After two miscarriages in the early months of their marriage, she conceived a third time in February 1817. Although healthy at the beginning of the pregnancy, medical staff took extra precautions; medical practice at the time was
bloodletting and a strict diet, which only served to weaken Charlotte.
On the evening of
3 November, her water broke and labour commenced. After a 50-hour labour at Claremont, she delivered a stillborn 9-pound son there on
5 November 1817. The second stage of labour had lasted 24 hours. Initially after delivery Charlotte seemed to do well, but after several hours she became restless, had difficulty breathing, and her pulse became fast and feeble. Five and a half hours after the delivery she died, presumably from a concealed post-partum haemorrhage.
Two generations gone — gone in a moment! I have felt for myself, but I have also felt for the prince regent. My Charlotte is gone from the country — it has lost her. She was a good, she was an admirable woman. None could know my Charlotte as I did know her. It was my study, my duty, to know her character, but it was also my delight.
:
(Prince Leopold to Sir Thomas Lawrence)
The
obstetrician, Sir
Richard Croft, who had correctly diagnosed a transverse lie of the baby during
labour and failed to use a
forceps, was distraught. Three months later he shot himself. Thus this single pregnancy is known in medical history as “the triple obstetrical tragedy”.
The Princess was buried in
St. George's Chapel, Windsor with her son at her feet. Her death was mourned nationally, on a scale similar to that which followed the death of
Diana, Princess of Wales in
1997. On the other hand, in
An Address to the People on The Death of the Princess Charlotte (
1817), Percy Bysshe Shelley argued that while her death was very sad, the execution the following day of three men incited to lead the
Pentrich Rising was the greater tragedy.
Charlotte's death left the Prince of Wales without any direct heirs, and meant that her paternal grandfather
George III had no legitimate grandchildren from his twelve surviving children - and most, if not all, of his daughters were either sterile or past childbearing. The death resulted in a mad dash towards matrimony by most of her bachelor uncles (the marriage of her uncle
Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, produced the eventual heir—
Queen Victoria). Her father, even after the death of his wife, made no attempt to remarry or father any more children. Given his poor health by the time his estranged wife died in 1821, he may not have been capable of fathering further children anyway.
Prince Leopold, who would later become the first King of the
Belgians, married again with Louise-Marie of Orléans and had a daughter who was named Charlotte in honour of his first wife. Charlotte would later become
empress-consort of Mexico.
