 Henry Brougham wrote of the public reaction to Charlotte 's death , " It really was as though every household throughout Great Britain had lost a favourite child . " The whole kingdom went into deep mourning ; linen @-@ drapers ran out of black cloth . Even the poor and homeless tied armbands of black on their clothes . The shops closed for two weeks , as did the Royal Exchange , the Law Courts , and the docks . Even gambling dens shut down on the day of her funeral , as a mark of respect . Wrote The Times , " It certainly does not belong to us to <unk> at the visitations of Providence ... there is nothing impious in grieving for that as a calamity . " Mourning was so complete that the makers of ribbons and other fancy goods ( which could not be worn during the period of mourning ) petitioned the government to shorten the period , fearing they would otherwise go bankrupt . A dissenting note was struck by poet Percy Bysshe Shelley , who in his An Address to the People on the Death of the Princess Charlotte , indicated that the execution of three men the day after the Princess 's death for plotting to overthrow the government was a greater tragedy . 
