Charlotte of Hanover Death Compared to Diana

The Guardian has a new article entitled “Princess Charlotte – the Diana of the Hanoverians”, inspired by the current exhibition at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. The exhibit recounts Charlotte’s life and unfortunate early death, a circumstance which ‘brought about the Victoria era’.

The Guardian article discusses the comparison of the public’s reaction to Charlotte’s death to that of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Charlotte died at a much younger age, however. The 21-year-old Charlotte died, along with her baby, in childbirth. With her death, complications to the line of succession arose. She had been the only legitimate heir to the throne as the daughter of King George IV and Caroline of Brunswick.

The consequence of the death of the second in line for the throne, along with her baby boy who would have been third in line, was that the brothers of her father, the prince regent (later King George IV), were ordered to dump their long-term mistresses, marry and start breeding sharpish – and the only resulting child was Victoria.

The exhibition includes souvenirs of Charlotte’s birth, marriage and death, dazzling gowns, loans from the Royal Collection and the National Portrait Gallery, and many objects owned by the Brighton Pavilion that have been in store for a lifetime.