Princess Charlotte of Prussia and the gossips

Princess Viktoria Elisabeth Auguste Charlotte was born on 24 July 1860 at the Neues Palais in Potsdam.  She was the eldest daughter and second child of Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife Victoria, Princess Royal.

Family

Her grandmother, Queen Victoria, wanted her eldest granddaughter to be named after her. However, the Prussians wanted the new princess to be named Charlotte after Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

of Russia, who had been born Princess Charlotte of Prussia. 

As a compromise, her first name was Victoria, but she was always referred as Charlotte. She was also named after her paternal grandmother, Queen Augusta of Prussia.

Princess Charlotte of Prussia was by birth a member of the Royal House of Hohenzollern. 

Childhood

While Vicky was close with her eldest daughter, this changed as the girl grew older; by the time she was two years old, Charlotte had become known as "sweet naughty little Ditta"and would prove to be the most difficult of the family's eight children.

As a young girl, she acted nervously and made frequent displays of agitation, such as pulling at her clothes. An early habit of biting her nails led to preventative measures like the forced wearing of gloves, but any methods only provided temporary relief.

Education

Charlotte was an indifferent student, to the dismay of her mother, who placed a high value on education. Charlotte's governess declared she had never seen "more difficulties" than with the princess, while Vicky once wrote of Charlotte in a letter to her mother that "Stupidity is not a sin, but it renders
education a hard and difficult task."

Youth

Over time, a rift developed between the family's three eldest and three youngest children. The deaths of Charlotte's brothers Sigismund and Waldemar in 1866 and 1879, respectively, devastated the Crown Princess.  Charlotte was a favourite of her paternal grandparents, whom she frequently saw. 

King Wilhelm and Queen Augusta spoiled their granddaughter and encouraged her rebellion against the Crown Prince and Princess, and Charlotte and her brother frequently took their side in disputes with her parents. 

This rebellion was encouraged by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who held political disagreements with the liberal Crown Prince and Princess.

Charlotte also enjoyed a close relationship with her eldest brother, though they grew apart after his marriage in 1881 to Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein ("Dona").

Love & Marriage

As Charlotte grew older, her behaviour came to include flirtation, spreading malicious gossip, and causing trouble, traits her mother had noticed in her daughter's youth and had hoped she would outgrow.

Vicky characterised her as a "wheedling little kitten [who] can be so loving whenever she wants something". 

She believed that Charlotte's "pretty exterior" hid "dangerous character traits," and blamed nature for producing such qualities in her daughter.

In April 1877, the sixteen-year-old Charlotte became engaged to her second cousin Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen, heir to the German Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen.

A scandal

In early 1891, Berlin society erupted in scandal after a series of anonymous letters circulated to prominent members of the court, including Wilhelm and his wife Dona. The letters were written in the same handwriting, and featured salacious gossip, accusations, and intrigues among the court's

powerful. Some included pornographic images layered upon royal photographs. Several hundred letters were sent over a four-year period. 

Wilhelm ordered an investigation, but the writer (or writers) were never identified. Some contemporaries speculated that Charlotte, known for her sharp tongue and love of gossip, may have been responsible.

During the letters scandal, Charlotte lost her diary which contained both family secrets and critical thoughts on various members of her family; the diary was eventually given to Wilhelm, who never forgave her for its contents. 

 

Bernhard was transferred to a regiment in the quiet town of Breslau, effectively exiling him and his wife. As controller of Charlotte's allowance, Wilhelm also limited their ability to travel outside of the country unless they were willing to go without royal honours. 

In 1896, Dona accused Charlotte of engaging in an affair with Karl-August Freiherr Roeder von Diersburg, a court official.  Charlotte fiercely denied the allegations. Bernhard defended his wife and criticised the Hohenzollerns for attempting to keep every Prussian princess under the control of the family. 

Bernhard considered resigning his army position and leaving with his wife for Meiningen, though the dispute eventually resolved itself when von Diersburg returned to court with his wife.  The scandal was considered to have seriously damaged the reputation of the monarchy.

Health

The majority of historians hold that Charlotte and her daughter Feodora were afflicted with porphyria, a genetic disease that is believed  to have affected some members of the British Royal Family, most notably King George III.

Death

In June 1911, Charlotte attended her cousin George V's coronation in England, but the country's summer heat left her bed-ridden with a swollen face and pain in her limbs. 

On 25 June 1914, her husband inherited his father's duchy and became Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. World War I broke out on 28 July; Bernhard left for the front while Charlotte remained behind to oversee the duchy, serving mainly as a figurehead . 

During the war, Charlotte increasingly experienced various pains including chronic aches, swollen legs, and kidney problems.  The degree of the pain became so severe that she took opium as her only comfortable treatment.

The end of the war in 1918 led to the political demise of the German Empire, as well as all of its many duchies; consequently, Bernhard was forced to abdicate his rule over Saxe-Meiningen. 

The following year, Charlotte travelled to Baden-Baden to seek medical treatment for her heart, ultimately dying there of a heart attack on 1 October 1919 at the age of 59. 

Bernhard died nine years later and was buried with her at Schloss Altenstein in Thuringia.

Source pictures: Wikipedia