Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, 1817 |
Last week’s
birth of George Alexander Louis to Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of
Cambridge, made headlines around the globe. Though the future can be anyone’s
guess, baby Prince George seems destined to become the King of England
one day. He is the third in the line of succession to the current monarch Queen Elizabeth II, following his grandfather Prince Charles and his father Prince
William.
There was also a royal
birth during the Regency era. But that birth, which occurred almost 200 years ago, was a cause
for mourning instead of celebration. It also also concerned the birth of an heir,
and what happened had far-reaching consequences.
Before we get to the birth, though, we have to start with a royal wedding. In May of
1816, Princess Charlotte, daughter and only child of the Prince Regent, cajoled her father
into allowing her to marry the man of her own choosing, Prince Leopold of
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. It was a happy occasion that led to what was by all accounts a happy marriage, though it was all too brief.
Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold attending the opera |
By the fall
of 1817 Charlotte and Leopold were expecting a baby. Charlotte went into labor
on November 5. The baby, a boy, was stillborn. And several hours later, at 2:30
a.m. on November 6, Charlotte herself died. She was only 21 years old.
This event
shocked not only the Prince Regent but the nation as well, and plunged everyone
into mourning. Ordinary folk grieved
for the young princess; linen drapers sold out of their stock of black cloth
and even the poor wore black armbands. The Lord Chamberlain ordered widespread
mourning attire for the court, decreeing that ladies were to wear black bombazine
and muslin, with black crepe accessories. Gentlemen had to wear black clothes
and plain cravats, with black accessories all the way down to their shoe buckles.
Two months
of deepest mourning were observed before ladies of the court were permitted to transition to
half-mourning, which included black silk garments with white accessories and grey dresses and men’s coats. It took several more months before mourning was lifted
and bright colors and luxurious fabrics could be worn once again.
An engraving of Princess Charlotte, supposedly based on a portrait of her by Sir Thomas Lawrence. She is believed to have posed for this in the last days of her life |
But the
deaths of Princess Charlotte and her royal baby were more than a tragedy for
those who loved her; it meant that the line of succession was broken. The Prince
Regent was 55 when his daughter died and he had no other legitimate heirs. He
was unhappily married to Caroline of Brunswick and could barely tolerate the
sight of her. The chances of their union producing another royal heir were nil.
To make
matters worse, none of his equally middle-aged brothers had legitimate heirs,
though some of them had sired plenty of illegitimate children. This situation propelled a royal race to produce a legitimate heir, preferably male.
The Prince Regent had fourteen brothers and sisters; the ones most involved in the race
to beget an heir were the Prince’s eldest brothers: Frederick, William and
Edward. Frederick, who’d been married since 1791, had no children. The other
two men did their best to answer the royal call of duty and secure the succession. In 1818 William and Edward dismissed their respective mistresses and got married. Only Edward's marriage produced a child, but the baby born in 1819 was a girl.
A portrait of King William IV, 1833 |
When
the Prince Regent became King George IV in 1820 and later died in 1830, he was
succeeded by his brother William, the former Duke of Clarence, who was 64 years
old. (The next in line to the throne, Frederick, had died three years earlier
in 1827.)
And since
William IV had no legal heirs (though he had 10 illegitimate children with his mistress,
the actress Dorothea Jordan) when he died in 1837 the only legitimate heir that
could be scrounged up was an 18-year-old girl, Edward's daughter who'd been born back in 1819. Edward himself had died in 1820.
You may have
heard of this girl. Her name was Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, and as Queen Victoria she
went on to reign longer than any other British monarch in history or indeed any
female monarch ever. Victoria’s reign lasted 63 years; Queen Elizabeth II only has to add a few more years to her reign to beat Victoria’s record.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert produced nine children, and their line has been blessed with many descendants. One of those descendants is little Prince George, who is Queen Victoria’s fifth great-grandson. The fact that this royal baby may one day be another King George, just like his ancestor the Prince Regent, gives this modern-day royal birth another echo of the Regency.
A photo of Prince George Alexander Louis in the arms of his mother, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, July 2013 |
***
Sources:
- Laudermilk, Sharon and Hamlin, Teresa L. The Regency Companion, Garland Publishing Inc., New York & London, 1989.
- Priestley, J.B. The Prince of Pleasure and his Regency 1811-20, Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1969.
Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Fascinating! I'm learning a lot and loving it! All the twists and turns in your posts keep me interested and remind me of some of the best programs I've seen on PBS. Great work! I look forward to reading more! xo Jennifer
ReplyDeleteThanks for giving us so much information. I didn't know any of that before. Now I'll have to read all your posts just to find out what I didn't know.
ReplyDelete- Momma Cat