The Life and Death of Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and the Public Perception of Her Role in the Royal Succession

Abstract

This thesis examines the life and death of Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and the Public Perception of Her Role in the Royal Succession. The thesis has three aims. The first is to examine and understand the image of a succession crisis caused by the death of Princess Charlotte. The second is an analysis of the media perspective of Charlotte’s role as heir and role in the succession. The third is to examine and analyse who drove the media narrative and whether it was the people or the media itself. The thesis will be divided into two halves; the first half establishes Charlotte’s importance as the heir presumptive by examining her life, while the second analyses Charlotte’s role in the succession and the perceptions of a succession crisis caused by her death. To achieve this, the thesis brings together a range of media sources to demonstrate that Charlotte can indeed rightly as a media princess due to the sheer number of articles and print that gave coverage to Charlotte. This thesis shows that the media drove the narrative and perception of the succession crisis by focusing on the concept of the direct line of succession being broken. Thus, the Crown could be passed to someone outside the intimate family. Additionally, this thesis highlights the hope Charlotte represented before and after her death due to her beauty, youth and clean status compared to her grandfather (George III) and father (George IV). It was believed Charlotte would usher in a new beginning for the monarchy, country, and people through stability. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates the importance Charlotte had as heir presumptive to the Hanoverian monarchy and furthers our understanding of the relationship between the British monarchy and the media by showing that this connection started earlier than previously thought.

Date of Award	20 Mar 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Ellie Woodacre (Supervisor) & Gary Farnell (Supervisor)