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Queen Charlotte – Britain’s first biracial queen

Posted in Black history, history, and Women

I had never heard of Queen Charlotte until after the royal wedding on Saturday. A friend who spent the weekend immersed in all things royal mentioned it. She’d read that a woman with African roots had been part of the British monarchy way before Megan Markle.

Way back to the 18th century, it seemed. Queen Charlotte was the wife of King George III – the one who went mad.

Queen Charlotte was said to have come from a black branch of the Portuguese Royal House, according to historian Mario De Valdes y Cocom. When the Portuguese king conquered a Moorish town in North Africa in the 13th century, he took the governor’s daughter as his concubine. One of their sons married into a Portuguese family of nobility, which seemingly also had African roots. At some point, there was a marriage into a German noble family. Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born in 1744 to a German duke and his wife.

Queen Charlotte, by Allan Ramsay, circa 1784. Photo from St. John’s College, University of Oxford, website.
Queen Charlotte, by Allan Ramsay, circa 1784. Photo from St. John’s College, University of Oxford, website.

Queen Charlotte and King George III had 15 children, 13 of whom survived. She was a patron of both Bach and Mozart, and a botanist who was involved with London’s Kew Gardens. In this country, sculptures of her can be found near the airport and downtown in the North Carolina city that bears her name. In the mid-1700s, the city was founded by colonists loyal to Great Britain.

She was the grandmother of Queen Victoria. Queen Charlotte died in 1818.

What I found as intriguing about her was how various artists painted her at the time, many who were said to have played down her African features. Portraits of Queen Charlotte that were done by Allan Ramsay, an abolitionist, captured her Africanness, according to Valdes.

Queen Charlotte, by Allan Ramsey, 1761-1762. Photo from National Portrait Gallery London, website.
Queen Charlotte, by Allan Ramsey, 1761-1762. Photo from National Portrait Gallery, London, website.

“The Negroid characteristics of the Queen’s portraits certainly had political significance since artists of that period were expected to play down, soften or even obliterate undesirable features in a subject’s face,” he wrote.

Given how the world has continuously viewed Africa and its peoples, it’s not hard to believe that 18th- century Britain, which had not yet abolished slavery, would want its queen to be Caucasian.

There is some disagreement, though, over whether Queen Charlotte had African forebears, or even if it matters now. Some of the other portraits of Queen Charlotte show a woman with white features.

Here are some portraits of Queen Charlotte from the 18th century:

Queen Charlotte, by Nathaniel Dance, circa 1773-1774. Photo from State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, website.
Queen Charlotte, by Nathaniel Dance, circa 1773-1774. Photo from State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, website.

 

Queen Charlotte, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1781. Photo from Wikipedia Commons.
Queen Charlotte, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1781. Photo from Wikipedia Commons.

 

Queen Charlotte, by sir Joshua Reynolds, 1779. Photo from Royal Academy of Arts, London website.
Queen Charlotte, by Joshua Reynolds, 1779. Photo from Royal Academy of Arts, London, website.

 

Princess Sophia Charlotte, by Johann Georg Ziesenis, 1761. Photo from Wikipedia Commons.
Princess Sophia Charlotte, by Johann Georg Ziesenis, 1761, the year of her marriage to George III. Photo from Wikipedia Commons.

 

2 Comments

  1. Claire c
    Claire c

    So imteresting! I have been charmed by Meghan and Harry (old princess di fan here from childhood) and didnt know about Charlotte. I came across your site researching some old bottles and learned something new, thank you.

    My 13 yo daughter was recently reading a book for school in which the main character was passing and we had some really interesting talks about it (we are white). She has a Latina friend who looks very white but whose brother looks very Mexican, and her friend had talked to her about her fears for her brother’s safety in our city which has seen a lot of police violence and murders of brown people. This level of complexity around race (passing) was new for her, although she attends a majority black school—I guess the eighth grade curriculum isnt really up for those kinds of discussions! Anyway… We talked about race as a social construct used by powerful people to oppress black and brown people and turn poor and working people against each other. Lately I have been reading a lot of marxist theory and thinking about things in terms of the economy: it is profitable for the 1 percent to foster divisions. And Dr. King’s vision was, I have come to realize, so much more radical than I previously understood, because he knew poverty itself must be defeated, not accommodated, and that poverty was the number one weapon whites use against black people.

    So Ms Markle and Charlotte here present both an opportunity and a challenge. It was not possible for Charlotte to acknowledge or perhaps even really know her African ancestry… but she is a reminder that the diaspora has existed for many hundreds and thousands of years in all parts of life, worldwide. For Meghan, she must feel a big, and double, responsibility as an American and biracial royal. I wish her the best of luck and a happy life and marriage, and Im super glad that these topics are coming up in public discourse, it offers everyone an opportunity to understand the world in more nuanced ways and acknowledge our role and responsibilities to each other as human beings.

    Love your blog, thank you! I will be back-reading posts now to catch up.

    May 22, 2018
    |Reply
    • sherry
      sherry

      Glad you enjoyed the post and truly hope you will stay with my blog. I’m always turning up good things at auction – and beyond.

      Sherry

      May 23, 2018
      |Reply

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