Charlotte & Leopold

click here for more details, find new or used items	James Chambers Our price £10.49 (£14.99) New from £7.18 Used from £6.99 Pages: 256 (Hardcover) ISBN: 1905847238 Pub: Old Street Pub date: 2007-08-28 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 207589

Reader Reviews:

I couldn't put id down (1/1 people found this helpful)

I loved this book, which is entertaining and gives a great insight into not only Princess Charlotte, but also Prince Leopold, inverterate matchmaker and mentor to Queen Victoria. The book is very easy to read and unlike many biographies is not over-burdened with reference to archived documents and other books, but is still informative and highly enjoyable. I found myself so determined to reach the end, that during a power cut at home I borrowed my son's head torch so that I could continue reading after dark! Highly recommended.

a Regency Drama of first order (18/19 people found this helpful)

Princess Charlotte was the only daugther of Prince Regent and later King Georges IV and his ill-fated wife, Caroline of Brunswick, and most of all she was as the only legitimate child of a whole generation of the Royal Familiy the heiress of the throne. She was the only member of the Royal family who was loved by the public and represented the hope for a better future as her father and her uncles were just hopeless. She was a spirited lady, maybe not as dignified as expected. She refused the match with the heir of the House of Orange. Her hard fought marriage with Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha turned into a love match and ended tragically 1 ½ years later when she died in childbed. This led in the end to the accession of Queen Victoria and the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Queen Victoria's mother was Victoria's sister and her husband was his nephew. Leopold died in 1865 - then the successful First King of the Belgians - with the words "Charlotte".

James Chambers has written a great book, entertaining without being shallow, with a great follow. If you have never read about the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold this book will give you all you need to know. This book does not unearth new aspects or gets too much into details and is maybe at some point not very deep, but as popular history just great.

But Charlotte - as the subtitle claims - was not the Orginal People's Princess. This was " Fat Mary" , Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck and mother of Queen Mary (1833-1897). Furthermore, the notion of People's Princess was used for Diana Princess of Wales as a "title" against the royal family, for a woman who was no longer a member of the Royal Family. This something totally different from being an extremely popular member of the Royal Family and being set against the more senior but unpopular members of the Royal Family. Here, Mr. Chambers is getting too popular and getting it quite wrong, properly with the goal just to sell more books.

Still it is a nice read and I enjoyed it.

No Di-lemma to need to prove here ... (4/7 people found this helpful)

In this highly entertaining, surprisingly heartbreaking book, James Chambers wittily paints a foul portrait of the Prince Regent and his spies and brings to life his astute, determined, tomboyish, radical charmer of a daughter, along with her loyal confidantes and staff. He manages to be kind about the poor (but awful) Queen Caroline, from whose popularity Charlotte benefited until she earned her own affection in people's hearts in her own right. We are painlessly taken through the intrigues of her Whig supporters and the complicated relationships of European royalty where necessary, until we understand how, as the Napoleonic Wars were ending, a virtually penniless German 21-year old lieutenant-general and very competent commander of Russian cavalry came to marry Charlotte and afterwards become King of the Belgians. The shrewd and ambitious Leopold would also contrive the marriage of his niece Victoria to his nephew Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to found a new dynasty in Europe. His devoted advice to Victoria perhaps made her into the great queen that Charlotte, Britain's first "people's princess", might well have become herself, had she not unexpectedly died. Highly recommended, it would make a good film.

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