Royal Deaths from Scarlet Fever

compiled by Susan Flantzer

Scarlet fever is a streptococcus infection with symptoms that include a sore throat, fever, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, a red and bumpy tongue and the typical red rash that feels like sandpaper. Complications include kidney disease, rheumatic heart disease, and arthritis. More serious complications that may result in death include endocarditis, pneumonia, or meningitis. Today, the disease is treatable with antibiotics, which prevent most complications but before antibiotics, the death rate was high.

Of course, without modern medical diagnostic tools, it was impossible to accurately diagnose illnesses and so this does not purport to be a complete list. Until the development of antibiotics and other drugs, it was impossible to successfully treat many infectious diseases. Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish biologist, physician, microbiologist, and pharmacologist, developed Penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic in 1928. Antibiotics are only effective against diseases caused by bacteria. They are not effective against diseases caused by viruses.

All images are from Wikipedia unless otherwise indicated.

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Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen of Denmark and Norway

  • Born: April 27, 1650, in Kassel, Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, now in the German state of Hesse
  • Parents: Wilhelm VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Hedwig Sophia of Brandenburg
  • Married: King Christian V of Denmark and Norway in 1667
  • Died: March 27, 1714, aged 63, at Charlottenborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Buried: Roskilde Cathedral in Roskilde, Denmark
  • Unofficial Royalty: Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen of Denmark and Norway

Charlotte Amalie died from scarlet fever after being ill for six days.

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Caroline Matilda of Wales, Queen of Denmark and Norway

  • Born: July 22, 1751 at Leicester House in London, England
  • Parents: Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died four months before Caroline Matilda’s birth, and Augusta of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg
  • Married: King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway in 1766, marriage dissolved in 1772
  • Died: May 10, 1775, aged 23, at Celle Castle in Celle, Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, now in Lower Saxony, Germany
  • Buried: Stadtkirche St. Marien in Celle, Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, now in Lower Saxony, Germany, next to his great-grandmother Sophie Dorothea of Celle who suffered a similar fate
  • Unofficial Royalty: Caroline Matilda of Wales, Queen of Denmark and Norway

Due to the mental illness of her husband and first cousin King Christian VII, Caroline Matilda had an affair with her husband’s physician Johann Friedrich Struensee. Eventually, the affair was discovered. Struensee was condemned to death and suffered a brutal execution.

Caroline Matilda and Christian’s marriage was dissolved, she lost her title of Queen, and was forcibly separated from her two children whom she never saw again. Originally, it was decided that Caroline Matilda was to be held in custody for life at Aalborghus Castle in Aalborg, Denmark, but her brother King George III intervened. King George III sent Sir Robert Murray Keith, a British diplomat, to negotiate her release from Danish imprisonment. On May 28, 1772, Caroline Matilda was sent to Celle in her brother’s Kingdom of Hanover and lived the rest of her life at Celle Castle. Her imprisonment was not to last long. Caroline Matilda died of “a putrid fever and sore throat,” probably scarlet fever, on May 10, 1775 at the age of 23.

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Princess Maria of Romania

  • Born: September 8, 1870 in Bucharest, Romania
  • Parents: King Carol I of Romania and Elisabeth of Wied
  • Died: April 9, 1874, aged 3, at Peleș Castle in Sinaia, Romania
  • Buried: First in the palace gardens at Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest, Romania, transferred to Curtea de Argeș Cathedral in Curtea de Argeș, Romania in 1916
  • Wikipedia: Princess Maria of Romania

In the early spring of 1874, a scarlet fever epidemic was spreading through Bucharest, the capital of Romania. On April 5, 1874, Princess Maria, the only child of King Carol II and Queen Elisabeth of Romania, came down with the disease. She was sent to Peleș Castle and despite excellent care from doctors, Maria died four days later. Her parents were devastated by their daughter’s death and Queen Elisabeth never fully recovered from the loss of her only child. When Queen Elisabeth died in 1916, according to her wishes, her daughter’s remains were exhumed and Maria’s casket placed on Elisabeth’s casket for the public procession. Mother and daughter were then buried together in the same tomb at the Cathedral of Curtea de Argeș.

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