| January 7 |  |
Editor says, what if Charlotte Princess of Wales had survived? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the March 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1796, on this day Her Majesty Charlotte Augusta Hanover the future monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was born in Carlton House.
Birth of Queen CharlotteAt the age of twenty she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She bore him a son eighteen months later after a difficult childbirth. As the next generation of the House of Hanover, this family unit would ascend to the throne at a time when the monarchy was at a particularly low ebb. Fortunately for the Hanovers the ascension arrived sooner than expected. Charlotte became Queen of United Kingdom in 1830 upon the death of her father.
Nicknamed "the first gentleman of England" for his charm and culture, King George IV had suffered from terrible relations with his father and wife, and his dissolute way of life earned him the contempt of the people and dimmed the prestige of the monarchy. Taxpayers were angry at his wasteful spending in time of war. He did not provide national leadership in time of crisis, nor a role model for his people. His ministers found his behaviour selfish, unreliable, and irresponsible. At all times he was much under the influence of favourites.
This post is a variant of Robbie Taylor's Birth of English Democracy article in which Irish anarchists blow up Westminster Abbey and assassinate Queen Victoria.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Charlotte, Britain, Victoria, World War 1, First World War. Editor says, in reality Charlotte died in child birth aged twenty-one. Please note that we have repurposed content from both Wikipedia and also the Hub Pages discussion group which concludes ~ The death of Princess Charlotte of Wales changed the world. The immediate consequence of this was that there was no heir in the next generation for the british throne. The brothers of the Prince Regent, who were largely unmarried, straight away started scouring Europe for suitable princesses to marry in order to secure the succession. The only one to actually father a child that lived to adulthood was the Duke of Kent. That child became Queen Victoria. She married Prince Albert Of Saxe Coburg Gotha, the nephew of Leopold, and they had nine children. Here is where it starts to become interesting for students of world history. Their eldest daughter married Prince Frederick of Prussia, and had a son who went on to become Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, whose expansionist belligerant policies are largely blamed for the first world war.
~ Ah yes, whai if princess Charlotte had lived, and the story of all the brothers rushing round trying to find wives to produce an heir.
~ That would have been interesting...
~ Actually, it would have been far more interesting if Charlotte had been Charles III. The reason -- As a woman neither Charlotte nor Victoria could inherite the throne of Hanover [ye olde Salic Law]. England was thus forced out of Germany. A King Charles, however, would have been a continental power able to resist Prussian expansion and preserve Hanover's independence.
~ There is a variant biopic Alexander the Great of England- Charlotte of Wales' Son in which only the child survives the birth.
~ In addition to changing the royal picture of England, this VASTLY changes the royal picture of all Europe - Victoria's descendants were monarchs all over the continent
~ We don't know a lot about her. What sort of person was she? Her father was a flibbertigibbet---would she have rebelled against him by being sober, staid and reliable? If she inherited her father's good heart, that would have helped a lot. George IV was rather like Grahame's Mr. Toad---lots of good intentions, but very distractible.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
