Charlotte, Princess Royal
| Charlotte | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Schloss Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Kingdom of Württemberg | |||||
| Burial | Schlosskirche, Ludwigsburg | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| |||||
| House | Hanover | ||||
| Father | George III | ||||
| Mother | Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz | ||||
| Signature |  | ||||
Charlotte, Princess Royal (Charlotte Augusta Matilda; 29 September 1766 – 6 October 1828), was
George III of the United Kingdom and his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
.
Early life
Princess Charlotte was born on 29 September 1766 at
Caroline Matilda and Louisa and Caroline Matilda's husband King Christian VII of Denmark. The Duke of Portland, Lord Chamberlain, and the Dowager Countess of Effingham, stood proxy for the King and Queen of Denmark.[1]
Charlotte was officially designated as
George, Prince of Wales. She was not a naturally musical child and later abhorred such displays of children, declaring that they made children vain and self-important. This did not stop her parents from continuing to show her off. In late 1769, she and the Prince of Wales were once again displayed, this time to the public in a "junior drawing room" in St James's Palace. Charlotte was dressed in a Roman toga and lay on a sofa. Though this type of thing was common in German courts, it was considered vulgar in England, where in reaction a London mob drove a hearse into the Palace courtyard. Afterwards, the Prince of Wales told Lady Mary Coke that the whole event had made Charlotte "terribly tired". Wisely, the King and Queen decided to never repeat the experience.[citation needed
]
James Gilray
, satirising Frederick's marriage to CharlotteThough she was the eldest daughter, Charlotte was constantly compared to her sister
Augusta Sophia, only two years younger than she. When Augusta was a month old, Lady Mary Coke called her "the most beautiful baby I have ever seen" while Charlotte was "very plain". Passing judgement once again three years later, Charlotte was now "the most sensible agreeable child I ever saw, but in my opinion far from pretty" while Augusta was still "rather pretty". Although the Princess Royal was never as beautiful as her younger sister, she did not share in Augusta's primary flaw: painful shyness. Charlotte also had a stammer that her attendant Mary Dacres tried to help her young charge manage. In 1770, the cluster of the three eldest princesses was completed with the birth of Princess Elizabeth, the seventh child. For the time being the family remained comparatively small (there were fifteen royal children in all), and Charlotte was fortunate in having parents who preferred spending time with their numerous children to spending all their time at court and took her education seriously. However, given the frequency with which children were being produced and the troubles that plagued George III's reign, Charlotte's childhood was not as utopian as her parents planned it to be.[2]
Like her siblings, the Princess Royal was educated by tutors and spent most her childhood at Buckingham House, Kew Palace, and Windsor Castle, where her wet nurse was Frances, wife of James Muttlebury.[3]
Marriage
On 18 May 1797, the Princess Royal was married at the Chapel Royal,
Margravine Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt
.
The younger Frederick succeeded his father as the reigning Duke of Württemberg on 22 December 1797. Duke Frederick III had two sons and two daughters by his first marriage to the late
George IV (then Prince of Wales)
. The marriage between Duke Frederick and the Princess Royal produced one child: a stillborn daughter on 27 April 1798.
Württemberg
In 1800, the French army occupied Württemberg and the Duke and Duchess fled to
Elector of Württemberg on 25 February 1803. In exchange for providing France with a large auxiliary force, Napoleon recognized the Elector as King of Württemberg on 26 December 1805. Electress Charlotte became queen when her husband formally ascended the throne on 1 January 1806 and was crowned as such on the same day at Stuttgart
, Germany.
Württemberg seceded from the
Prince Regent (later George IV) helped his standing. After the fall of Napoleon, he attended the Congress of Vienna
and was confirmed as king. He died in October 1816.
Dowager Queen
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The Dowager Queen of Württemberg continued to live at the
Princess Augusta Sophia. She was a godmother (by proxy) at the christening of her niece, Princess Victoria of Kent (the future Queen Victoria
), in 1819.
In 1827, Charlotte returned to Britain for the first time since her wedding in 1797. By that time, the sixty years old princess was very heavy and wanted to have surgery for
dropsy in England. Steam propulsion had just been introduced on the Rhine, and ensured that the voyage back home would be convenient. On 31 May she embarked on the new steamboat Friedrich Wilhelm. After descending the Rhine the steamboat arrived at Bath on the Western Scheldt. Given her weight, Charlotte had to be lifted aboard Royal Sovereign on a chair that was hoisted. Owing to bad weather, Royal Sovereign then had to leave Bath, and anchor near Vlissingen.[4] On 5 June Charlotte was in Greenwich.[5] In London, she resided at St James's Palace, where she received many visits from her family. The king made a final visit from Windsor Castle on 6 October.[6] On Tuesday 9 October Charlotte left England on board Royal Sovereign, but a storm forced her back into Harwich.[7] On the 14th, Royal Sovereign anchored before Klundert on the Hollands Diep. After spending the night on board, Charlotte embarked on the steamboat Stad Nijmegen.[8] On 19 October she arrived in Frankfurt, where she met the king and queen of Württemberg and the Duke of Cambridge.[9] On 24 October she was back at Ludwigsburg Palace.[10]
Charlotte died at Ludwigsburg Palace on 6 October 1828 and is buried in its royal vault.[11]
Honours and arms
Honours
- Royal Family Order of King George IV[12]
- Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Catherine, 5 April 1797[13]
Arms
As a daughter of the sovereign, Charlotte had use of the arms of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent of three points, the centre point bearing a rose gules, the outer points each bearing a cross gules.[14]
Ancestry
| Ancestors of Charlotte, Princess Royal Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz | | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14. Ernest Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen | |||||||||||||
| 7. Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen | |||||||||||||
| 15. Countess Sophia Albertine of Erbach-Erbach | |||||||||||||
References
- ^ "Yvonne's Royalty Home Page: Royal Christenings". Archived from the original on 6 August 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
- ISBN 978-0-679-45118-1.
- from the Internet Archive.
- ^ "Nederlanden". Dagblad van 's Gravenhage. 8 June 1827.
- ^ "London, den 6 junij". Rotterdamsche courant. 9 June 1827.
- ^ "London den 7 October". Rotterdamsche courant. 11 October 1827.
- ^ "London, den 13 October". Dagblad van 's Gravenhage. 17 October 1827.
- ^ "'s Gravenhage, den 17 October". Nederlandsche staatscourant. 18 October 1827.
- ^ "Frankfort, den 20. October". Arnhemsche courant. 25 October 1827.
- ^ "Frankfort, den 1. November". Arnhemsche courant. 6 November 1827.
- ISBN 978-0-7126-7448-5.
- Royal Collection Trust. Inventory no. 441442.
- ^ Almanach de la cour: pour l'année ... 1817. l'Académie Imp. des Sciences. 1817. p. 68.
- ^ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family
- ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 6.
