the death of Princess Diana.
Princess Charlotte's death also occasioned something of a crisis in the royal family, her bachelor uncles being compelled to seek brides to ensure the succession. Prince Leopold, who was devastated by his wife's death, stayed on in England to become the beloved 'Uncle Leopold' of his niece, Queen Victoria, daughter of his sister Victoria, Duchess of Kent. He was elected first king of the Belgians in 1831, and remarried -- to the daughter of Louis Philippe of France -- the following year, later having three sons and one daughter.
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