Welcome to Noeple Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from

Aaron Manky, listener discretion advised.

Just after midnight on November 6, 1817, Princess Charlotte of Wales aged 21,

died in childbirth. The sun she had delivered was dead as well, a stillborn. To say it was a

shocking tragedy would be an understatement. England plunged into mourning.

Shops ran out of black cloth. Eventually, ribbon stores would have to beg the

government to shorten the official mourning period for fear that people going

without adornment in the Princess's honor would put them out of business.

Princess Charlotte had been the only child of a deeply unhappy marriage. She was the

daughter of the very unpopular Prince of Wales, the Prince Regent, Future King,

George IV. Charlotte finally found bliss in her own marriage to Prince Leopold,

only to be struck down less than 18 months after their fairy tale wedding. It was

a story out of a dark fairy tale, one that I told more in depth in the episode

The Princess that England lost. But there's more to the story, namely what

happened next. The royal family, like the public, was devastated at the loss of

the vivacious, progressive and popular princess. For them, however, the loss was

more than just a personal one. Though King George III had 15 children at the

time of Charlotte's death, she was the King's only legitimate grandchild. If

none of her many, many uncles produced legitimate children quickly, the

Hannah Varian line, which had ruled England for more than a century, would be

over. It was a terrifying proposition, especially for a family to whom their

royal inheritance meant everything. Given the importance of passing the

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