Wild, headstrong, opinionated, and self- absorbed, Charlotte yet longed for affection and intimacy. Princess Charlotte emerged from this difficult childhood a woman of considerable abilities, if little education, and possessed of unusual courage and resolution. Unloved and uncared for, Charlotte was a pawn in her parents' acrimonious marital game. She accused him, not unjustly, of promiscuity, malice, and neglect. He accused her, not unjustly, of being dirty, uncouth, and garrulous. The two separated nine months before the birth of their only child and thereafter waged an increasingly ugly and public war on one another. George loathed Caroline on sight and consummated the marriage in a state of insulting inebriation. They had never seen one another before the eve of their wedding. But Charlotte was a princess that no fairy godmother came to save.Ĭharlotte's parents, George, Prince of Wales (later prince regent, and then King George IV), and Princess Caroline of Brunswick, were first cousins. If Charlotte had lived and had children, a Saxe-Coburg dynasty would have taken hold in England in 1817, not 1840, and history books might well chronicle the joint reign of Charlotte and Leopold. They then frequently repeated the cycle of neglect and abuse with their own children.īefore Princess Victoria of Kent was born, there lived a Princess Charlotte, her first cousin and very like her in character and ability. As adults they were plagued by the imperative to find a spouse and produce an heir. European kings and queens were in fact often neglected or abused in childhood. The solutions are magical, but the problems were not fantasies.
Orphan princesses are sorely beset by uncaring fathers, wicked stepmothers, and villainous uncles, and only seven dwarfs or a magic donkey's skin can save them. Kings and queens are unable to conceive a normal child. Those tales are full of strange and dangerous royal courtships. The folktales of Charles Perrault and the Grimm brothers are surprisingly reliable about the lives of kings and queens in old Europe.
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