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Princess Charlotte of Wales died on this day in 1817, exactly 200 years ago. The only child from thee ill-suited union of the Prince of Wales (later King George IV) and Princess Caroline, Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, she was the first legitimate grandchild of her paternal grandparents, King George III and Queen Charlotte. Separating just weeks after their wedding, months before Princess Charlotte’s birth, the various battles between her parents marked her childhood. After a scandalous failed engagement with the Prince of Orange, in 1816, she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, in a successful love match. The couple had a stillborn son, after which Princess Charlotte unfortunately died of complications at the age of 21. Her death, as the only legitimate grandchild of King George IV, launched her unmarried uncles into a ‘race’ to get married and have children, eventually leading to the birth of Queen Victoria. Princess Charlotte’s widower became King Leopold I of Belgium in 1831, and is the ancestor of the current King of Belgium.