By George! Dr. Croft Knows His Stuff, He Thinks

After so much difficulty overcoming her father’s objections, Princess Charlotte enjoyed her marriage to Prince Leopold. And now, on to the happy occasion of the birth of her child.

It wasn’t until November 3 that Charlotte went into labor. Doctor Croft continued to issue rosy reports. Twenty four hours passed. Although Charlotte’s pain grew worse as the labor progressed, she was determined that she would “neither bawl nor shriek.” And she didn’t. Other doctors were standing by, ready to assist. Croft wouldn’t hear of it. He and he alone would handle everything.

It has been debated whether such assistance would have made a difference. We’ll never know. Doctor Croft would not let them near and continued to issue reports that did not reflect the gravity of the situation. The labor progressed through it’s second day. “Nothing could be going on better.” Croft announced to Prince Leopold’s principle equerry at three o’clock on the afternoon of the 4th. At eight o’clock the following morning Cabinet Ministers, who wanted to be on hand for the birth were told that the Princess had made “a considerable, though very gradual progress throughout the night.”

Another thirteen hours would pass before the baby would be born, at nine PM. “ A beautiful, fine boy. Very large.” Croft announced. Also Very dead. Charlotte had been in labor for fifty-one hours. Three hours after delivery, a period in which Croft told the ministers that Charlotte was doing “extremely well,” she complained to her nurse of “singing in her head and feeling suddenly cold.” After unsuccessfully trying to eat, she was gripped with a sudden, excruciating pain in her abdomen.

Doctor Croft, accompanied by a Doctor Sim, hurried to her bedside. They found her pulse rapid, weak and irregular. Following what was, apparently, standard procedure, they wrapped her in flannel and surrounded her with hot water bottles. All fine and well. They also forced her to drink brandy, mixed with wine and water until she was drunk.

Doctor Stockmar was finally allowed to see her. “They have made me tipsy.” She told him. She then said she now had pain in her chest as well as her abdomen. “Oh, what pain!” She cried, Weakly trying to pull him closer. She was having difficulty breathing. “Is there any danger?” She asked him. Doctor Stockmar told her to lay back and try to rest. At that point she went into convulsions. Unable to speak or breath, she died.

The Prince Regent, who was recovering from a serious illness at the Hurtford estate in Sudbourne, received a message from Sir Robert Gardiner that Charlotte had been in labor for twenty-seven hours. And “That the exertions from the womb were less vigorous than they ought to be and that some artificial assistance (a c-section) might be necessary.” Why no one had the authority to override Doctor Croft and order one will forever remain a mystery.

Dad left for London immediately. A messenger missed him on the road with the news that the baby had been still-born. Arriving at Carlton House, he was told about the baby, but that Charlotte was “doing extremely well.” completely exhausted, he decided to get some rest before visiting his daughter later that morning. The Duke of York and Lord Bathurst woke him a few hours later to tell him that Charlotte had also died. According to one historian, “he struck his head violently with both hands and fell forward into the arms of the Duke of York. His doctors were called and thought it necessary to bleed him with their customary immoderation.”

Priney made it to Claremont that day, but Prince Leopold was in no condition to see anyone. He returned five days later. Leopold received him although he was still “very distressed.” Dad also viewed the bodies of his daughter and grandson. The Queen said of Leopold that much was “to be expected from the mildness of his character to contribute towards the recovery of his spirits.”

It never happened.

The Queen herself was among the last to be told of events. Seriously ill herself, she had gone, under doctors orders, to Bath to take the waters. It was there that she received the news. “She had broken out into a fit of compulsive sobbing when told of her grand daughters death, for she had grown very fond of her.”

It took dad long months to recover from Charlotte’s death. Leopold never did.

Seeking someone to blame for such a catastrophic loss, public opinion turned on Doctor Croft. His insistence on being Charlotte’s sole doctor was now coming back to haunt him. The Prince Regent was quick to come to his defense. He publicly thanked him for “the zealous care and indefatigable attention manifested by Sir Richard towards his beloved daughter.”

Few others were willing to be so forgiving. Princess Charlotte was enormously popular. Her death caused a great outpouring of heartfelt grief. Doctor Croft was never allowed to forget that he, and he alone, killed Charlotte. And so, according to Gentleman’s Magazine, “On 13, February 1818, while attending a woman who’s difficulties in labor resembled those he had witnessed at Claremont, he took a pistol from the wall and shot himself in her house.”

– Mr. Al