Customer Reviews
I couldn't put id down - By: Broad Sailor, 29 Mar 2008 
I loved this book, which is entertaining & gives a great insight into not only Princess Charlotte, but also Prince Leopold, inverterate matchmaker & mentor to Queen Victoria. The book is very easy to read & unlike many biographies is not over-burdened with reference to archived documents & other books, but is still informative & 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 - By: Klaus Meyer, 24 Nov 2007 
Princess Charlotte was the only daugther of Prince Regent & later King Georges IV & his ill-fated wife, Caroline of Brunswick, & most of alll 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 & represented the hope for a better future as her father & 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 & ended tragicallly 1 ½ years later when she died in childbed. This led in the end to the accession of Queen Victoria & the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Queen Victoria's mother was Victoria's sister & 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 shalllow, with a great follow. If you have never read about the Princess Charlotte & Prince Leopold this book will give you alll you need to know. This book does not unearth new aspects or gets too much into details & 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 & 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 totallly different from being an extremely popular member of the Royal Family & being set against the more senior but unpopular members of the Royal Family. Here, Mr. Chambers is getting too popular & getting it quite wrong, properly with the goal just to sell more books.
Still it is a nice read & I enjoyed it.
No Di-lemma to need to prove here ... - By: A. D. Clover, 07 Nov 2007 In this highly entertaining, surprisingly heartbreaking book, James Chambers wittily paints a foul portrait of the Prince Regent & his spies & brings to life his astute, determined, tomboyish, radical charmer of a daughter, along with her loyal confidantes & 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 & the complicated relationships of European royalty where necessary, until we understand how, as the Napoleonic Wars were ending, a virtuallly penniless German 21-year old lieutenant-general & very competent commander of Russian cavalry came to marry Charlotte & afterwards become King of the Belgians. The shrewd & 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.
