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| '''Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz''' (], ] - ], ]) was the queen consort of King ]. | '''Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz''' (], ] - ], ]) was the queen consort of King ]. | ||
| She was born '''Sophia Charlotte''', at ] in her father's duchy of ], ]. Having been selected as the bride of the young king George (who had already flirted with several young women considered unsuitable by his mother, ], and by his political advisors), she arrived in Britain in ] and the couple were married at the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, ], on ] of that year. | She was born '''Sophia Charlotte''', at ] in her father's duchy of ], ]. Having been selected as the bride of the young king George (who had already flirted with several young women considered unsuitable by his mother, ], and by his political advisors), she arrived in Britain in ] and the couple were married at the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, ], on ] of that year. | ||
Revision as of 13:28, 8 September 2003
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (May 19, 1744 - November 17, 1818) was the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.
She was born Sophia Charlotte, at Mirow in her father's duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany. Having been selected as the bride of the young king George (who had already flirted with several young women considered unsuitable by his mother, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and by his political advisors), she arrived in Britain in 1761 and the couple were married at the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, London, on September 8 of that year.
Despite not having been his first choice, and having been treated with a general lack of sympathy by his mother, Charlotte's relationship with her husband soon blossomed, and he is not known ever to have been unfaithful to her. In the course of their marriage, they had sixteen children, most of whom survived into adulthood. Charlotte was supportive to her husband as he descended into mental illness, but pre-deceased him, dying at Kew Palace, their family home in Surrey. She was buried at Windsor.
According to information published on www.pbs.org, the official website of the Public Broadcasting System, Queen Charlotte was part black, six times a descendant of Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a black, Moorish, or mixed-race member of the Portuguese royal family who lived in the 15th century. Citing research conducted by Charlotte biographer Olwen Hedley as well as the history department of Canada's McGill University, black-diaspora historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom writes on the PBS website that Queen Charlotte's personal physician, Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar, described his patient as having "true mulatto features" ("ein wahres Mulattengesicht").