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Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Queen Charlotte in state robes by Allan Ramsay, 1761
Queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland Electress/Queen consort of Hanover
Tenure	8 September 1761 – 17 November 1818
Coronation	22 September 1761
Born	(1744-05-19)19 May 1744 Untere Schloss, Mirow, Holy Roman Empire
Died	17 November 1818(1818-11-17) (aged 74) Kew Palace, Kew, England
Burial	2 December 1818 St George's Chapel, Windsor, England
Spouse	George III
Issue	George IV Frederick William IV Charlotte Edward Augusta Sophia Elizabeth Ernest Augustus I Augustus Frederick Adolphus Mary Sophia Octavius Alfred Amelia
Names Sophia Charlotte
House	House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Father	Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, Prince of Mirow
Mother	Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was the wife of King George III. She was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from their marriage until the union of the two kingdoms in 1801, after which she was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1818. She was also the Electress of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire until the promotion of her husband to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814, after which she was also queen consort of Hanover.

Queen Charlotte was a patroness of the arts and an amateur botanist, who helped expand Kew Gardens. George III and Charlotte had 15 children, 13 of whom survived to adulthood. She was distressed by her husband's bouts of physical illness and insanity, which became permanent in later life and resulted in their eldest son being appointed Prince Regent in 1810.

Early life

Sophia Charlotte was born on 19 May 1744. She was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince of Mirow and his wife Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

The children of Duke Charles were all born at the Untere Schloss (Lower Castle) in Mirow. According to diplomatic reports at the time of her engagement to George III, Charlotte had received "a very mediocre education".

Marriage

When King George III succeeded to the throne of Great Britain upon the death of his grandfather, George II, he was unmarried. His mother and advisors were anxious to have him settled in marriage. The seventeen-year-old Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz appealed to him as a prospective consort partly because she had been brought up in an insignificant north German duchy and therefore would have had no experience of power politics or party intrigues. He instructed her on her arrival in London "not to meddle", a precept she was glad to follow.

Charlotte spoke no English but was quick to learn the language, albeit speaking with a strong German accent. It was noted by many observers that she was "ugly", had a dark complexion and flared nostrils. "She is timid at first but talks a lot, when she is among people she knows", said one observer.

The King announced to his Council in July 1761, according to the usual form, his intention to wed the Princess. By the end of August 1761, a party of escorts departed for Germany to conduct Princess Charlotte to England. Arriving at St. James's Palace on 7 September, the Princess met the King and the royal family. The following day at nine o'clock, the wedding ceremony took place in the Chapel Royal and was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Secker.

Life as queen

Less than a year after the marriage, on 12 August 1762, the Queen gave birth to her first child, the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George IV. In the course of their marriage, they had 15 children, all but two of whom (Octavius and Alfred) survived into adulthood.

Around this time the King and Queen moved to Buckingham House, at the western end of St. James's Park, which would later be known as Buckingham Palace. The house which forms the architectural core of the present palace was built for the first Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703 to the design of William Winde. Buckingham House was eventually sold by Buckingham's descendant, Sir Charles Sheffield, in 1761 to George III for £21,000 (£Error when using {{Inflation}}: |end_year=2,024 (parameter 4) is greater than the latest available year (2,023) in index "UK". as of 2024).

The house was originally intended as a private retreat, in particular for Charlotte, and was known as The Queen's House.—14 of their 15 children were born there. St. James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence.

The King enjoyed country pursuits and riding and preferred to keep his family's residence as much as possible in the then rural towns of Kew and Richmond-upon-Thames. He favoured an informal and relaxed domestic life, to the dismay of some courtiers more accustomed to displays of grandeur and strict protocol. Lady Mary Coke was indignant on hearing in July 1769 that the King, Queen, her visiting brother Prince Ernest and Lady Effingham had gone for a walk through Richmond town by themselves without any servants. "I am not satisfied in my mind about the propriety of a Queen walking in town unattended."

From 1778, the Royal family spent much of their time at a newly constructed residence, Queen's Lodge at Windsor, opposite Windsor Castle, in Windsor Great Park where the King enjoyed hunting deer. The Queen was responsible for the interior decoration of their new residence, described by friend of the Royal Family and diarist Mary Delany: "The entrance into the first room was dazzling, all furnished with beautiful Indian paper, chairs covered with different embroideries of the liveliest colours, glasses, tables, sconces, in the best taste, the whole calculated to give the greatest cheerfulness to the place."

Queen Charlotte endeared herself to her ladies and her children's attendants by treating them with friendly warmth, as in this note she wrote to her daughters' assistant governess:

My dear Miss Hamilton, What can I have to say? Not much indeed! But to wish you a good morning, in the pretty blue and white room where I had the pleasure to sit and read with you The Hermit, a poem which is such a favourite with me that I have read it twice this summer. Oh! What a blessing to keep good company! Very likely I should not have been acquainted with either poet or poem was it not for you.

The King's first bout of physical and mental illness in 1788 distressed and terrified the Queen. She was overheard by the writer Fanny Burney, at that time one of the Queen's attendants, moaning to herself with "desponding sound": "What will become of me? What will become of me?" As the King gradually became permanently insane, the Queen's personality altered: she developed a terrible temper, sank into depression, no longer enjoyed appearing in public, not even at the musical concerts she had so loved, and her relationships with her adult children became strained. From 1792, she found some relief from her worry about her husband by planning the gardens and decoration of a new residence for herself, Frogmore House, in Windsor Home Park.

Interests and patronage

King George III and Queen Charlotte were music connoisseurs with German tastes, who gave special honour to German artists and composers. They were passionate admirers of the music of George Frideric Handel.

In April 1764, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then aged eight, arrived in Britain with his family as part of their grand tour of Europe and remained until July 1765. The Mozarts were summoned to court on 19 May and played before a limited circle from six to ten o'clock. Johann Christian Bach, eleventh son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach, was then music-master to the Queen. He put difficult works of Handel, J. S. Bach, and Carl Friedrich Abel before the boy: he played them all at sight, and those present were quite amazed. Afterwards, the young Mozart accompanied the Queen in an aria which she sang, and played a solo work on the flute. On 29 October, the Mozarts were in town again, and were invited to court to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the King's accession. As a memento of the royal favour, Leopold Mozart published six sonatas composed by Wolfgang, known as Mozart's Opus 3, that were dedicated to the Queen on 18 January 1765, a dedication she rewarded with a present of fifty guineas.

Queen Charlotte was an amateur botanist who took a great interest in Kew Gardens. In an age of discovery, when travellers and explorers such as Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks were constantly bringing home new species and varieties of plants, she ensured that the collections were greatly enriched and expanded. Her interest in botany led to the South African flower, the Bird of Paradise, being named Strelitzia reginae in her honour.

Among the royal couple's favored craftsmen and artists were the cabinetmaker William Vile, silversmith Thomas Heming, the landscape designer Capability Brown, and the German painter Johann Zoffany, who frequently painted the king and queen and their children in charmingly informal scenes, such as a portrait of Queen Charlotte and her children as she sat at her dressing table. In 1788 the royal couple visited the Worcester Porcelain Factory (founded in 1751, and later to be known as Royal Worcester), where Queen Charlotte ordered a porcelain service that was later renamed "Royal Lily" in her honour. Another well-known porcelain service designed and named in her honour was the "Queen Charlotte" pattern.

The queen founded orphanages, and in 1809 became the patron (providing new funding) of the General Lying-in Hospital, a hospital for expectant mothers. It was subsequently renamed as the Queen's Hospital, and is today the Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital. The education of women was of great importance to her, and she ensured that her daughters were better educated than was usual for young women of the day; however, she also insisted that her daughters live restricted lives close to their mother, and she refused to allow them to marry until they were well-advanced in years. As a result, none of her daughters had legitimate issue (one, Princess Sophia, may have had an illegitimate son).

In 2004, the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace staged an exhibition illustrating George and Charlotte's enthusiastic arts patronage, which was particularly enlightened in contrast to that of earlier Hanoverian monarchs. It compared favorably to the adventuresome tastes of the King's father, Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Up until 1788, portraits of Charlotte often depict her in maternal poses with her children, and she looks young and contented; however, in that year her husband fell seriously ill and became temporarily insane. It is now thought that the King was suffering from porphyria, but at the time the cause of the King's illness was unknown. Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait of her at this time marks a transition point, after which she looks much older in her portraits; the Assistant Keeper of Charlotte's Wardrobe, Mrs. Papendiek, wrote that the Queen was "much changed, her hair quite grey".

Relations with Marie Antoinette

The French Revolution of 1789 probably added to the strain that Charlotte felt. Queen Charlotte and Queen Marie Antoinette of France kept a close relationship. Charlotte was eleven years older than Marie Antoinette, yet they shared many interests, such as their love of music and the arts, in which they both enthusiastically took an interest. Never meeting face to face, they kept their friendship to pen and paper. Marie Antoinette confided in Charlotte upon the outbreak of the French Revolution. Charlotte had organized apartments to be prepared and ready for the refugee royal family of France to occupy. After the execution of Marie Antoinette and the bloody events that followed, Charlotte was said to be shocked and overwhelmed that such a thing could happen to a kingdom, and at Britain's doorstep.

Husband's illness

After the onset of his madness, George III was placed in the care of his wife. She could not bring herself to visit him very often, due to his erratic behaviour and occasional violent reactions. It is believed she did not visit him again after June 1812. However, Charlotte remained supportive of her husband as his illness, now believed to be porphyria, worsened in old age. While her son, the Prince Regent, wielded the royal power, she was her husband's legal guardian from 1811 until her death in 1818.

Later life

The Queen died in the presence of her eldest son, the Prince Regent, who was holding her hand as she sat in an armchair at the family's country retreat, Dutch House in Surrey (now known as Kew Palace). She was buried at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Her husband died just over a year later. She is the second longest-serving consort in British history (after the present Duke of Edinburgh), having served as such from her marriage (on 8 September 1761) to her death (17 November 1818), a total of 57 years and 70 days.

Her eldest son, the Prince Regent, claimed Charlotte's jewels at her death, but the rest of her property was sold at auction from May to August 1819. Her clothes, furniture, and even her snuff were sold by Christie's. It is highly unlikely that her husband ever knew of her death. He died blind, deaf, lame and insane fourteen months later.

Legacy

The Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, Canada were named after her until 2010 when they were renamed Haida Gwaii, a First Nations term. Queen Charlotte City on Haida Gwaii was developed in 2005, and was named after her as well. Queen Charlotte Sound in British Columbia, Canada (not far from the Haida Gwaii Islands) and Queen Charlotte Sound, South Island, New Zealand were named for her. The cities of Fort Charlotte near Kingstown, capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Charlottesville, Virginia, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and Charlotte, North Carolina, are also named in her honour; the latter is in Mecklenburg County, also named after her, as is the county of the same name in Virginia. The proposed North American colonies of Vandalia (because of her supposed Vandal ancestry; see above) and Charlotina were also named for her. Queen Street, or Lebuh Queen as it is known in Malay, is a major street in Penang, Malaysia named after her.

Her provision of funding to the General Lying-in Hospital prevented its closure; today it is named Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, and is an acknowledged centre of excellence amongst maternity hospitals. A large copy of the Allan Ramsay portrait of Queen Charlotte hangs in the main lobby of the hospital.

A statue of Queen Charlotte stands in Queen Square in Bloomsbury, London, and at the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, was chartered in 1766 as Queen's College, in reference to Queen Charlotte. Despite the outcome of the American Revolution, the college was not renamed until 1825, when it was named in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers, an American revolutionary war officer and college benefactor. However, its oldest extant building, Old Queen's (built 1809–1823), and the city block that forms the historic core of the university, Queen's Campus, in New Brunswick, New Jersey continue to retain the historical reference.

Titles, style and arms

Titles and styles

• 19 May 1744 – 8 September 1761: Her Serene Highness Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg
• 8 September 1761 – 17 November 1818: Her Majesty The Queen

Arms

The Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom are impaled with her father's arms as a Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The arms were: Quarterly of six, 1st, Or, a buffalo's head cabossed Sable, armed and ringed Argent, crowned and langued Gules (Mecklenburg); 2nd, Azure, a griffin segreant Or (Rostock); 3rd, Per fess, in chief Azure, a griffin segreant Or, and in the base Vert, a bordure Argent (Principality of Schwerin); 4th, Gules, a cross patée Argent crowned Or (Ratzeburg); 5th, Gules, a dexter arm Argent issuant from clouds in sinister flank and holding a finger ring Or (County of Schwerin); 6th, Or, a buffalo's head Sable, armed Argent, crowned and langued Gules (Wenden); Overall an inescutcheon, per fess Gules and Or (Stargard).

The Queen's arms changed twice to mirror the changes in her husband's arms, once in 1801 and then again in 1816. A funerary hatchment displaying the Queen's full coat of arms painted in 1818, is on display at Kew Palace.

Issue

Ancestry

Claims of African ancestry

In a 2009 episode of the PBS TV magazine, Frontline, Mario de Valdes y Cocom claimed that Charlotte may have had African ancestry and speculated that Scottish painter Allan Ramsay emphasized the Queen's alleged "mulatto" appearance in his portrait of her to support the anti-slave trade movement.

Valdes incorrectly said that an early-19th century medical practitioner, Baron Stockmar, was Queen Charlotte's personal physician and that he had described the Queen as having a "mulatto face" in his autobiography.In fact, Christian Friedrich Freiherr von Stockmar was personal physician not to Queen Charlotte, but to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1816, at the time of Leopold's marriage to Princess Charlotte of the United Kingdom.

On the PBS website page for this episode, Valdes interprets an excerpt of a poem reproduced there as attesting to Charlotte's African features, but it clearly refers to her as descended from the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe.

According to Valdes, Queen Charlotte's African contribution could have been inherited three to six times over from one ancestor nine generations removed, Margarida de Castro e Sousa, a 15th-century Portuguese noblewoman, who traced her ancestry to King Afonso III of Portugal (1210–1279) and one of his mistresses, Madragana (c. 1230–?). Critics of Valdes' theory point out that Margarita's and Madragana's distant perch in the queen's family tree – nine and 15 generations removed, respectively – makes any African ancestry that they bequeathed to Charlotte negligible. in any event, Charlotte shared descent from Alfonso and Madragana with a large proportion of Europe's royalty and nobility.

Madragana has been described as Berber, an Afro-Asiatic ethnicity. The notion that Madragana was a "Moor" appears to have originated centuries after her death, with an author named Duarte Nunes de Leão, writing in 1600. In the context of the Iberian Reconquista, any Muslim, regardless of ethnic origin, including Europeans who had converted to Islam, were referred to as "Moors". Some researchers believe Madragana to have been a Mozarab: an Iberian Christian living in Spain when it was under Muslim control:

Notes and sources

1. Wurlitzer, Bernd; Sucher, Kerstin (2010). Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Mit Rügen und Hiddensee, Usedom, Rostock und Stralsund. Trescher Verlag. p. 313. ISBN 3897941635.
2. ^ Fraser, Flora (2005). Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45118-8.
3. Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald: The Good Queen Charlotte, 1899; page 32-33
4. Levey, pp.8–9
5. Nash, p. 18, although the purchase price is given by Wright p. 142 as £28,000
6. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
7. In 1775, an Act of Parliament settled the property on Queen Charlotte, in exchange for her rights to Somerset House (see Old and New London below)
8. Westminster: Buckingham Palace, Old and New London: Volume 4 (1878), pp. 61–74. Date accessed: 3 February 2009. The tradition persists of foreign ambassadors being formally accredited to "the Court of St. James's", even though it is at Buckingham Palace that they present their credentials and staff to the Queen upon their appointment.
9. "Berkshire History". Queen's Lodge. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
10. "Berkshire History". Frogmore House. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
11. Otto Jahn, Sir George Grove: Life of Mozart, Volume 1, 1882, page 39
12. Engel, Louis: From Mozart to Mario: Reminiscences of half a century, Volume 1, 1886, page 275
13. Engel, Louis. From Mozart to Mario: Reminiscences of Half a Century, Volume 1, 1886, p. 39.
14. Gehring, Franz Eduard. Mozart, 1911, p. 18.
15. Otto Jahn, Sir George Grove: Life of Mozart, Volume 1, 1882, page 41
16. Murray, John. A Handbook for Travellers in Surrey, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, 1876, pp. 130-131.
17. Missouri Botanical Garden: Missouri Botanical Garden bulletin, Volume 10, 1922, p. 27.
18. Levey, p. 4
19. Appendix III of Flight & Barr Worcester Porcelain by Henry Sandon
20. Levey, pp. 7–8
21. Levey, p. 7
22. Levey, p.16; the building in the distance is Eton College Chapel, as seen from Windsor Castle.
23. Levey, p.15
24. Fraser, Antonia: Marie Antoinette: The Journey, 2001; page 287
25. Baker, Kenneth (2005). George IV: A Life in Caricature. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-25127-0. p.114.
26. Otis K. Rice and Stephen W. Brown. West Virginia: A History. 2nd Ed. University Press of Kentucky, 1994. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8131-1854-3
27. David W. Miller. The Taking of American Indian Lands in the Southeast: A History of Territorial Cessions and Forced Relocations, 1607-1840. McFarland, 2011. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7864-6277-3
28. Thomas J. Schaeper. Edward Bancroft: Scientist, Author, Spy. Yale University Press, 2011. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-300-11842-1
29. "The Expediency of Securing Our American Colonies, &c." (1763). p. 14. Reprinted in The Critical Period, 1763–1765. Volume 10 of the Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library. Clarence Walworth Alvord, ed. Illinois State Historical Library, 1915.p. 139.
30. "No. 10138". The London Gazette. 8 September 1761.
31. Pinches, John Harvey; Pinches, Rosemary (1974). The Royal Heraldry of England. Heraldry Today. Slough, Buckinghamshire: Hollen Street Press. p. 297. ISBN 0-900455-25-XTemplate:Inconsistent citations{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
32. Queen Charlotte's hatchment Historic Royal Palaces website: Surprising stories, Retrieved 15 December 2010
33. ^ "The blurred racial lines of famous families - Queen Charlotte", PBS Frontline Cite error: The named reference "pbs" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
34. See "Christian Friedrich, baron von Stockmar", in Encyclopædia Britannica (2010), retrieved 14 February 2010, and "Christian Friedrich Stockmar, Baron von", in The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition (2008), retrieved 14 February 2010.
35. ^ Stuart Jeffries, "Was this Britain's first black queen?" The Guardian, 12 March 2009
36. , The Berbers (The Peoples of Africa), ISBN 0-631-20767-8]
37. Duarte Nunes de Leão, Crónica d'El Rei Dom Afonso III, 1600; modern edition: Duarte Nunes de Leão, Crónica dos Reis de Portugal, Porto, Lello & Irmão, 1975.
38. Anselmo Braamcamp Freire, Brasões da Sala de Sintra, 3 vols., Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional-Casa de Moeda, 1973; António Caetano de Sousa, História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa, Coimbra, Atlântida-Livraria Editora, 1946; Felgueiras Gayo & Carvalhos de Basto, Nobiliário das Famílias de Portugal, Braga, 1989; José Augusto de Sotto Mayor Pizarro, Linhagens Medievais Portuguesas, 3 vols., Porto, Universidade Moderna, 1999; Manuel Abranches de Soveral, "Origem dos Souza ditos do Prado", in Machado de Vila Pouca de Aguiar. Ascendências e parentescos da Casa do Couto d'Além em Soutelo de Aguiar, Porto, 2000.

References

• Hedley, Olwen (1975). Queen Charlotte J Murray ISBN 0-7195-3104-7
• Levey, Michael (1977). A Royal Subject: Portraits of Queen Charlotte. London: National Gallery.
• Fraser, Flora (2005). Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45118-8
• Drinkuth, Friederike (2011). Queen Charlotte. A Princess from Mecklenburg-Strelitz ascends the Throne of England. Thomas Helms Verlag Schwerin, ISBN 978-3-940207-79-1
• Kassler, Michael (ed.) (2015). The Diary of Queen Charlotte, 1789 and 1794, vol. 4 of Michael Kassler (ed.), Memoirs of the Court of George III. London, Pickering & Chatto, ISBN 978-1-8489-34696

External links and references

• Queen Charlotte, 1744–1818: A Bilingual Exhibit (c1994)
• The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families — Queen Charlotte at the PBS site
• King George III: Mad or Misunderstood?
• The Search for Princess Charlotte
• "Archival material relating to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz". UK National Archives.
• "Was this Britain's first black queen?" by Stuart Jeffries - The Guardian (March 2009)

v t e House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Founded by Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
1st generation	Adolphus Frederick III Gustave Caroline Charles Louis Frederick
2nd generation	Adolphus Frederick IV Charles II Ernst Gottlob Charlotte George Augustus
3rd generation	Charlotte Georgine Therese Louise Frederica George Charles
4th generation	Frederick William Caroline Georg August
5th generation	Adolphus Frederick V Helene George Alexander Charles Michael
6th generation	Marie Jutta Adolphus Frederick VI George
7th generation	Georg Alexander Carl Gregor
8th generation	Borwin

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• 1744 births
• 1818 deaths
• People from Mirow
• Duchesses of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
• Duchesses of Saxe-Lauenburg
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• George III of the United Kingdom
• Burials at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle