Speaker: Dr. Anne Stott
Hybrid Lecture
Anne Stott has a BA and a PhD in History from University College, London. She is a freelance adult education teacher and has previously lectured for the Open University; Birkbeck, University of London; and the Workers’ Educational Association. She has written biographies for OUP of William Wilberforce and the Evangelical philanthropist, Hannah More. Her most recent work is The Lost Queen. The Life and Tragedy of the Prince Regent’s Daughter. She is married with two grown-up daughters and three grandchildren, and lives in Cambridge.
Synopsis: As the only child of the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick, Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796-1817) was the heiress presumptive to the throne. Her parents’ marriage had already broken up by the time she was born. She had a difficult childhood and a turbulent adolescence, but she was popular with the public, who looked to her to restore the good name of the monarchy. When she broke off her engagement to a Dutch prince, her father put her under virtual house-arrest and she endured a period of profound unhappiness. But she held out for the freedom to choose her husband, and when she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg she finally achieved contentment. Her happiness was cruelly cut short when she died in childbirth at the age of twenty-one only eighteen months later. A shocked nation went into mourning for its ‘People’s Princess’, the Queen who never was.
21 Feb 2024
2:15 pm
Wednesday Lecture - online and U3AC, Pink room. Places for in person attendance must be pre-booked. Bookings open from 7 days before the lecture. NOTE: Speaker & title have changed from previously advertised.