alternatehistory.com

Hello folks,

This is my first posting here. Thank you in advance for your guidance on being a good member of the board. Thanks also for your mighty brains in exploring the effects of this alternate history.

I’m looking at ways of getting to a Britain with no Queen Victoria and thinking of a POD in 1788 with George III’s eldest son pushed out of the line of succession by his father on grounds of his marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert.

1786 ATL George III learns of his eldest son George, Prince of Wales’s secret marriage to a Roman Catholic and expands the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 to state that if the heir to the throne marries in secret and to a Catholic, he or she is removed from the line of succession and the marriage is rendered void. Prince Frederick, Duke of York, becomes heir apparent.

1788 ATL Regency Crisis [Question: Does it play out the same with Prince Frederick as the regent? Out of the inheritance, does Prince George still play a part?]

1791 ATL Prince William, Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews, knowing himself to be second in line to the throne and with his somewhat more rakish brother only just about to marry and thus having no heirs yet, does not take up with the actress Dorothea Bland.

Starting in 1790s ATL Prince William, Duke of Clarence, is financially successful thanks to backing the right inventors, thus increasing his power, popularity, and influence. [If we need technology/industrialization to be a bit further along for this to be viable, add an additional sub-POD in 1663 or so with the Marquess of Worcester actually getting backers for his steam-powered device and perhaps Samuel Morland being more successful with his calculating machines. In other words, a stronger inventor-courtier culture holding its own a bit better against the Royal Society than IOTL.]

1795 ATL Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews, marries Princess Caroline of Brunswick. [A much happier match than her marriage IOTL thanks to William's more domestic nature than his eldest brother.]

1796 ATL Charlotte is born to Prince William and Princess Caroline.

1797 ATL George is born to Prince William and Princess Caroline. [This puts him three years younger than OTL George FitzClarence.] It must be becoming clear to Prince William around this time that he and his children are very likely to inherit the throne if his childless brother Frederick does not remarry. That increases the payoff for him to be less of a rake and draw more political support, popularity, and fatherly approval to him.

1798-1809 ATL William's other nine children are born, with Princess Caroline as their mother instead of Dorothea Bland. [This puts them all two or three years younger than IOTL, but I don't think that is a big enough difference to launch a lot of butterflies on age alone.]

1811 ATL Prince Frederick becomes Prince Regent. He concerns himself primarily with military and army matters, leaving other governance to his ministers.

18teens ATL With a less fashion conscious regent, there is not so great a shift in fashion or strong backing for the designs of Beau Brummell or John Nash; in other words, no or at least not so marked a “Regency Style,” nor a blooming of seaside spas or the creation of Regent’s Park. On the flip side, the financial outlays in this period are less extreme and the treasury remains stronger. With Prince William in a stronger position politically, some reforms may have taken place earlier (e.g. updating of the poor law, restrictions on child labor, abolishing of slavery in the British Empire, and perhaps electoral reform). [Butterflies aplenty, eh, ladies and gentlemen?]

1817 OTL & ATL Charlotte dies with her child in childbirth.

1819 The heir’s brother William’s son George [OTL George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster] marries. [Question: Does he still marry Mary Wyndham?]

1820 ATL No Pains and Penalties Bill. (Thus perhaps less anti-Italian sentiment in England.)

1820 ATL King George III dies, King Frederick I crowned. His brother William is heir. Late that summer, Queen Frederica dies as does her nephew, William’s son Henry, soon after. [Question: Would the 57 year old King Frederick I remarry and attempt an heir or just stick with his brother and nephews?]

1821 The heir’s wife Caroline [OTL Caroline of Brunswick] dies. [Question: Does 56 year old William remarry? He has plenty of heirs and the youngest is 12 years old.]

1827 ATL King Frederick I dies, King William IV crowned. His eldest son Prince George [OTL George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster] is heir.

1837 ATL King William IV dies, George IV is crowned. His son William [OTL Lord William George, 2nd Earl of Munster] is heir. The Kingdom of Hanover remains in personal union with the United Kingdom. [Not being illegitimate, this George IV does not commit suicide in his late 40s as he did IOTL. It's good to be king.]


All right, everyone. Have at it!

One possibility to consider is that the cultural flowering which is Regency style IOTL might still take place, but at a less hectic and financially ruinous pace, through the future ATL William IV and his many children during Frederick I's regency and reign.

cheers,
Dinah

p.s. Apologies for the First First with Frederick I. There are more probable Fredericks downstream and it's more of a note to myself that there weren't prior King Fredericks in Britain.
Top