Here's What Happened To King George III And Queen Charlotte's 15 Children

Publish date: 2024-04-05

Born 19 months apart, sadly Prince Octavius and Prince Alfred would die just 8 months apart, from the same cause. The toddlers were adored by their parents. In 1820, as recorded by the Royal Collection Trust, the historian Edward Holt wrote that Octavius had been "very docile, and possessed good-nature in such an uncommon degree, that he was the delight of all about him."

At a time when smallpox was rampant and could mean a death sentence or disfigurement, Queen Charlotte insisted her children be inoculated. But inoculations are not vaccines, and there was a small but real risk the patient could die. Alfred, who had a heart defect, sadly passed away after his inoculation, just a month shy of his second birthday. The next year, Octavius was also inoculated against smallpox. The fact that the king and queen took the risk after already losing a child to the procedure tells you just how dangerous and terrifying the disease was. Sadly, Octavius also became unwell, and died within days, aged 4.

This second death rocked the royal couple. Queen Charlotte wrote of her shock that "in less than eight and forty hours was my son Octavius, in perfect health, sick and struck with death immediately." George III lamented, "There will be no Heaven for me if Octavius is not there." They commissioned a painter to depict Alfred welcoming Octavius to heaven. The king hung it in his dressing room at Windsor Castle, where he would have seen it every day.

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