On this day in 1816 Charlotte and Leopold got married. Here are the posts describing the event
Picture: 1818 engraving of the 1816 marriage between Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
,On this day in 1816 Charlotte and Leopold got married. Here are the posts describing the event
Picture: 1818 engraving of the 1816 marriage between Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
,Posted in Marriage and Death (1814 - 1817)
Tagged alexander I tsar of russia, augusta of the united kingdom, augusta of the united kingdom daughter of george III, buckingham house (palace), carlton house, charles manners-sutton archbishop of canterbury, charlotte of mecklenburg-strelitz (queen of the united kingdom), charlotte&leopold, clarence house, edward duke of kent, elizabeth of the united kingdom(landgravine of hesse-homburg), frederica charlotte of prussia duchess of york and albany, frederick duke of york, george IV (prince of wales and prince regent), george keith elphinstone 1st viscount keith, james chambers, mary duchess of gloucester and edinburgh, mrs alicia campbell, oatlands, pall mall, prince leopold of saxe-coburg-gotha (later king of the belgians), princess charlotte of wales, princess dorothea von lieven née benckendorff, prinny's daughter: a biography of princess charlotte of wales, sophia of the united kingdom, st.james palace, the hon.margaret mercer elphinstone, the tower of london, thea holme, william howley bishop of london, william IV king of the united kingdom (duke of clarence)
On this day in 1816 Charlotte and Leopold got married. Here are the posts describing the event
Picture: 1818 engraving of the 1816 marriage between Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
,Posted in Marriage and Death (1814 - 1817)
Tagged alexander I tsar of russia, augusta of the united kingdom, augusta of the united kingdom daughter of george III, buckingham house (palace), carlton house, charles manners-sutton archbishop of canterbury, charlotte of mecklenburg-strelitz (queen of the united kingdom), charlotte&leopold, clarence house, edward duke of kent, elizabeth of the united kingdom(landgravine of hesse-homburg), frederica charlotte of prussia duchess of york and albany, frederick duke of york, george IV (prince of wales and prince regent), george keith elphinstone 1st viscount keith, james chambers, mary duchess of gloucester and edinburgh, mrs alicia campbell, oatlands, pall mall, prince leopold of saxe-coburg-gotha (later king of the belgians), princess charlotte of wales, princess dorothea von lieven née benckendorff, prinny's daughter: a biography of princess charlotte of wales, sophia of the united kingdom, st.james palace, the hon.margaret mercer elphinstone, the tower of london, thea holme, william howley bishop of london, william IV king of the united kingdom (duke of clarence)
In the bedroom at Claremont, Charlotte’s sporadic contractions continued ineffectively throughout the day. By seven o’clock in the evening she was tired and hungry. She had had no sleep for thirty-six hours and nothing to eat for twenty-four. But pain and Sir Richard would allow her neither. Sometimes she walked up and down in front of the fire, leaning on Leopold’s arm. Sometimes she lay on the bed. Sometimes Leopold lay beside her. And sometimes she reached out and absent-mindedly played with his hair, as though no one else was there.
In the breakfast room, Dr Baillie, who had not yet been allowed to see the patient, received regular reports, reassuring him that all was going well. But at ten o’clock Croft came out, took him into the bedroom and told him that he might need to use forceps.
A groom was sent galloping up to London to fetch Dr Sims. He arrived at 2 a.m. on the following morning.
At 8.15 Croft and Sims came into the breakfast room and informed the witnesses that the Princess was making good but gradual progress and that they now hoped it would not be necessary to risk the use of forceps.
The hours went by. By now Charlotte was always in bed.
At around six o’clock in the evening, meconium, a child’s first faeces, which usually appear after birth, oozed out onto the sheets. It was the first sign that the baby was in distress.
In the course of the next three hours Charlotte gave birth to a boy. He was, as suspected, dead. The doctor and the accoucheur tried every trick they knew to revive him. They plunged him in a bath of warm water. They rubbed him with mustard. They rubbed him with salt. But it was to no avail.
Charlotte had kept her promise. She had neither bawled nor shrieked, and now, heartbroken and exhausted after fifty hours of labour, she kept it still. She bore it all, said Baillie, ‘with a Brunswick heart’. While Mrs Griffiths and the maids around her wept, it was Charlotte who tried to comfort them.
At 9 p.m. the witnesses were informed that Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte had been delivered of a still-born son. In keeping with custom, Mrs Griffiths carried in the little corpse for their inspection.
[an extract from ‘Charlotte&Leopold’ by James Chambers]
When the newspapers reported that Sir Thomas Lawrence had left Claremont and returned to London, they still expected that, as the doctors had predicted, the Princess would give birth on 19 October. But 19 October came and went and all that they could say was that the Princess was still in the best health and driving out daily in her little phaeton.
The Queen was waiting for news at Windsor, hoping to visit Charlotte and her baby as soon as possible after the birth. But she had not been well for some time and on Saturday, 2 November, she went down to take the waters at Bath.
By then the Prince Regent had gone to stay with his mistress Lady Hertford and her husband at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire.
[an extract from ‘Charlotte&Leopold’ by James Chambers]
The following day [November 2] was a Sunday, and Charlotte, indomitable, drove out in her pony chaise. It was a lovely day, with all the colours of autumn displayed in the sunshine. After the drive, Charlotte and Leopold went to morning service in the chapel, which was filled with as usual with attendants and staff. The Princess cannot have been tired, for after the service she drove out again, with the devoted Leopold beside her. But her long-drawn-out pregnancy was becoming very wearisome, and she did not know that she had only one more day to wait, only one more drive round the estate, one more inspection of the work on the Home Farm and the building of her Gothic summer house.
[an extract from ‘Prinny’s Daughter: A Biography of Princess Charlotte of Wales’ by Thea Holme]
Posted in Marriage and Death (1814 - 1817)
Tagged bath, charlotte of mecklenburg-strelitz (queen of the united kingdom), charlotte&leopold, claremont, francis seymour-conway marquess of hertford, george IV (prince of wales and prince regent), isabella ingram-seymour-conway marchioness of hertford, james chambers, prince leopold of saxe-coburg-gotha (later king of the belgians), princess charlotte of wales, prinny's daughter: a biography of princess charlotte of wales, sir thomas lawrence, thea holme