Princess Charlotte's Death Left the Entire Royal Family in Crisis

Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate heir of her generation, died at Claremont House in November 1817 at just 21 years old. This documentary tells the life and death of the princess the whole country adored: her birth into a catastrophic royal marriage, a childhood of isolation and control, her defiant escape into the London streets, the love match she fought her father to make, and the fifty-hour labour that killed her. Her doctor managed the birth by the medical fashion of the day — a restricted diet, bloodletting, and fatal hesitation — and three months later took his own life. Her death, quite possibly preventable, triggered a succession crisis that put Queen Victoria on the throne and reshaped a century of British history.