KEW IN FAVOUR 81 



A more moving loss in the preceding year 

 had been that of the Princess Charlotte, upon 

 whose young life so much seemed to hang, 

 while bitter hatred kept her parents apart. She 

 died in childbirth at Claremont, wife of Leopold 

 of Saxe-Coburg, future King of the Belgians, 

 who else might have taken in England the 

 part afterwards filled by Prince Albert. When 

 thus King George's family of fifteen seemed 

 like to die out, unless through the detested 

 Ernest of Cumberland, three of the now elderly 

 princes were hastily married in the same month 

 the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Clarence, 

 and the Duke of Kent. These weddings, that 

 might come close on funerals, were performed 

 privately in the drawing-room at Kew Palace, 

 the two latter on the same day, but at different 

 hours. 



We know which of the branches took root. 

 Next year was born the Princess Victoria, whose 

 father died at Sidmouth about the same time 

 as the King. The cause of his death is said 

 to have been sitting in wet clothes after a 

 long walk; and similar carelessness seems to 

 have been usually the prelude to George III.'s 

 afflictions, but for which the place of Windsor 



