A family a war: (2) The Regent, his wife and daughter

Princess Charlotte of Wales
by George Dawe, 1817
Museum of New Zealand
Public domain

'The Regent's Valentine'

With George III’s final descent into madness, Caroline, Princess of Wales, lost her most powerful protector, her father-in-law. In February 1811 her husband became Regent, though with restricted powers. Caroline did not share his dignity, and she was pointedly excluded from a dinner at Carlton House for the exiled French royal family in June. In October 1812 she went to Windsor to visit her daughter but was denied access. There may have been a good reason for this. Charlotte later reported that on one occasion Caroline had locked her and a suitor in a bedroom, saying, ‘I leave you to amuse yourselves’.

With the coming of the Regency, Princess Charlotte was more under her father’s power than ever. But she was the undisputed heiress presumptive to the throne. At the age of 15 she had strong likes and dislikes and strong political opinions.

On 17 January 1812 the Regency restrictions expired and the Regent now had full power to appoint and dismiss his ministers. It had been expected that he would dismiss Spencer Perceval’s Tory government and bring in the Whig opposition, but to the dismay of his supporters, he kept them on. Princess Charlotte, a staunch Whig, ran weeping from a dinner at Carlton House and was later praised for her action by Lord Byron in his poem 'To a Lady Weeping'.


With the Regent now supporting the Tories, Caroline turned to the Whigs. Her case was taken up by the ambitious Whig lawyer and politician, Henry Brougham.  On 12 January 1813 he wrote a letter of remonstrance for her to send to the Regent, which he refused to open. The letter, popularly known as ‘The Regent’s Valentine’, was published in the Whig paper, the Morning Chronicle, on 10 February, and the result was a wave of sympathy for Caroline. The matter was debated by the Privy Council, who concluded that the Regent was the best judge of how his daughter should be educated and whom she should meet.  In an attempt to enhance her case, Caroline ordered the details of the Delicate Investigation to be published. The scandalous details of her indiscreet behaviour should have lost her public sympathy, but they did not.

The Dutch engagement

In 1813, following Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign, a coalition came into being to defeat him and redraw the map of Europe It was proposed to create a new Kingdom of the Netherlands and to unite it with the former Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) under William I of the House of Orange. In December 1813 Princess Charlotte became engaged to the heir to the Dutch throne, the Hereditary Prince, William (later William II of the Netherlands). The marriage treaty specified that the elder of the couple's sons would be king of Great Britain and the second the king of the Netherlands.

In June 1814, the allied sovereigns, Frederick William III of Prussia and Alexander I of Russia arrived in England to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon. The Prince Regent laid on lavish spectacles that were attended by huge and enthusiastic crowds in what was known as 'the summer of the sovereigns'. However, Caroline was barred from the celebrations and the foreign rulers were instructed not to visit her.

For some time, Charlotte had been unhappy about her engagement. She feared that she would be forced to live in Holland, she did not want to leave her beleaguered mother and (above all) she had just fallen in love with Prince Frederick of Prussia, nephew of the king. In June 1814, without consulting her father, she broke off the engagement and the Prince of Orange left the country. 

The rebellious daughter

In the same month, she met Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, an officer in the Russian army, whose family had several connections with Tsar Alexander and his family. But Charlotte was in love with another man, and the Regent was suspicious of Leopold’s intentions. Discouraged, Leopold left England shortly afterwards and occupied himself with family and European affairs.

In July, finding her situation intolerable, Charlotte fled from Carlton House to her mother’s house at Connaught Place, London, but she was forced to return to her father, and a few days later she was transferred to Cranbourne Lodge at Windsor. Here, surrounded by a new set of attendants, she was kept in the strictest retirement. Questions were asked in Parliament about whether she was a prisoner.

Caroline's travels

In August 1814, taking advantage of the fact that Europe was now at peace,  Caroline sailed for the continent with the Regent's permission. After visiting her brother the duke of Brunswick, she went on to Italy and at Milan she engaged Bartolomeo Pergami as her courtier. He was over 6 feet tall with black hair and a magnificent physique. She raised him to be her equerry, her chamberlain and her constant companion, and took his relatives into her household.

Caroline and Pergami in the bath
Public domain

At Geneva the princess bought a black wig, drew in a pair of black eyebrows and rouged her skin. In Rome she visited the pope and told Sir Humphry Davy,

‘You will see the symptoms of this in nine months’ time’.

In Genoa she drove through the streets in a low-necked gauzy gown with a pink bodice. The short white skirt barely reached her knees, leaving on view fat pink legs. By her side sat Willy Austin, the son of a Deptford dockworker, whom she had adopted when he was a baby.

She then cruised round the eastern Mediterranean for ten months and entered Jerusalem in 1816 and founded an order called the Knights of St Caroline.

After this she settled down relatively quietly in Pesaro. But her behaviour was now so notorious that secret commissioners were sent from England to investigate her conduct.

The marriage and death of a princess

While Caroline was on her travels, Charlotte was kept under close watch and her movements continued to be restricted. But despairing of Prince Frederick, her thoughts turned to Prince Leopold and she decided that he was the one she must marry. At this stage he was second-best, but she believed that marriage was the only way out of her predicament.

Through her uncle, Edward,  Duke of Kent, she began a secret correspondence with Leopold, who was back on the Continent. 
In October 1815 she wrote to him from Weymouth,  accepting his proposal of marriage. On 19 February 1816 he landed at Dover and, accompanied by the Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereagh, made his way to the Brighton Pavilion, where the Regent was waiting for him.

Leopold of Saxe-Coburg
by George Dawe
1816-17
Public domain

On 2 May the couple were married – an immensely popular event and probably the first celebrity royal wedding - and Claremont House, near Esher in Surrey was bought for them. After a few months of marriage the they had fallen deeply in love with each other. 

Claremont House, from a mid-nineteenth
century photograph
The country home of Charlotte and Leopold
that remained his home after his wife's death.
Public domain

But on 6 November 1817 Princess Charlotte died having given birth to a stillborn son after a labour of fifty hours. The cause of death has never been established beyond dispute, but the most likely explanation is a coronary thrombosis. The accoucheur, Sir Richard Croft, never recovered from the loss of such a patient, and criticised in particular for not using forceps. But he had followed the orthodox practice of the time and there was probably nothing he could have done. 

The shocked nation went into mourning for its 'people's princess'. Caroline was not even informed.

Engraving of the cenotaph
commemorating the death of
 Princess Charlotte and her baby,
St George's chapel, Windsor

Charlotte’s death created a succession crisis: there was no legitimate heir of the next generation. The Regent’s brothers cast off their mistresses and sought wives. In July 1818 the Duke of Kent married Victoire of Saxe-Coburg, Prince Leopold’s sister, and in May 1819 she gave birth to the future Queen Victoria.

All this time, Caroline was still abroad. How long would she stay away?