HRH Charles's 6-Great Aunt. [1], The children of Duke Charles were all born at the Unteres Schloss (Lower Castle) in Mirow. This myth expanded over time into varied claims that she had "African" ancestry, including a caricatural observation made in the 1810s by Christian Friedrich, Baron Stockmar, that Charlotte was "small and crooked, with a true mulatto face. HM Margrethe II's 5-Great Aunt. [43] Certain personal assets which the Queen had brought from Mecklenburg-Strelitz were to revert to the senior branch of that dynasty, while the remainder of her assets, including her books, linen, art objects and china, were to be evenly divided among her surviving daughters. ),[73] was from a "black branch of the Portuguese Royal House",[69] without providing evidence of this unsubstantiated claim about the de Sousa family. 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. On the day before her death, the Queen dictated her will to her husband's secretary, Sir Herbert Taylor, appointing him and Lord Arden as her executors; at her death, her personal estate was valued at less than £140,000 (equivalent to £10,297,415 in 2019),[42] with her jewels accounting for the greater portion of her assets. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, was chartered in 1766 as Queen's College, in reference to Queen Charlotte. He put difficult works of Handel, J. S. Bach, and Carl Friedrich Abel before the boy: he played them all at sight, to the amazement of those present. als Königin Charlotte zur Königin von Großbritannien und Irland und Kurfürstin (später Königin) von Hannover wurde. Strelitzi hertsogkond jäi üheks keisririigi kõige vähem arenenud piirkonnaks. [2] According to diplomatic reports at the time of her engagement to George III in 1761, Charlotte had received "a very mediocre education". He added that most portraits of the queen depict her as your typical light-skinned royal with no inkling of African blood. "[69] This gave rise to subsequent claims that the queen was "mixed-race",[70][71] "biracial",[72] or "black".[66][71][73]. He buhez. Charlotte, like her husband, was a considerable bibliophile and reader. [5] Later, 13 out of the 15 children she birthed would survive into adulthood. Genealogy for Charlotte Wilhelmine Christiane Marie von Hessen-Darmstadt (Brabant Lothringen, Hessen), Prinzessin, Herzogin zu Mecklenburg.Strelitz (1755 - 1785) family tree on Geni, with over 200 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. -- Adolphus Frederick II of MECKLENBURG. [5] In an argument he accused her of having sided with his enemies, while she called him the enemy of the King. They regularly visited him, but the visits tended to be uncomfortable, as he had a tendency to embrace them and refuse to let them go. Not much indeed! [5] As such, she functioned as the hostess by the side of her son at official receptions, such as the festivities given in London to celebrate the defeat of Emperor Napoleon in 1814. After the royal coronation a few weeks later, Princess Sophia officially became Queen Charlotte. The former Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz would celebrate its 320. th birthday on 8. Lady Mary Coke was indignant on hearing in July 1769 that the King, the Queen, her visiting brother Prince Ernest and Lady Effingham had gone for a walk through Richmond town by themselves without any servants. Her mother-in-law and Lord Bute had unsuccessfully opposed this arrangement, but as the King's illness of 1765 was temporary, Charlotte was aware neither of it, nor of the Regency Bill. For centuries, slavery was the law of the land in Britain and its colonies. Johann Christian Bach, eleventh son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach, was then music-master to the Queen. It is believed she did not visit him again after June 1812. At 9:00 pm that same evening (8 September 1761), within six hours of her arrival, Charlotte was united in marriage with King George III. Supporters of this theory also point to the royal portraits of the queen, some of which depict her African features quite strongly. They were passionate admirers of the music of George Frideric Handel. “As a woman, an immigrant, a person who may have had African forebears, botanist, a queen who opposed slavery — she speaks to Americans, especially in a city in the south like Charlotte that is trying to redefine itself.”. Marie Antoinette confided in Charlotte upon the outbreak of the French Revolution. The writer Fanny Burney, at that time one of the Queen's attendants, overheard her moaning to herself with "desponding sound": "What will become of me? [22] 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. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte;1744 – 1818) was the wife of King George III (1738-1820). HM Juan Carlos' 4-Great Aunt. Queen Charlotte was the youngest daughter of Charles Lewis, brother of Frederic, third Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. "[8], Less than a year after the marriage, on 12 August 1762, the Queen gave birth to her first child, George, Prince of Wales. The King announced to his Council in July 1761, according to the usual form, his intention to wed the Princess, after which a party of escorts, led by the Earl Harcourt, departed for Germany to conduct Princess Charlotte to England. Queen Charlotte was particularly fond of her eldest offspring, George IV, who became king after his father’s death. Very likely I should not have been acquainted with either poet or poem was it not for you. While Queen Charlotte may have endeavored to keep her nose out of royal matters as best as she could, there was no denying her intelligence and interest in European affairs. After a nine-day voyage plagued by bad weather, Princess Sophia’s ship finally arrived in London on Sept. 8, 1761, and suddenly the once-obscure princess was on all of England’s minds and lips. She told the crowd that it was upsetting to be treated like that after such long service.[5]. That discovery carries political weight and is, perhaps, an uncomfortable reminder to some of the destructive colonialism that was necessary to build the British empire. “It didn’t mean black necessarily,” Loomba explained. Find more prominent pieces of portrait at Wikiart.org – best visual art database. She was well-educated and of suitable stock, and the relative insignificance of her home territory indicated she was probably uninterested in engaging in British affairs. If true, it would make Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the mother of two British kings and the grandmother of Queen Victoria, the British Royal Family’s first multiracial member. As African people were associated with slavery, painting Britain’s queen as someone from Africa would have been taboo. Among them are Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, as well as the city of Charlotte in North Carolina, which boasts the nickname the “Queen’s City.”, “We think [Queen Charlotte] speaks to us on lots of levels,” said Cheryl Palmer, educational director of Charlotte, North Carolina’s Mint Museum. "[16], From 1778 the Royal family spent much of their time at a newly constructed residence, the Queen's Lodge at Windsor, opposite Windsor Castle, in Windsor Great Park, where the King enjoyed hunting deer. The queen’s music-master was Johann Christian Bach, the eleventh son of the great composer. ", "Meghan Markle Might Not Be the First Mixed-Race British Royal", Stuart Jeffries, "Was this Britain's first black queen? [20] Charlotte particularly interested herself in German issues. Then, learn how King Henry VI’s courtiers helped him and his wife, Queen Margaret, have sex and procreate. [5], When King George III succeeded to the throne of Great Britain upon the death of his grandfather, George II, he was 22 years old and unmarried. [69] Valdes cited as evidence the 1761 Allan Ramsay portrait and claimed that her distant ancestor, Margarita de Castro e Souza, a 15th-century Portuguese noblewoman who traced her ancestry to King Afonso III of Portugal (1210–1279) and one of his mistresses, Madragana (c. King George III was 22 when he chose to marry Sophia Charlotte, who was 17 at the time. This page was last edited on 31 March 2021, at 06:17. [5], 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. While the couple had never before met, Princess Sophia was deemed to be the perfect match for the British heir. Margarita de Castro e Souza herself descended from King Alfonso III of Portugal and his concubine, Madragana, a Moor that Alfonso III took as his lover after conquering the town of Faro in southern Portugal. ‘Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz’ was created in 1762 by Allan Ramsay in Rococo style. [5] Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales finally reconciled, on her initiative, in March 1791. Gotha Mecklenburg Schwerin Mecklenburg Germany Preußen Königin Vereinigtes Königreich Bruder She was married to Georg III. “The date of my promise is now arrived, and I fulfill it — fulfill it with great satisfaction, for the Queen is come,” wrote politician Horace Walpole in a letter describing Charlotte’s arrival in London. However, she and her daughters were taken to Kew separately from the King and lived secluded from him during his illness. [5], King George III and Queen Charlotte were music connoisseurs with German tastes, who gave special honour to German artists and composers. [5], In the Regency Bill of 1789, the Prince of Wales was declared Regent should the King become permanently insane, but it also placed the King himself, his court and minor children under the guardianship of the Queen. After three days of celebrations, Princess Sophia departed Germany escorted by the Earl of Harcourt, the head of the royal delegation that had been sent to bring the new queen to England. Queen Charlotte enjoyed spending time at the gardens of the Kew Palace. Wikimedia CommonsQueen Charlotte was particularly fond of her eldest offspring, George IV, who became king after his father’s death. New York Public LibraryQueen Charlotte was interested in various subjects, particularly the arts, botany, and philanthropy. The queen’s portrait by Allan Ramsay, who was a known abolitionist. Barr, Michael C. and Wilkens, Edward (1973). She is also credited with the discovery of another young artist, an eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom she welcomed into the palace during his family’s visit to England from 1764 to 1765. The topic of race is always a sensitive one, even when it is a discussion grounded in historical reality. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the longest-serving queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland after five decades. 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 ceremony was performed at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Secker. Another well-known porcelain service designed and named in her honour was the "Queen Charlotte" pattern. Most of her 15 children were born in Buckingham House, although St James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence. "[75], Scholars have pointed out that dozens of portraits and descriptions depict her as a typical Northern European woman[76] and that there is no evidence that her distant ancestor Margarita de Castro e Souza was "black" or from a "black" Portuguese noble family. It was comfortable and spacious, meant as a getaway spot for his queen. [33] 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. Queen Charlotte endeared herself to her ladies and to her children's attendants by treating them with friendly warmth, reflected in this note she wrote to her daughters' assistant governess: My dear Miss Hamilton, What can I have to say? The voyage was extremely difficult; the party encountered three storms at sea, and landed at Harwich only on 7 September. HM Beatrix's 4-Great Aunt. 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 50 guineas. Natasha Ishak is a staff writer at All That's Interesting. ", "The Meaning Of Meghan: 'Black' And 'Royal' No Longer An Oxymoron In Britain", Deneen Brown, "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wedding: Will the bride really be our first mixed-race royal? It is a matter of history, and frankly, we've got far more important things to talk about. Her influence was discreet and indirect, as demonstrated in the correspondence with her brother Charles. [32], The queen founded orphanages and, in 1809, became the patron (providing new funding) of the General Lying-in Hospital, a hospital for expectant mothers. Sophie Charlotte, Herzogin zu Mecklenburg [-Strelitz] (* 19. [31] 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. Charlotte was 11 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.