He and Frederica had one son, Prince George of Cumberland (born May 27, 1819)-later King George V of Hanover, the last King of Hanover. His mother, Queen Charlotte, opposed their marriage, and never received her daughter-in-law. So, Ernest became King of Hanover in 1837 until his death in 1851.īefore becoming King of Hanover, he served in the British Army, and in 1815, he married his first cousin, Duchess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The Kingdom of Hanover had a personal union with the United Kingdom beginning in 1814, but ended in 1837 due to Salic law (if there were male heirs, a woman could not inherit the title). Upon the deaths of his elder brothers, his niece Princess Victoria inherited the British throne, and Ernest ascended to the Hanover throne. The fifth son of George and Charlotte, Prince Ernest Augustus, born June 5, 1771, was unlikely to inherit the throne. If we confine Queen Charlotte and King George III's family tree just to legitimate heirs, it looks like this: Over the course of their 57 years of marriage, the royals welcomed 15 children, 13 of whom lived to adulthood. Queen Charlotte and King George III married on September 8, 1761, when George was 22 and Charlotte was 17 years old. Eventually, George and Charlotte's fourth son, Prince Edward, would have an heir: Princess Alexandrina Victoria-who would also later be known as Queen Victoria. In 1817, when Princess Charlotte of Wales died, she was the only legitimate granddaughter of King George and Queen Charlotte. While much of Queen Charlotte is fictional, including depicting Charlotte as a Black woman (though some historians do believe the real Charlotte had distant African ancestry, she was, by all accounts, a white German noble), this succession crisis was based in fact. Children, this is a crisis.' She commands, 'One of you had better produce the next ruler of the United Kingdom, or your father's line dies with him. We had one heir, one royal, and she is gone. 'I am stating facts: The princesses have had no babies, the princes have had a record number of babies. 'The only heir to the throne is dead,' she tells her children.

She admonishes all of them for being 'virgins to the left of me, whores to the right,' and not giving her 'legitimate grandbabies.' In episode one, viewers see Queen Charlotte upset with her children for not having legitimate marriages, and thus not providing any legitimate heirs to the throne. After all, Her Majesty has 13 children, and now, not a royal heir from any of them. This author and all of England can only hope that Queen Charlotte finally turns her matchmaking energies onto her own family. A crisis one can only imagine that Queen Charlotte must find galling after ruling over the matchmaking efforts of the ton and the marriage mart with such an iron fist. For the Crown now has a crisis on its hands. In a separate timeline, Queen Charlotte also explores the crisis an older Queen Charlotte has following the death of her granddaughter, Princess Charlotte of Wales.Īs Lady Whistledown narrates, 'While our hearts grieve for the loss of the princess royal, our heads grieve more for the future of the monarchy itself. The brand-new Netflix show, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, chronicles the early years of Queen Charlotte and King George's marriage.

Queen victoria's tree family