CHAPTER TWO

Game of Thrones

The very name of the Regency era comes from the exchange of power between two royal men—George III and George IV—centering and cementing their roles as the major players in the drama. The royal women are often shunted to the side in this narrative, stripped of their agency.

But the royal women of the Regency are no shrinking violets.

Faced with challenges ranging from not speaking English, to unfaithful and hateful husbands, to parental machinations, these royal women found ways to subvert expectations and live, as much as possible, the lives they wanted.

Of all the many groups of women in this book, the royal women have more of an immediate and obvious connection than any. And yet the network of support among Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Caroline of Brunswick, and Princess Charlotte was fractured at best and nonexistent at worst.

Rather than turn to each other for support, the royal women of the Regency relied on small circles of advisers and confidants, existing in separate spheres. These separate spheres suited the purposes of the royal men of the Regency. George III encouraged his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, to stay out of politics, and George IV had a famously estranged relationship from his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, ignoring her possible political advice entirely. Princess Charlotte was born into this complicated family dynamic, made no easier by her parents’ estrangement immediately after her birth. She was used, and often, by both parents in their sparring matches, both public and private.

It is not surprising, then, that the story of the British royal family during the Regency is not a particularly happy one. This is partly due to the true tragedy of King George III’s prolonged illness, now believed to be the blood disease porphyria, then seen as madness. Porphyria is a group of disorders resulting from a natural buildup of chemicals that produce porphyrin in the body. Symptoms include hallucinations, paranoia, anxiety, and delusions, all of which George III exhibited during different episodes of his life.

But it’s also due to the strained personal relationships among members of the royal family, most famously of course George IV and Caroline of Brunswick’s failure of a marriage. The trickle-down effect that broken marriage had can be seen in the lives of all the royal women of the Regency.

George III succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-two after his grandfather George II passed away unexpectedly. A year later, in 1761, George married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he met on their wedding day. They were crowned together on September 22. The pair enjoyed a fruitful marriage (despite the fact that Charlotte did not speak English upon her arrival to England) and had fifteen children, thirteen of whom survived to adulthood.

Unfortunately, later in life, George III’s episodes of instability brought on by his porphyria intensified. The pair’s eldest son, the Prince of Wales, was almost named Regent in 1788, but George III recovered before he could take over.

In 1811 the king’s health worsened again and the Prince of Wales was officially declared the Prince Regent. He continued in the role until his father’s death in 1820, when he officially ascended to the throne and became King George IV.

Unlike his parents, George IV had an abysmally unhappy marriage to Caroline of Brunswick, a wide range of fascinating mistresses, and only one legitimate daughter, Princess Charlotte, who tragically died in childbirth in 1817.

Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Caroline of Brunswick, and Princess Charlotte of Wales too often suffer the fate of other royal women, thrust to the side in favor of discussing their husbands or the men around them. Or they are reduced to their worst moments, especially in Caroline’s case, as she lived well outside the bounds of what was socially acceptable or expected for the time, and her reputation paid the price. Charlotte is best remembered for her tragic and early death, but what about the life before that event, which changed history and led directly to Queen Victoria’s reign? And while we’re often told Queen Charlotte had no interest in politics, over three hundred of her letters survive telling us otherwise.

The royal women of the Regency have suffered the same fate as so many women of the period, reduced to stereotypes and flattened of humanity, but their vibrant, varied lives remind us of their true impact on the period and the importance of this fragmented but indelibly connected network.

CHARLOTTE OF MECKLENBURG-STRELITZ

Sophia Charlotte was born on May 19, 1744, the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg and his wife, Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Charlotte was one of ten children who were all raised in Mirow, now southern Germany. Due to the relative unimportance of the duchy in which she was raised, Charlotte received little of the expected formal education of a future queen of England. She was enrolled in a Protestant convent as a young girl, where she learned French and studied music.

At sixteen, Charlotte was included in the short list of contenders for potential wives for the new king of England, George III, only twenty-two and newly ascended to the throne, but she wasn’t considered a top contender until he read a letter she wrote.

In 1760 Charlotte wrote a (widely circulated) letter to Frederick II of Prussia, who had stationed troops in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Charlotte’s home, thus involving the duchy in his wars. Charlotte’s letter bemoans the realities of war and hopes for peace:

I know Sire, that it seems unbecoming in my sex, in this age of vicious refinement, to feel for one’s country, to lament the horrors of war, or to wish for the return of peace. I know you may think it more properly my province to study the arts of pleasing, or to turn my thoughts to subjects of a more domestic nature; but however unbecoming it may be in me, I cannot resist the desire of interceding for this unhappy people.¹

Upon reading the letter, George supposedly turned to a courtier, Lord Harcourt, and said, “This is the lady whom I shall secure for my consort. Here are lasting beauties. The man who has any mind may feast and not be satiated. If the disposition of the Princess but equals her refined sense, I shall be the happiest man, as I hope, with my people’s concurrence to be the happiest monarch, in Europe.”²

In 1761 the king announced to his council his intentions to marry Charlotte, and she traveled from her home to England in a harrowing boat trip. The party encountered several storms that blew them off course, causing the journey to take almost two and a half weeks.

Charlotte was received by the king and his family on her arrival in London on September 6. Upon their meeting, Charlotte sank to her knees, honoring her husband-to-be until he raised her up. They met at 3:30 p.m. and were married later that evening at 9 p.m.

Charlotte’s first months in England were difficult as she adjusted to many new things, including an overbearing mother-in-law, Princess Augusta. Despite initially being impressed with Charlotte’s letter to the king of Prussia, upon their marriage her husband also ensured that she would have no political role going forward.

Despite these difficulties, Charlotte was determined to have a happy family life. Within a year of being married, she gave birth to her first son, George, Prince of Wales, who would go on to succeed his father as George IV. George was followed by Frederick (1763), William (1765), Charlotte (1766), Edward (1767), Augusta (1768), Elizabeth (1770), Ernest Augustus (1771), Augustus Frederick (1773), Adolphus (1774), Mary (1776), Sophia (1777), Octavius (1779), Alfred (1780), and Amelia (1783).

George took responsibility for the education of the couple’s sons, while the daughters’ schooling was left up to Charlotte. She took this charge seriously, employing for the girls a range of tutors and governesses who emphasized kindliness and responsibility but also taught them the skills they would be expected to have later in life if they married. George and Charlotte were extremely fond of their daughters and made no moves to arrange advantageous marriages for them, preferring to keep them at home. Unfortunately, this resulted in a great deal of unhappiness for their daughters, who desperately wanted lives and families of their own.

It is historical legend that George told Charlotte not to meddle in English politics and that she generally followed this edict. However, over four hundred letters from Charlotte to her younger brother and confidant Grand Duke Charles II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz survive, along with almost three hundred to her eldest son, George IV. They reveal an intelligent and highly aware ruler who kept careful track of such global events as the American Revolution, discussing England’s victories and defeats in her many letters. She also maintained a correspondence and friendship with Queen Marie Antoinette, even preparing apartments for the French royal family if they carried out a plan to flee the French Revolution and take refuge in England.

Charlotte was a keen botanist. She arranged for clippings brought to her by explorers like Captain James Cook to be planted in Kew Gardens, ensuring that those gardens grew and expanded. Charlotte also befriended the writer and artist Mary Delany, arranging for her to receive a pension and inviting her to court to educate the royal children in botany.

Queen Charlotte is of great interest for another reason: her oft-discussed African ancestry. Charlotte was a descendant of Margarita de Castro e Souza, a fifteenth-century Portuguese noblewoman who was herself a descendant of Alfonso III and his mistress Madragana from the thirteenth century. A sixteenth-century Portuguese royal chronicler named Duarte Nunes de Leão wrote that Madragana was a Moor, or person of African descent.

Even more interestingly, Queen Charlotte was painted in 1762 by the Scottish painter Allan Ramsay. [Figure 2] It has been pointed out that, more so than in any other image of her, Charlotte’s African heritage has been emphasized, especially in her facial features. It has been suggested that this portrait, and copies of it, were used by abolitionists to further their cause.

Ramsay was not unfamiliar with Africans living in England. His brother-in-law John Lindsay fathered several children with African women and brought one of those children, Dido Elizabeth Belle, to England to be brought up by his uncle, Lord Mansfield. Some have advocated that Ramsay himself could be the painter of a famous portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle and her cousin Elizabeth Murray.

Regardless, Charlotte’s African ancestry seems to have been downplayed in other portraits. She certainly never mentioned it in her many letters to family or other political players.

Whatever her ancestry, Charlotte did not have an easy time as queen of England or wife to the king. Her husband’s mental illness made him erratic and sometimes violent, other times smothering. Charlotte had to negotiate with a hostile mother-in-law, who kept details about her husband’s health from her, as well as her own son, who stood to gain everything if appointed Regent and nothing if his mother was instead.

In 1811 George III’s condition had worsened, and Charlotte was appointed his official guardian under the Regency Bill of 1789, while her son was appointed Prince Regent. Charlotte did not initially agree with the decision to name her son Regent.

Despite their discord, Charlotte still acted as official queen for many royal duties during the Regency due to the Prince Regent’s estrangement from his own wife, Caroline of Brunswick.

She was not, however, an innocent bystander in the standoff between her son and daughter-in-law, but an active participant. In May 1814 she wrote to Caroline on her son’s instruction, banning her from attending court. “The Queen is thus placed under the painful necessity of intimating to the Princess of Wales, the impossibility of her Majesty’s receiving her Royal Highness at her drawing-rooms.”³ Caroline made sure to distribute this letter widely, ensuring that the public was aware of the treatment she was receiving at the hands of her husband and mother-in-law, adding to her popularity and seriously damaging that of George and Charlotte.

Perhaps due to this, Charlotte had a difficult relationship with her granddaughter and namesake, Princess Charlotte. Charlotte (the elder) chose to travel to Bath rather than attend the confinement and birth of her first great-grandchild. However, on the night the baby was stillborn, and Princess Charlotte passed away, Charlotte declared, “I know some fatal event has happened,” and was then informed of the tragic news.⁴ Charlotte was devastated by the deaths, and her health began to decline rapidly.

Charlotte died while holding her oldest son’s hand at Kew Palace in 1818. She didn’t live to see the end of the Regency and the start of her son’s reign upon her husband’s death in 1820.

CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK

In 1795 Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, Princess of Brunswick, arrived in England to marry the Prince of Wales, who would one day become George IV.

Caroline was born on May 17, 1768, to Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and his wife, Princess Augusta of Great Britain. (That’s right, Caroline and George were first cousins.) Her lively nature was widely remarked upon. When Lord Malmesbury arrived in Brunswick to bring Caroline back to England and her new life, he was concerned about her lack of polish, writing, “My eternal theme to her… is to think before she speaks, to recollect herself.”⁵

Caroline’s new husband, George IV, is remembered as a truly terrible ruler, an even worse husband, and a great patron of all the arts. His Regency was marked by his prodigious spending, requiring Parliament to bail him out of debt several times, his marriage to Caroline being one such instance.

George was wildly unpopular, in marked contrast with, and perhaps in part because of his terrible treatment of, his wife.

When Caroline arrived in England to marry George there was a serious impediment: George was already married.

In 1785 he had gone through a marriage ceremony with his mistress Maria Fitzherbert, despite the fact that she was divorced and a Catholic and therefore barred from royal marriage by the Royal Marriages Act of 1772.

Thoughtfully (?) George formally ended his relationship with Maria Fitzherbert by letter before marrying Caroline.

Not so thoughtfully, he rewrote his will the day after Caroline gave birth to their only child, Charlotte, leaving everything to Maria Fitzherbert and a single pound to Caroline.

He also appointed another mistress—Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey—as his wife’s Lady of the Bedchamber. And sent said mistress to welcome his new wife to England! And ride in the carriage with her from Greenwich to London! This situation was not unknown to the public, and was parodied in satirical prints from artists like James Gillray. [Figure 3]

Sources tell us that George was disgusted by his new wife, and that led to his cruel treatment of her. Malmesbury was the only witness to their first meeting, and reported that Caroline tried to kneel before her new husband, who raised her up but then walked off without a word to his bride. He asked Malmesbury to get him a drink and then left to discuss the matter with his mother.

George’s unhappiness with his new bride has been much remarked upon, but George didn’t do much to impress Caroline, either. She told Malmesbury that the prince was “very fat and he’s nothing like as handsome as his portrait.”⁶

That evening Caroline was forced to sit at dinner with her husband-to-be and his mistress, Lady Jersey. Three days later Caroline and George married in St. James’s Chapel, with George instructing his brother to “tell Mrs. Fitzherbert she is the only woman I shall ever love.”⁷

With such an illustrious start to the marriage, is it any wonder that it went from bad to worse? The couple had sex exactly three times (according to George’s letters to Malmesbury) and luckily, Caroline got pregnant.

Precisely nine months after their wedding, Caroline gave birth to a baby girl named Charlotte.

The arrival of a much-hoped-for heir did little to thaw relations between Caroline and George. On April 30, 1796, George wrote to Caroline, “Nature has not made us suitable to each other,” and indicated his desire for a formal separation.

Caroline agreed with one stipulation: that she would never be forced to have sexual relations with George, even if something happened to Charlotte. He agreed, and the pair separated in 1797.

Caroline settled at Montagu House in Blackheath. For the first time since arriving in England, Caroline was finally free to live life on her own terms. While Blackheath was provincial compared with London, she nevertheless encouraged politicians and important society figures to visit her at her new establishment.

Caroline was a devoted mother to her daughter, Charlotte, with the little girl living near her mother under the care of a governess. But one daughter was not enough for Caroline, who loved children. She began to take in a series of foster children, with the princess overseeing their education. While her heart seems to have been in the right place, the practice of wealthy women taking children from the less-well-off to “ease their burden” is extremely problematic through today’s eyes. And there’s little evidence about what happened to these children after they left Caroline’s household.

Not all of her neighbors approved of Caroline’s new lifestyle, in particular Major-General Sir John Douglas and his wife, Lady Charlotte Douglas. Initially friends, the group had a falling-out over Caroline’s affection for the Douglases’ boarder, Sir Sidney Smith. Caroline and Lady Douglas traded barbs back and forth, and finally Lady Douglas accused Caroline of giving birth to an illegitimate boy (in reality it was one of the foster children Caroline had taken into her home).

King George III was fond of his niece and daughter-in-law, but in 1806 he was forced to look into these allegations with the so-called Delicate Investigation. He was heartily encouraged in this by his son, who had been advised that the only way he would be able to formally and officially divorce his wife was by proving her infidelity.

Led by Prime Minister Lord Grenville, Lord Chancellor Lord Erskine, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord Ellenborough, and Home Secretary Lord Spencer, the investigation heard testimony from Lady Douglas and Caroline’s servants about her conduct. Lady Douglas testified that Caroline had told her she was pregnant and that the boy was indeed her natural-born son. However, Sophia Austin, the boy’s mother, testified that he was her son, contradicting Lady Douglas’s testimony. Caroline’s servants backed her up, refusing to testify that she had improper relationships with men.

The mere fact that her husband, through careful campaigning publicly and privately, could induce his father to convene such a body of the preeminent men in the country on the strength of mere rumors tells us the lack of balance of power between George and Caroline, and how little control Caroline had over her life or her daughter’s. The investigation found that there was no foundation for the allegations, despite George’s hopes to the contrary. Regardless, he used the scandal as justification for further separation between Caroline and Charlotte, now requiring a chaperone for their visits.

Caroline had never been particularly popular with the English aristocracy, but the scandal surrounding the Delicate Investigation, along with George’s increasingly elaborate parties as he became official Regent, to which she was not invited, contributed to her further isolation.

In January 1813, on the advice of her new champion and friend Henry Brougham, a leading Whig politician, Caroline wrote a letter to George, which was leaked to the press when he refused to respond. In it, Caroline argues against her treatment. The letter was so widely distributed that Jane Austen read it and wrote to her friend Martha Lloyd, “I suppose all the world is sitting in judgement upon the Princess of Wales’s letter. Poor woman, I shall support her as long as I can, because she is a Woman and because I hate her Husband…”⁸

In retaliation for the letter, George leaked the details of the Delicate Investigation to the press. Once again, this inflamed public support in favor of Caroline rather than George. But George held the upper hand in one key area, and used the scandal to demand Charlotte be kept from her mother.

In July 1814 George informed Charlotte that she would no longer be allowed to visit her mother in punishment for breaking her engagement with the Prince of Orange. In response Charlotte ran away to Caroline’s house. She was eventually persuaded to return, but Caroline had had enough.

She negotiated with Lord Castlereagh for an annual allowance in return for her leaving the country. Despite her daughter’s unhappiness with her decision, Caroline left England for Italy in 1814. She settled in the Villa d’Este on Lake Como, where she established her household. Somewhere along the way she picked up a servant named Bartolomeo Pergami, who quickly became the head of her household and her rumored lover.

The pair traveled throughout the Mediterranean together, causing gossip wherever they were seen. The news reached England via the mouths of many busybodies, including spies that George sent. Lord Sligo wrote at first, “I don’t know who is rogering the Princess now,” before amending his report to include the news that Pergami “very likely… does the job for her.”⁹

In 1817 Caroline’s beloved daughter Charlotte died in childbirth, and with her, any hope Caroline had of regaining power upon her daughter’s accession to the English throne. Caroline’s secretary Joseph Hownam had the unfortunate task of telling her. Upon sharing the news Caroline cried and said, “This is not only my last hope gone, but what has England lost?”¹⁰

With Charlotte’s death, George saw a morbid opportunity to once again rid himself of his hated wife. But he still needed grounds, and due to the failure of the Delicate Investigation, he would need a new commission and set of allegations. This time he appointed Vice Chancellor John Leach to investigate Caroline’s adultery. Leach’s investigation so terrified Caroline that she agreed to a divorce in exchange for a cash settlement in 1819. Negotiations dragged on, until January 29, 1820, when George III died and George IV officially became king, and Caroline, at least nominally, queen.

Caroline made plans to travel to England to assert her rights as George continued to press for a divorce. The king’s ministers advised against it, especially given Caroline’s popularity compared with George’s increasingly bad reputation.

As George’s estranged wife, Caroline became a figurehead for the radical reform movement. When she arrived back in England on June 5, 1820, an enormous crowd greeted her with cheers. Always more popular than George, Caroline served as a convenient rallying cry for those pushing for change in England in the wake of the French Revolution. Caroline corresponded with several leaders in this movement, making them her advisers, including Alderman Matthew Wood and radical MP Sir Francis Burdett. Wood even traveled to Calais to accompany Caroline back to England. This meant that Caroline arrived back in England firmly aligned with his radical politics—at least visually.

George persisted with his bid for a divorce, presenting Parliament with the results of Leach’s investigation. This so scandalized the House of Lords that they introduced the Pains and Penalties Bill of 1820, which would dissolve the royal marriage and strip Caroline of her titles. [Figure 4] The bill passed the House of Lords but was never presented in the House of Commons as there was little chance it would pass, due to Caroline’s popularity.

While Caroline waited for the trial to get under way, she was shunned by most of England’s high society. But there were a few exceptions. Along with Lady Anne Hamilton, a loyal lady-in-waiting, Caroline received one other distinguished visitor: Anne Damer.

Caroline had befriended Anne’s own dearest friend Mary Berry upon her arrival in England as a new queen. Because Anne’s papers were destroyed on her own order we have no explanation for this remarkable break with high society, but there is an obvious answer. Due to her friendships with women, Anne had faced scandal and social censure for most of her adult life. Perhaps she simply better understood the immense pressure that Caroline was under and wanted to offer her support.

Caroline had one other surprising supporter among the women of the Ton: Sarah Villiers, Lady Jersey. Breaking with her friend then Prince of Wales George IV, her mother-in-law, and many other of the Lady Patronesses of Almack’s, Lady Jersey stood by the queen, professing her support publicly.

Despite her precarious position, Caroline pressed ahead with plans to attend George’s coronation, despite being told she should not go and would not be admitted if she did show up. On July 19, 1821, at his coronation ceremony George had Caroline turned away from the doors of Westminster. She tried several other entrances and was denied entry at each.

Unfortunately, in that moment public opinion finally turned against her. It’s said the crowds jeered her as she was turned away from the coronation service. Caroline never recovered from the humiliation. She fell ill that evening and died a few weeks later on August 7, 1821. However, she was aware of the seriousness of her illness for several weeks before her death and was able to put her affairs in order. She had many personal papers burned and chose a pointed inscription for her tombstone: CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK, THE INJURED QUEEN OF ENGLAND.¹¹

The Times reported her death on August 8, writing, “The tragedy of the persecutions and death of a QUEEN is at length brought to its awful close; and thousands—we may say millions—of eyes will be suffused with tears when they shall read in this column that CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK is no more… She died as she had lived, a Christian heroine and a martyr.”¹²

PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES

Born on January 7, 1796, into her parents’ (then Prince of Wales) George IV and Caroline of Brunswick’s deeply unhappy marriage, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales was the only child of George IV and the great hope of the Regency period. The poet Leigh Hunt captured the huge expectations of the infant, writing on her birth, “Such a fine young royal creature—Daughter of England!”¹³

From the moment she was born, Charlotte was in a very difficult position. Just a year after her birth, her mother moved out of Carlton House and into her own establishment at Blackheath. Charlotte was shuttled back and forth between them until she turned eight and moved into her own establishment at Warwick House.

This move coincided with an entirely new staff for the young princess. Her father demanded her beloved nanny Lady Elgin resign because she brought Charlotte to visit her grandfather King George III without asking her father for permission.

Her new governess Lady de Clifford brought along her grandson the Honorable George Keppel, who became the princess’s childhood friend and later wrote a memoir about their time together.

Along with Lady de Clifford, Charlotte’s education was entrusted to the Bishop of Exeter. The pair fought constantly over what the princess should be taught, and how. Rounding out this group was the Reverend Dr. George Nott, the princess’s chaplain, along with two subgovernesses. Charlotte also received special education from experts in a number of subjects, particularly excelling at the piano under the tutelage of Jane Mary Guest, herself a student of Johann Christian Bach.

Eventually Nott was replaced by the Reverend Dr. William Short. Short introduced Charlotte to his niece, the Honorable Margaret Mercer Elphinstone. “Dearest Miss Mercer” became Charlotte’s best friend and confidante for the rest of her life.

This staff was Charlotte’s adopted family. She said as much in a childhood will she wrote in 1806; all of ten years old, she leaves almost all her earthly possessions to her staff members, with a brief mention of “my father and mother, the Prince and Princess of Wales,” who are left her most valuable jewels.

That same year, relations between Charlotte’s parents broke down even further as George insisted that the government investigate his wife’s supposed infidelity in what came to be known as the Delicate Investigation. Charlotte was forbidden from seeing her mother during the investigation, and her own grandfather, the king, refused to receive her.

Used as a pawn by the adults in her life from the earliest possible age, is it any wonder that contemporaries described Charlotte as undignified and wild? After visiting Windsor in 1809 Lady Albinia Cumberland wrote, “I do not think her manner dignified, as a Princess’s ought to be, or, indeed, as I should wish a daughter of mine to behave.” ¹⁴ Of course, other visitors were kinder. The Grand Duchess Catherine was quite taken with Charlotte when she visited England, writing that she was “the most interesting member of the [royal] family…”¹⁵ But Catherine also shared Lady Campbell’s concerns about Charlotte’s manners: “She is ravishing, and it is a crime to have allowed her to acquire such habits.”¹⁶

As her father was busy with his duties as Prince Regent, Charlotte spent more and more time at Windsor with her aunts. There she formed an attachment to her illegitimate cousin George FitzClarence, son of her uncle the Duke of Clarence. After George was called to join his regiment in Brighton, Charlotte’s attentions moved to another rumored illegitimate cousin, Charles Hesse, an officer in the Light Dragoons.

Charlotte was encouraged in her love affairs by her mother, Caroline, who allowed the couple to meet in her apartments. Caroline and Charlotte also used Hesse as a courier for their letters, a perfect arrangement for all concerned. But once again, war interfered and Hesse left to serve in Spain, ending the love affair.

As always, Charlotte was caught between her parents and their machinations. And this extended beyond her love life. As a young man, George was a professed Whig. Caroline allowed her loyalties to shift more fluidly, taking advice from whoever was in opposition to her husband at any given moment. However, it was a Tory government that named George Prince Regent, handing him the power he had desperately wanted his whole life.

After his appointment, it was expected that he would dismiss the government and call for a general election, ushering in an era of Whig rule. But the prince decided against calling an election, betraying the Whigs, and his daughter.

Charlotte was a devoted Whig. In this she was supported and encouraged by her friend Mercer Elphinstone, much to her father’s displeasure. And Charlotte decided to make it known with a public display of support to Earl Grey, leader of the Whig party and the opposition. Charlotte spotted him at the opera and leaned out of her box to blow kisses at him, for all the world to see and report on.

It wasn’t the first or last time the Whigs and Tories used Charlotte’s awful position between her parents as fodder for their political goals. George was insistent on treating Charlotte as a child, forbidding her from attending many social functions and famously telling her, “Depend upon it, as long as I live you shall never have an establishment, unless you marry.”¹⁷ Caroline was busy with her own unfortunate position, and had little time to truly help her daughter better her life.

Luckily, some hope appeared in 1813, as the Prince Regent finally turned his attention to the question of Charlotte’s future husband. Charlotte had clearly come to understand that the only way she would gain some semblance of independence and control over her life was through marriage.

For a number of reasons, all political and none having to do with love or Charlotte’s future happiness, George landed on William, Hereditary Prince of Orange, as a suitable potential husband.

Unfortunately the first meeting did not go well, as William got drunk with the Prince Regent. Caroline did not approve of the match, and public sentiment was against it as well. Charlotte was primarily concerned about being forced to leave England as its monarch wed to the monarch of another country.

Nonetheless, negotiations continued, and in 1814 Charlotte signed a marriage contract.

That didn’t mean she was done fighting for control of her future and the choice of who she would marry.

Charlotte told the Prince of Orange that once they were married, she would of course receive her mother in their home.

The Prince of Orange was in a no-win situation. His soon-to-be father-in-law, the one-day king of England, would never accept his new son-in-law receiving his estranged wife, and the prince told Charlotte as much.

Who promptly broke off the engagement.

Charlotte had shown not only her father, but the entire country, that she would make her own decisions, consequences be damned.

In punishment George barred Charlotte from visiting her mother, causing Charlotte to run away to her mother’s house. There she gathered her advisers, who rather than giving her the advice she wanted, sent her back to her father.

After an emotional reunion, George sent Charlotte to Cranbourne Lodge where she was under strict observation. She quickly complained to her uncle, the Duke of Sussex, who then made public inquiries about Charlotte’s well-being to the prime minister, Lord Liverpool, in the House of Lords. The Prince Regent was so furious he never spoke to his brother again.

After Charlotte’s mother, Caroline, left England for Italy in 1814, the Prince Regent finally allowed Charlotte to leave Cranbourne for the seaside town of Weymouth. While there, crowds showed up in displays of support.

She may have been free, but the question of her marriage still wasn’t settled. Unhappy with her other prospects, Charlotte fixated on Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, whom she had met a year earlier. While her father did not initially take the impoverished prince’s proposal seriously, when faced with mass opposition to his choice, the Prince of Orange, George finally relented and invited Prince Leopold to Brighton for an interview in February 1816. George was impressed with the prince and Charlotte wrote that he had told her that Leopold “had every qualification to make a woman happy.”¹⁸

On March 14, 1816, an announcement was made in the House of Commons. Parliament voted Leopold £50,000 a year, and bought the couple Claremont House and Camelford House.

Charlotte and Leopold were married May 2, 1816, in Carlton House. The newlyweds were wildly popular and appeared frequently in London society after their honeymoon.

Princess Lieven, Patroness of Almack’s and noted leader of society, wrote in a letter to her brother Alexander, “Princess Charlotte is happy and contented; they are both of them prodigiously in love—he with his wife, and she with her husband and freedom.”¹⁹

Charlotte wrote to her best friend Mercer that Leopold was “the perfection of a lover.”²⁰

A few months after the wedding, Charlotte fell ill. She was unable to attend the opera or the final performance of the celebrated actress Sarah Siddons. Her doctor finally announced that Charlotte had miscarried.

She seemed to recover quickly, and with her the press and public recovered their belief that the princess would one day give birth to a healthy child. Privately Charlotte was devastated, and wrote to her mother, despite her father’s edict that the pair not communicate, “Why is not my mother allowed to pour cheerfulness into the sinking heart of her inexperienced and trembling child?… I have but one mother.”²¹

Happily, in April 1817 Prince Leopold informed the Prince Regent that Charlotte was pregnant again and the doctors believed there was no reason she wouldn’t have a healthy birth. This good news was sorely needed in England, which was suffering an economic recession after the Napoleonic Wars.

Charlotte’s pregnancy was followed obsessively by the press. It was calculated that the birth of a princess would raise the stock market 2.5 percent, while the birth of a prince would raise it 6 percent.²²

In August 1817 Charlotte was put under medical care, with Sir Richard Croft, an accoucheur rather than a physician, leading her medical team. Even the choice of her doctor was a subject of intense speculation and discussion. Along with Croft, consultant Dr. John Sims and nurse Mrs. Griffiths were appointed to Charlotte’s care team.

Dr. Croft put Charlotte on a diet immediately and began to bleed her regularly. Leopold’s private physician and friend Dr. Stockmar was appalled at this treatment, pointing out that it was no longer considered healthy in the rest of Europe.

On Monday, November 4, Charlotte went into labor, promising Mrs. Griffiths, “I will neither bawl nor shriek.”²³

Charlotte labored for fifty hours to give birth to a stillborn son. As Mrs. Griffiths and the other maids wept, Charlotte tried to comfort them.

A few hours later, never truly recovering, Charlotte died. Upon being brought to see his dead wife, Leopold turned to his friend Stockmar and whispered, “I am now quite desolate. Promise to stay with me always.”²⁴

With those words, Leopold captured the sentiment of the entire country. As Lady Charlotte Bury wrote, “There is now no object of great interest in the English people, no one great rallying point round which all parties are ready to join… A greater public calamity could not have occurred to us; nor could it have happened at a more unfortunate moment.”²⁵

The public mourning for the Princess of Wales was widespread. The Prince Regent was so grief-stricken he couldn’t attend the funeral. Dr. Croft committed suicide because he blamed himself for being unable to save the princess.

Charlotte’s death set off a mad scramble among the surviving royal dukes to leave their mistresses and provide the elderly King George III with a legitimate heir. In 1818 Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, married Prince Leopold’s widowed sister Princess Victoria; a year later the pair welcomed their daughter Victoria, who would inherit the English throne in 1837.

Victoria would rule for sixty-three years, making her the longest-reigning monarch up to that point. Her uncle Leopold was a trusted adviser and even introduced Victoria to his nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, her future husband. Victoria ruled over a period of huge expansion for the British Empire, and her reign was markedly different from her profligate uncle’s. Victoria, along with the support and help of Albert, tried to make the royal family and by extension court a moral center for the country.

Leopold never forgot Charlotte, considering her the great and only love of his life. He named his first daughter with his second wife Charlotte. And for Victoria’s twenty-sixth birthday he sent her a portrait of his beloved Charlotte, writing, “Grant always to that good and generous Charlotte—who sleeps already with her beautiful little boy so long—an affectionate remembrance, and believe me, she deserves it.”²⁶

CONCLUSION

While they might have had wealth and stature, the royal women of the Regency did not have an easy road to walk. And even that wealth and that stature could be very much in question depending on how much in favor—with the royal men and the public—they were at any given moment.

The royal women of the Regency came blaring back into the public consciousness in 2016 when Prince Harry of England announced that he was dating the American biracial actress Meghan Markle.

Almost immediately Meghan was subjected to racist coverage in the British press, and Harry sought to defend her by releasing a public statement confirming their relationship and condemning the “wave of abuse and harassment” that Meghan had endured.²⁷

Another round of defense came from historians who pointed out that Meghan would not be the first member of the English royal family with African heritage—Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz holds that honor.

Time magazine, the Washington Post, and others reported widely on this historical precedent. It even made its way into pop-culture pieces about Meghan and Harry’s relationship—like the Lifetime original movie Meghan and Harry: Becoming Royal (2018). In the film, as Meghan and Harry face increasingly negative press for their relationship, they turn to Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II for support. Queen Elizabeth cheerily brushes off their worries and informs them both, “Oh yes, you’re of mixed race, Harry. So am I,” as the trio stand in front of the Ramsay portrait of Queen Charlotte. “I’ve always loved this portrait of Queen Charlotte because the painter Ramsay didn’t try to hide her African heritage… Many of her portraits try to hide that fact, but this one is most authentic, just like you.”

CHAPTER TWO

Game of Thrones

CHARLOTTE OF MECKLENBURG-STRELITZ

CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK

PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES

CONCLUSION

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