Chapter 1
(This is my first timeline, so please, any criticism is welcome! Sorry for the rough start!)
HRH Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband, HSH Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, by William Thomas Fry, 1816 or 1817.
November 5, 1817, 12:03 a.m: After a heated debate with the other doctors and all but barging into the delivery room, Dr. John Sims, with the use of forceps, delivered of Princess Charlotte of Wales ‘a large and handsome boy, said to resemble the royal family’. After a minute described by the midwife as 'painfully long and silent', the child finally began to cry. After a few days of a worrisome fever, Princess Charlotte was reported hale and hearty and recovering well. She and her husband, Leopold, decided the child would be named George after his grandfather and great-grandfather the King [1].
In Italy, Charlotte’s mother Caroline rejoices at the birth of a grandson -even though it took her a letter from her daughter’s husband to find out [2]-, and is sure that her descendants will sit comfortably on the British throne in the foreseeable future. Upon this realization, she shows more common sense than she’s previously shown and breaks away from her servant and rumored lover, Bartolomeo Pergami [3], writing to him that ‘any scandal brought upon her would sit poorly upon her poor Lotte [Charlotte] and ruin her chances’.
Despite the birth of a son to his highly popular daughter and son-in-law, the Prince Regent [4] isn’t held in too high of a regard in his country. His spending on the Brighton Pavilion, the typhus epidemic in Scotland [5] and his affair with the married Marchioness of Hertford [6] have made him unpopular, and the birth of a grandson has people focusing more on that George’s reign than his, something the pompous Regent is not a fan of. The line of succession seems fairly assured now, but rumors are going out: the Prince Regent, realizing his daughter and grandson could not inherit Hanover [7], had sent out his youngest brother Adolphus [8] to find wives for his brothers, William and Edward Augustus [9], to produce sons and keep the crown within the family [10]. Reasonable, right? However, it’s being reported that the Prince Regent has also given Adolphus another mission: to find a new future Queen for England (aka a new wife for George).
As the year draws to the close, people are left looking forward to the christening of their new prince, and wondering what exactly his grandfather and namesake is planning to do...
[1] I mean really, what other name was this kid going to have? Don’t worry, his middle names are at least a little interesting.
[2] OTL, Charlotte heard of her daughter’s death in childbirth from a passing courtier as George IV hadn’t bothered to send anyone to tell her about their child’s death, so it’s not too much of a stretch that he wouldn’t tell her about their grandchild being born. He’s sketchy in any timeline.
[3] After she was more or less forced into exile by her husband, Caroline moved to Italy where "she employed Bartolomeo Pergami as a servant. Pergami soon became Caroline's closest companion, and it was widely assumed that they were lovers". In 1817, she moved to "Villa Caprile near Pesaro. Pergami's mother, brother and daughter, but not his wife, joined Caroline's household"
[4] Future George IV
[5] The exact dates of the epidemic on 1817 are unknown, but it didn’t seem unreasonable for people to still be angry about it if it wasn’t still going on in November of that year.
[6] Isabella Anne Seymour-Conway, Marchioness of Hertford (1759 – 12 April 1834)
[7] Hanover was the Electorate and later kingdom held by the British kings from George I to William IV OTL; due to a male-only succession law, when Victoria succeeded to the throne, it passed to Ernest Augustus, The Duke of Cumberland. TTL, when Charlotte inherits, it will in theory pass to George IV’s next living male relative, his younger brother Frederick, the Duke of York and Albany.
[8] OTL Duke of Cambridge and grandfather to Queen Mary of Teck, wife of George VI.
[9] OTL William IV and The Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, respectively.
[10] Frederick, the Duke of York and Albany, and his wife Princess Friederike of Prussia had been married in 1791, but “after three years, it had become apparent that the Duke and Duchess of York would have no issue” (Mary Beacock Fryer, Arthur Bousfield & Garry Toffoli: Lives of the Princesses of Wales (1984)), so it’s reasonable to assume that William and Edward are gonna need to step up and take one for the weirdly anti-marriage House of Hanover team.
HRH Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband, HSH Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, by William Thomas Fry, 1816 or 1817.
November 5, 1817, 12:03 a.m: After a heated debate with the other doctors and all but barging into the delivery room, Dr. John Sims, with the use of forceps, delivered of Princess Charlotte of Wales ‘a large and handsome boy, said to resemble the royal family’. After a minute described by the midwife as 'painfully long and silent', the child finally began to cry. After a few days of a worrisome fever, Princess Charlotte was reported hale and hearty and recovering well. She and her husband, Leopold, decided the child would be named George after his grandfather and great-grandfather the King [1].
In Italy, Charlotte’s mother Caroline rejoices at the birth of a grandson -even though it took her a letter from her daughter’s husband to find out [2]-, and is sure that her descendants will sit comfortably on the British throne in the foreseeable future. Upon this realization, she shows more common sense than she’s previously shown and breaks away from her servant and rumored lover, Bartolomeo Pergami [3], writing to him that ‘any scandal brought upon her would sit poorly upon her poor Lotte [Charlotte] and ruin her chances’.
Despite the birth of a son to his highly popular daughter and son-in-law, the Prince Regent [4] isn’t held in too high of a regard in his country. His spending on the Brighton Pavilion, the typhus epidemic in Scotland [5] and his affair with the married Marchioness of Hertford [6] have made him unpopular, and the birth of a grandson has people focusing more on that George’s reign than his, something the pompous Regent is not a fan of. The line of succession seems fairly assured now, but rumors are going out: the Prince Regent, realizing his daughter and grandson could not inherit Hanover [7], had sent out his youngest brother Adolphus [8] to find wives for his brothers, William and Edward Augustus [9], to produce sons and keep the crown within the family [10]. Reasonable, right? However, it’s being reported that the Prince Regent has also given Adolphus another mission: to find a new future Queen for England (aka a new wife for George).
As the year draws to the close, people are left looking forward to the christening of their new prince, and wondering what exactly his grandfather and namesake is planning to do...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] I mean really, what other name was this kid going to have? Don’t worry, his middle names are at least a little interesting.
[2] OTL, Charlotte heard of her daughter’s death in childbirth from a passing courtier as George IV hadn’t bothered to send anyone to tell her about their child’s death, so it’s not too much of a stretch that he wouldn’t tell her about their grandchild being born. He’s sketchy in any timeline.
[3] After she was more or less forced into exile by her husband, Caroline moved to Italy where "she employed Bartolomeo Pergami as a servant. Pergami soon became Caroline's closest companion, and it was widely assumed that they were lovers". In 1817, she moved to "Villa Caprile near Pesaro. Pergami's mother, brother and daughter, but not his wife, joined Caroline's household"
[4] Future George IV
[5] The exact dates of the epidemic on 1817 are unknown, but it didn’t seem unreasonable for people to still be angry about it if it wasn’t still going on in November of that year.
[6] Isabella Anne Seymour-Conway, Marchioness of Hertford (1759 – 12 April 1834)
[7] Hanover was the Electorate and later kingdom held by the British kings from George I to William IV OTL; due to a male-only succession law, when Victoria succeeded to the throne, it passed to Ernest Augustus, The Duke of Cumberland. TTL, when Charlotte inherits, it will in theory pass to George IV’s next living male relative, his younger brother Frederick, the Duke of York and Albany.
[8] OTL Duke of Cambridge and grandfather to Queen Mary of Teck, wife of George VI.
[9] OTL William IV and The Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, respectively.
[10] Frederick, the Duke of York and Albany, and his wife Princess Friederike of Prussia had been married in 1791, but “after three years, it had become apparent that the Duke and Duchess of York would have no issue” (Mary Beacock Fryer, Arthur Bousfield & Garry Toffoli: Lives of the Princesses of Wales (1984)), so it’s reasonable to assume that William and Edward are gonna need to step up and take one for the weirdly anti-marriage House of Hanover team.
Last edited: