Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales

Birth

In 1794 George, Prince of Wales, sought a suitable bride because he was promised an increased income if he married. His choice was his German cousin Caroline of Brunswick, although he had never met her. They were repelled by one another when they first met, but the marriage went ahead on 8 April 1795. The couple ended up separating within weeks, though they remained under the same roof. George later stated that they had only had sexual relations three times.

Caroline gave birth to a daughter at their residence, Carlton House, London on 7 January 1796. While George was mildly unhappy that she was not a boy, King George III, who preferred female babies, was delighted at the birth of his first legitimate grandchild, and hoped that the birth would serve to reconcile George and Caroline. This did not come to pass, however. Three days after the birth, George drew up a will directing that his wife have no role in the upbringing of their child, and bequeathed all his worldly goods to his mistress, Maria Fitzherbert. Caroline was left one shilling. Many members of the royal family were unpopular but the nation celebrated the princess's birth. On 11 February 1796, she was christened Charlotte Augusta, after her grandmothers, Queen Charlotte and Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, in the Great Drawing Room at Carlton House by John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury. Her godparents were the King, the Queen and Augusta (for whom Charlotte, Princess Royal, stood proxy).

Despite Caroline's demands for better treatment now that she had given birth to the second-in-line to the throne, George restricted her contact with the child, forbidding her to see their daughter except in the presence of a nurse and governess. Caroline was allowed the usual daily visit which upper class parents paid to their young offspring at this time; she was not allowed any say in the decisions made about Charlotte's care. Sympathetic household staff disobeyed the Prince and allowed Caroline to be alone with her daughter. George was unaware of this, having little contact with Charlotte himself. Caroline was even bold enough to ride through the streets of London in a carriage with her daughter, to the applause of the crowds.

Childhood

Charlotte was a healthy child, and according to her biographer Thea Holme, "The impression one gets from all the early recorded stories of Charlotte is of a happy recklessness, and a warm heart." As Charlotte grew, her parents continued to battle, and to use the young girl as a pawn in their conflict, with both parents appealing to the King and Queen to take their side. In August 1797, Caroline left Carlton House, establishing herself in a rented home near Blackheath and leaving her daughter behind—at the time, English law considered the father's rights to minor children paramount. However, the Prince took no action to further restrict Caroline's access to her daughter. In December 1798, the Prince invited his estranged wife to spend the winter at Carlton House, which she refused to do. It was the last serious effort at reconciliation, and its failure meant there was little likelihood that George would have a legitimate son who would come between Charlotte and the British throne. Caroline visited her daughter at Carlton House, and sometimes Charlotte was driven out to Blackheath to visit her mother, but was never allowed to stay overnight in her mother's house. During the summers, the Prince leased Shrewsbury Lodge at Blackheath for his daughter, which made visiting easier, and according to Alison Plowden, who wrote of George's relationship with his wife and daughter, Caroline probably saw as much of her daughter as she wanted to.

When Charlotte was eight, her father, whose affections had returned to Fitzherbert, decided that he wanted Carlton House to himself. He took over his wife's apartments (Caroline received space in Kensington Palace instead), and moved their daughter into Warwick House, adjacent to Carlton House. As James Chambers, another Charlotte biographer, put it, the young Princess "lived in a household of her own, in the company of no one who was not paid to be there". The move took place without the presence of Charlotte's governess, Lady Elgin, with whom she was very close. The governess had been forced to retire, ostensibly on account of age, but most likely because George was angry that she had taken the girl to see the King without George's permission. George also dismissed the sub-governess, Miss Hayman, for being too friendly with Caroline—and the Princess of Wales promptly hired her. Lady Elgin's replacement, Lady de Clifford, was fond of Charlotte, and too good-natured to discipline the child, who had grown into an exuberant tomboy. Lady de Clifford brought one of her grandsons, the Honourable George Keppel, three years younger than Charlotte, as a playmate for her. Forty years later, Keppel, by then Earl of Albemarle, would remember Charlotte in his memoirs, the source of many of the anecdotes of Charlotte as a small girl. In addition to tomboy tales of horses and fisticuffs, he remembered them seeing a crowd gathered outside the Keppel house at Earl's Court, who were hoping to see the young Princess. The two children went outside and joined the crowd, unrecognised.

Adolescence

As Charlotte entered her teenage years, members of the Court considered her behaviour undignified. Lady de Clifford complained about Charlotte's allowing her ankle-length underdrawers to show. Lady Charlotte Bury, a lady-in-waiting to Caroline and a diarist whose writings have survived, described Charlotte as a "fine piece of flesh and blood" who had a candid manner and rarely chose to "put on dignity". Her father was proud of her horsemanship. She was fond of music by Mozart and Haydn, and she identified with the character of Marianne in Sense and Sensibility. In 1808 Charlotte Jones was appointed as Charlotte's own official miniature portrait painter.

In late 1810 George III began his final descent into madness. Charlotte and the King were very fond of each other, and she was greatly saddened by his illness. On 6 February 1811, Charlotte's father was sworn in as Prince Regent before the Privy Council, as she rode back and forth in the gardens outside Carlton House, trying to catch glimpses of the ceremony through the ground-floor windows. She was an enthusiastic Whig, as her father had been. However, now that he was exercising the powers of the monarchy, he did not recall the Whigs to office as many had expected him to do. Charlotte was outraged by what she saw as her father's treason, and, at the opera, demonstrated her support by blowing kisses in the direction of the Whig leader, Earl Grey.

George had been raised under strict conditions, which he had rebelled against. Despite this, he attempted to put his daughter, who had the appearance of a grown woman at age 15, under even stricter conditions. He gave her a clothing allowance insufficient for an adult princess, and insisted that if she attended the opera, she was to sit in the rear of the box and leave before the end. With the Prince Regent busy with affairs of state, Charlotte was required to spend most of her time at Windsor with her maiden aunts. Bored, she soon became infatuated with her cousin George FitzClarence, illegitimate son of Prince William, Duke of Clarence. FitzClarence was, shortly thereafter, called to Brighton to join his regiment, and Charlotte's gaze fell on Lieutenant Charles Hesse of the Light Dragoons, reputedly the illegitimate son of her uncle, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Hesse and Charlotte had a number of clandestine meetings. Lady de Clifford feared the Prince Regent's rage should they be found out, but Caroline was delighted by her daughter's passion. She did everything that she could to encourage the relationship, even allowing them time alone in a room in her apartments. These meetings ended when Hesse left to join the British forces in Spain. Most of the royal family, except the Prince Regent, were aware of these meetings, but did nothing to interfere, disapproving of the way George was treating his daughter. With the encouragement of his father, Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, his son (and also her cousin) Augustus d'Este also courted Charlotte, but she found his constant attentions a nuisance and asked her uncle to persuade his son to stop pursuing her.

Isolation and courtship

The story of Charlotte's flight and return was soon the talk of the town; Henry Brougham, a former MP and future Whig Lord Chancellor, reported "All are against the Prince", and the Opposition press made much of the tale of the runaway Princess. Despite an emotional reconciliation with his daughter, the Prince Regent soon had her conveyed to Cranbourne Lodge, where her attendants were under orders never to let her out of their sight. She was able to smuggle a note out to her favourite uncle, Prince Augustus, Duke of Sussex. The Duke responded by questioning the Tory prime minister, Lord Liverpool, in the House of Lords. He asked whether Charlotte was free to come and go, whether she was allowed to go to the seaside as doctors had recommended for her in the past, and now that she was eighteen, whether the government planned to give her a separate establishment. Liverpool evaded the questions, and the Duke was summoned to Carlton House and castigated by the Prince Regent, who never spoke with his brother again.

Despite her isolation, Charlotte found life at Cranbourne Lodge surprisingly agreeable, and slowly became reconciled to her situation. At the end of July 1814, the Prince Regent visited Charlotte in her isolation and informed her that her mother was about to leave England for an extended stay on the Continent. This upset Charlotte, but she did not feel that anything she might say could change her mother's mind, and was further aggrieved by her mother's casualness in the leavetaking, "for God knows how long, or what events may occur before we meet again". Charlotte would never see her mother again. In late August, Charlotte was permitted to go to the seaside. She had asked to go to fashionable Brighton, but the Prince Regent refused, sending her instead to Weymouth. As the princess's coach stopped along the way, large, friendly crowds gathered to see her; according to Holme, "her affectionate welcome shows that already people thought of her as their future Queen". On arrival in Weymouth, there were illuminations with a centrepiece "Hail Princess Charlotte, Europe's Hope and Britain's Glory". Charlotte spent time exploring nearby attractions, shopping for smuggled French silks, and from late September taking a course of heated seawater baths. She was still infatuated with her Prussian, and hoped in vain that he would declare his interest in her to the Prince Regent. If he did not do so, she wrote to a friend, she would "take the next best thing, which was a good tempered man with good sence [sic] ... that man is the P of S-C" [Prince of Saxe-Coburg, i.e. Leopold]. In mid-December, shortly before leaving Weymouth, she "had a very sudden and great shock" when she received news that her Prussian had formed another attachment. In a long talk after Christmas dinner, father and daughter made up their differences.

Marriage and death

The couple honeymooned at Oatlands Palace, the Duke of York's residence in Surrey. Neither was well and the house was filled with the Yorks' dogs and the odour of animals. Nevertheless, Charlotte wrote that Leopold was "the perfection of a lover". Two days after the marriage, the Prince Regent visited the couple at Oatlands; he spent two hours describing the details of military uniforms to Leopold, which according to Charlotte "is a great mark of the most perfect good humour". The couple returned to London for the social season, and when they attended the theatre, they were invariably treated to wild applause from the audience and the singing of "God Save the King" from the company. When she was taken ill at the Opera, there was great public concern about her condition. It was announced that she had suffered a miscarriage. On 24 August 1816, they took up residence for the first time at Claremont.

Leopold's physician-in-ordinary, Christian Stockmar (later, as Baron Stockmar, adviser to both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert), wrote that in the first six months of the marriage, he had never seen Charlotte wear anything that was not simple and in good taste. He also noted that she was much more calm and in control of herself than she used to be, and attributed this to Leopold's influence. Leopold wrote later, "Except when I went out to shoot, we were together always, and we could be together, we did not tire." When Charlotte became too excited, Leopold would say only, "Doucement, chérie" ("Gently, my love"). Charlotte both accepted the correction and began calling her husband "Doucement".

The Coburgs, as they came to be called, spent the Christmas holidays at the Brighton Pavilion with various other royals. On 7 January, the Prince Regent gave a huge ball there to celebrate Charlotte's 21st birthday, but the Coburgs did not attend, having returned to Claremont and preferring to remain there quietly. At the end of April 1817, Leopold informed the Prince Regent that Charlotte was again pregnant, and that there was every prospect of her carrying the baby to term.

Charlotte's pregnancy was the subject of the most intense public interest. Betting shops quickly set up book on what sex the child would be. Economists calculated that the birth of a princess would raise the stock market by 2.5%; the birth of a prince would raise it 6%. Charlotte spent her time quietly, spending much time sitting for a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence. She ate heavily and got little exercise; when her medical team began prenatal care in August 1817, they put her on a strict diet, hoping to reduce the size of the child at birth. The diet, and occasional bleeding, seemed to weaken Charlotte. Stockmar was amazed at a treatment he saw as outdated, and declined to join the medical team, believing that, as a foreigner, he would be blamed if anything went wrong.

Aftermath

Henry Brougham, one of the chief advisers to Charlotte's mother, Caroline, wrote of the public reaction to Charlotte's death, "It really was as though every household throughout Great Britain had lost a favourite child." The whole kingdom went into deep mourning; linen-drapers ran out of black cloth. Even the poor and homeless tied armbands of black on their clothes. The shops closed for two weeks, as did the Royal Exchange, the Law Courts, and the docks. Even gambling dens shut down on the day of her funeral, as a mark of respect. Wrote The Times, "It certainly does not belong to us to repine at the visitations of Providence ... there is nothing impious in grieving for that as a calamity." Mourning was so complete that the makers of ribbons and other fancy goods (which could not be worn during the period of mourning) petitioned the government to shorten the period, fearing they would otherwise go bankrupt.

The Prince Regent was prostrate with grief, and was unable to attend his child's funeral. Caroline heard the news from a passing courier, and fainted in shock. On recovering, she stated, "England, that great country, has lost everything in losing my ever beloved daughter." Even the Prince of Orange burst into tears at hearing the news, and his wife ordered the ladies of her court into mourning. The greatest effect fell on Leopold. Stockmar wrote years later, "November saw the ruin of this happy home, and the destruction at one blow of every hope and happiness of Prince Leopold. He has never recovered the feeling of happiness which had blessed his short married life." According to Holme, "without Charlotte he was incomplete. It was as if he had lost his heart." Leopold remained a widower until remarrying in 1832 to Louise of Orleans when he had become King of the Belgians. His youngest daughter, later known as Empress Carlota of Mexico, was named in honour of his lost wife.

Leopold wrote to Sir Thomas Lawrence:

Two generations gone. Gone in a moment! I have felt for myself, but I have also felt for the Prince Regent. My Charlotte is gone from the country—it has lost her. She was a good, she was an admirable woman. None could know my Charlotte as I did know her! It was my study, my duty, to know her character, but it was my delight!

Charlotte was buried, her son at her feet, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 19 November 1817. A monument by the sculptor Matthew Cotes Wyatt was erected, by public subscription, at her tomb. It was not long before the public began to pin blame for the tragedy. Queen Charlotte and the Prince Regent were blamed for not being present at the birth, though the princess had specifically requested that they stay away. Although the post-mortem was inconclusive, many blamed Croft for his care of the princess. The Prince Regent refused to blame Croft; nevertheless, three months after Charlotte's death and while attending another young woman, Croft snatched up a gun and fatally shot himself. The "triple obstetric tragedy"—death of child, mother, and practitioner—led to significant changes in obstetric practice, with obstetricians who favoured intervention in protracted labour, including in particular more liberal use of forceps, gaining ground over those who did not.