Princess Charlotte of Wales (daughter of George IV and Caroline of Brunswick, not Prince William and Princess Catherine) married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, future King of the Belgians and uncle to Queen Victoria, in London on 2 May 1816. As the heiress presumptive to the throne and the woman who should have been Queen, if not for her untimely death the following year, her wedding was the social event of the decade and she needed a dress fit for a Princess in order to match the occasion. She had one.
In this royal fashion history documentary from History Calling we look at one of the earliest surviving royal wedding dresses in British history which was recently on display in the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. Despite the increasing popularity of white wedding dresses at the time of her nuptials, Charlotte wore silver silk and satin overlaid with lace and embellished with shell motifs. We’ll trace her dress’s journey from its creation by the Princess’s dressmaker, Mrs Triud of Bolton Street, to the day Charlotte wore it, to what happened to it after her death and how it came to be in its present home. By comparing photographs of the dress as seen today to historical descriptions and a picture of it from 1816, we’ll see how well the current gown matches early 19th century fashions, examine how much of the original garment is left and ask whether this unique piece of dress history can really be called the wedding dress of Princess Charlotte.
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