George III and Queen Charlotte of Great Britain had fifteen children between 1762 and 1783, the throne was safe, or so they would have thought, until disaster struck the royal family. In 1817 Princess Charlotte of Wales, the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick's daughter, died in childbirth and the Hanoverian dynasty was thrown into a period of panic and insecurity. They were left without an heir - an unthinkable situation. Queen Charlotte ordered her profligate sons to leave their mistresses and to bear an heir with haste: Frederick, William, Edward, Ernest, Augustus and Adolphus began the race to the throne. Several legitimate heirs were born in 1819 and 1820, but it would not be the first or second born that would be take the British throne, nor the boys. Males heirs proved elusive, George III's son's were not keen to be husbands but the business of maintaining a monarchy was not about lust, it was about duty. Who would truly achieve the royal objective, who would see the title of King or Queen pass them by and why?