LET’S HOPE SHE IS HAPPIER THAN THE LAST CHARLOTTE!
WHATEVER the future holds f or our new Princess Charlotte, her life will undoubtedly be happier than t hat of her 19thcentury namesake. Princess Charlotte of Wales was a tug-of-love child caught up in the war between the future George IV and his wanton wife, Princess Caroline of Brunswick.
So bad were relations between Charlotte’s parents that when George was crowned King in 1821, Caroline was locked out of Westminster Abbey.
George, Prince of Wales — ‘Prinny’, as he’s known to history — had hated his wife from the moment he set eyes on her. Their marriage was an arranged one, but before their first meeting he had to be given several large brandies to steady his nerve.
Lovely, naughty Charlotte was the outcome, but after her birth her parents separated, never to be reconciled.
Charlotte grew up alone i n the company of minders at Warwick House, near her father’s home on The Mall.
Though, as the only child of the Prince of Wales, it was anticipated she would one day reign as Queen, she had no proper parenting. Instead, she had to put up with the lazy indifference of her self-important father and the smouldering eccentricity of her mother, who fought each other pretty much as Charles, another Prince of Wales, and Princess Diana did.
Charlotte’s grandfather, George III, became so worried about her isolated upbringing that he planned to kidnap her and keep her at Windsor Castle.
Prinny was appalled. It was decided that the then eight-year-old would live at Windsor for eight months and for four months at Warwick House. Her mother saw her only as a visitor.
A clutch of ancient worthies were entrusted with Charlotte’s education and, all alone, she had to endure a daily routine that started with an hour of prayers at 8am then a fixed curriculum which went on until darkness fell.
AS A CHILD, she was bright and excitable with blue eyes and very blonde hair. But, understandably, she was difficult and insubordinate. ‘She nodded at people instead of bowing to them, she whispered to the maids of honour at chapel between prayers and during the sermon, and she bought her friends expensive jewellery she could not afford,’ noted the historian Christopher Hibbert.
As she grew up she tried to maintain contact with her mother, but under Prinny’s instructions, was prevented from any meaningful relationship.
Courtiers despised Princess Caroline. ‘She has a coarse mind without any degree of moral taste,’ sniffed one. They also were appalled that, after dinner, she would often pick a gentleman from the company, take him into an ante-room and lock the door.
On one occasion when the 16-year-old Princess met her mother, Caroline invited her daughter to enjoy herself with a Hussars officer and shut them in her bedroom. Charlotte was appalled and quickly extricated herself.
At 17, Charlotte demanded her own household. Her father responded by trying to fix up a marriage with a foreign prince known as ‘The Young Frog’. She retaliated by running away.
Instead of coming after her, the Prince sent the Lord Chancellor followed by another courtier with a warrant for her arrest. The incident showed there was little love in the poor Princess’s life.
CHARLOTTE found it — briefly — in the arms of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, whom she wed on May 2, 1816, when she was 20. Many thought she accepted the princeling’s hand to escape the control of her father.
But she miscarried twice before giving birth to a stillborn son and, next day, died of post-partum haemorrhage and shock. She was just 21.
Left behind was the grandmother after whom she’d been named, Queen Charlotte, the consort of George III, who survived her for a year.
A passionate supporter of arts and science, the Queen had 15 children and, fittingly enough, was the patron of what is today one of Europe’s oldest maternity hospitals: Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea Hospital in London. And an annual debutante’s ball named after her has been running since 1780.
Among her 15 children was another Charlotte, the Princess Royal, who was married off to a German royal and became the Queen of Wurttemberg.
The memories of other r oyal Charlottes are less happy, alas. Princess Charlotte Maria of York was born the seventh daughter of the Duke of York, later James II, in 1682. She died two months later of convulsions and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Princess Charlotte of Clarence, the first child of the future William IV and his wife, Adelaide, was born in March 1819, but died hours later.
Perhaps the happiest Charlotte — up to today — was George V’s pet parrot. It accompanied him everywhere and was allowed to walk on the breakfast table. If she made a mess, the King slid a mustard pot over it.
Our newest Princess Charlotte will, it is hoped, turn out to be happier still. And maybe Kate and William will buy her a parrot . . .