Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz travelled to England at 17 to marry a man she never met (Image: The Jules Bache Collection). These portraits are among those that are available to view now, which could be seen as continuing the political interests of those that disapprove of a multi-racial royal family for Britain. Historians traced Queen Charlotte’s lineage directly from Castro, making her mixed-race; something quite profound for its day. Latest Jobs & BidsClick here to send us your ad and get more information about advertising, or call 800-462-0738. David Buck, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson, was quoted by the Boston Globe as saying “This has been rumored for years and years. Duchess Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte, 1738-1820) was the queen consort of King George III (1738-1820). Queen Charlotte also held the titles of Electress of Hanover and Queen Consort of Hanover. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, originally named Sophie Charlotte was born on May 19, 1744. But as it turns out, Meghan, whose mother is black and father is white, may not be the very first biracial royal. The family ruled over Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a small north-German duchy situated in what was then the Holy Roman Empire. The Coronation painting by Ramsey, of the queen was sent out to the colonies/commonwealth and played a subtle political role in the anti-slavery movement. Kew gardens still flourishes and is always being expanded, also the Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital and many other places still carry her name in honor globally such as Charlotte, NC; Canada and Fort Charlotte, St Vincent, West Indies. 1230–?). Portrait painters of the royal family were expected to play down or soften Queen Charlotte’s African features. The riddle of Queen Charlotte’s African ancestry was solved as a result of an earlier investigation into the black magi featured in 15th century Flemish paintings. at the age of 17 years of age becoming the Queen of England and Ireland. Her brother Adolf Frederick IV, who assumed their late father’s position as Du… Descended from the warlike Vandal race, #21- 017), “UNC Charlotte Science Building Café Upfit” in Charlotte, NC, Elizabeth City State University Hurricane Dorian Repairs Marion D. Thorpe Administration Building Exterior Wall Repairs SCO ID# 20-21855-01D, Elizabeth City State University Hurricane Dorian Repairs Jimmy R. 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Dido Elizabeth Belle and the Lady Elizabeth Murray “Dido” Elizabeth Belle was a bi-racial woman born into slavery in 1761 in the West Indies, the daughter of a slave woman, Maria Belle. She was the daughter of Karl Ludwig Friedrich Großherzog von Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Elisabeth Albertine von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Queen Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a small northern German duchy, was the youngest daughter of a duke and a … Was Queen Charlotte of black heritage? And and Alusian fields their name retain; In 1767, Francis Cotes drew a pastel of Queen Charlotte with her eldest daughter Charlotte, Princess Royal. Ramsey was an anti-slavery intellectual of his day. Sir Allan Ramsay was the artist responsible for the majority of the paintings of the queen and his representations of her were the most decidedly African of all her portraits. Many of the portraits portray her as very fair skinned, which was the fashion of the time. Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz arrived in Britain as a teenager to marry King George III, and theirs would become a marriage of deep affection and domesticity, with celebrated Georgians flocking to their court. Six different lines can be traced from Princess Sophie Charlotte back to Margarita de Castro y Sousa. In 1752, when she was eight years old, Sophie Charlotte’s father died. 2019-006A, Landfill Sewage Pumping Station & Force Main, Central Services Building For Chatham County Schools Renaissance Road Pittsboro, North Carolina 27228, Alamance County Description Bridge #44 on SR 1768 (Hughes Mill Road) Over Jordan Creek Grading, Drainage, Paving and Structure, PSC Skylight & PSC & L Bldg Fall Protection project, located in Raleigh, NC, UNCG Elevator Modernization – Walker Avenue Parking Deck – Greensboro, NC, Benson Elementary Chiller Replacement Project, Chatham County Solid Waste & Recycling Collection Center Improvements in Pittsboro, NC, West Forsyth High School Kitchen Renovations Project in Clemmons, NC, 2018 Water System Improvements, Phase 2 Contract No. Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.. She married into the royal family in 1761 becoming the wife of King George III. Comptroller Office Reno. Johann Zoffany also frequently painted the royal family in informal family scenes. Two art historians had suggested that the black magi must have been portraits of actual contemporary people (since the artist, without seeing them, would not have been aware of the subtleties in colouring and facial bone structure of quadroons or octoroons which these figures invariably represented) Enough evidence was accumulated to propose that the models for the black magi were, in all probability, members of the Portuguese de Sousa family. According to People Magazine, “Charlotte was married to King George III and was queen for nearly 60 years, until she died in 1818. project, City of Winston-Salem – City Hall Roof project, North Carolina Central University Shepard Administration Building Comptroller Office Renovations in Durham, NC, Wake County Holly Ridge Middle School & Reedy Creek Middle School Tilt Up Wall Panel Repair Project in Cary, NC, North Carolina School Of Science And Mathematics, North Carolina School of Science & Mathematics Hill Residence Hall Renovations – Phase I SCO # 20-22466-02A, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, Hamilton Hall – Install Addressable Fire Alarm Panels project, Housing Authority of the City of Goldsboro, East Main Street Sewer Rehabilitation CIP NO. However, People reports, one painter, Sir Allan Ramsay, who was against slavery, did not hide the Queen’s real features. In order to communicate effectively with the royal family members and her subjects, she started taking lessons in English. She most likely was highly powdered to appear more “fashionable”. . Although this era was known as the Age of Enlightenment, most fashionable men and women poisoned themselves with red and white lead make-up and powder. Sophia Charlotte ( Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; May 19 1744 - November 17 1818) was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of … It should be noted too that by the time Sir Ramsay was commissioned to do his first portrait of the queen, he was already, by marriage, uncle to Dido Elizabeth Lindsay, the black grand niece of Lord Mansfield. Queen Charlotte: Was She the First Black English Queen? She still preserves that title in her face. It is a matter of history, and frankly, we’ve got far more important things to talk about.”, As the Post describes the claims: A historian alleges “Queen Charlotte was directly descended from a black branch of the Portuguese royal family: Alfonso III and his concubine, Ouruana, a black Moor.”, Queen Charlotte's African ancestry 1:24 secSix different lines can be traced from English Queen Charlotte back to Margarita de Castro y Sousa, thus explaining the Queen's unmistakable African appearance. In the Flemish masterpieces depicting the Adoration of the Magi, the imagery of the black de Sousas had been utilized as both religious and political propaganda to support Portugal’s expansion into Africa. Indeed, she was also played by Helen Mirren on film. He demanded [the governor’s] daughter as a paramour. As princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Sophie Charlotte was descended directly from an African branch of the Portuguese Royal House, Margarita de Castro y Sousa. According to EnglishMonarchs.co.uk, Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born on May 19, 1744 in Morow, Germany. The wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, who is biracial, is bringing new attention to the heritage of Queen Charlotte. Wikimedia Commons Moors could be white from North Africa.”. Obviously prompted by or meant to appeal to abolitionist sympathies, they depicted the celebrated friendship between herself and her white cousin, Elizabeth Murray, another member of the Mansfield family. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the queen consort of the British king George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until her death. Queen Charlotte was born a German princess far away from the British crown. In 1761, the … © 2017 Copyright Greater Diversity News. Their fourth eldest son was Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, later fathered Queen Victoria. Email updates sent weekly on Voter Engagement, Economic Equity, and weekly Job Postings. With features as conspicuously negroid as they were reputed to be by her contemporaries, it is no wonder that the black community, both in the U.S. and throughout the British Commonwealth, have rallied around pictures of Queen Charlotte for generations. The only private writings that have survived are Queen Charlotte’s 444 letters to her closest confidant her older brother, Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In the Lifetime movie, Harry and Megan: a Royal Romance, Queen Elizabeth II shows Harry and Meghan a portrait of Charlotte and informs them that Meghan would not be the first member of the Royal Family to be of mixed race. She married George III of England on September 8, 1761, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London, at the age of 17 years of age becoming the Queen of England and Ireland. More about Research into the Black Magi: Queen Charlotte is a descendant of a black branch of the Portuguese royal family; more specifically, Alfonso III and his concubine, Madragana, a black moor. Queen Charlotte, the actual first bi-racial member of royalty, also happens to be Prince Harry’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. Bldg. Powered by. In Queen Charlotte’s era slavery was prevalent and the anti-slavery campaign was growing. From 1811 until his accession, he served as Prince Regent during his father’s final mental illness. The Queen is known to have supported and been taught music by Johann Christian Bach. According to Mario de Valdes y Cocom, Charlotte had African ancestry, via descent from 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. Six different lines can be traced from Princess Sophie Charlotte back to Margarita de Castro y Sousa. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who married Britain’s George III in 1761, was also black, claims historian Mario Valdes. However, the queen’s African lineage is not certain. It is perhaps because of this fairly obvious case of propagandistic portraiture that makes one suspect that Queen Charlotte’s coronation picture, copies of which were sent out to the colonies, signified a specific stance on slavery held, at least, by that circle of the English intelligencia to which Allan Ramsay, the painter belonged. Ramsey’s inclination to paint truer versions of the queen could be seen to have come from being ‘an anti-slavery intellectual of his day. The royal couple had fifteen children, thirteen of whom survived to adulthood. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (19 May 1744 - 17 November 1818) Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born on 19 May 1744 at the Untere Schloss in Mirow, she was the child of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The pictures and captions are courtesy of Wikipedia from their article, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Charlotte was a German princess who was the youngest daughter of Duke Carl Ludwig Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Yet the theory that Queen Charlotte may have been black, albeit sketchy, is nonetheless one that is gaining currency. Portrait by Sir Allan Ramsay. George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover following the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten years later. born for rule, – to whose victorious brow Ania Loomba, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Philadelphia Inquirer “that it can’t be assumed that a person is black if they were once described as Moor, or ‘blackamoor. The claims about Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz trace to a historian named Mario de Valdes y Cocom, who argued that Charlotte though German, was directly descended from a black branch of the Portuguese royal family, related to Margarita de Castro e Souza, a 15th-century Portuguese noblewoman nine generations removed, whose ancestry she traces from the 13th-century ruler Alfonso III and his lover Madragana, whom Valdes tak… (Several de Sousas had in fact traveled to the Netherlands when their cousin, the Princess Isabella went there to marry the Grand Duke, Philip the Good of Burgundy in the year 1429.). One of the artists was none other than Zoffany, the court painter to the royal family, for whom the First Black Queen of England had sat on a number of occasions. She came into the world on May 19, 1744, as Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a northern German territory that at the time was part of the Holy Roman Empire. North Carolina Department of Transportation, Modular Office Relocation to NCDOT Buncombe County Maintenance Yard, South Durham WRF Process Improvements Phase 2, Edenton State Historic Site Visitor Center, SCO #16-15801-01A, Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Instruction and Support Services, Medical Office Administration Instructor (9 Months), Seeking Minority Prices for work relating to HVAC, County Forsyth SR 1920 Memorial Industrial School Road Grading, Paving, Drainage, Guilford County Description Bridge #235 Over Big Alamance Creek on SR 1005 (Alamance Church Road) Grading, Drainage, Elizabeth City State University Hurricane Dorian Repairs Viking Village Roof Replacement SCO ID# 20-21855-01A. He had three children with her.”, According to the Smithsonian, “The queen, who lived from 1744 to 1818,​ was the eighth child—also the youngest daughter—of Duke Charles Louis Frederick and Duchess Elizabeth Albertine.”. Sophie Charlotte Herzogin von Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Because of its “scientific” source, the most valuable of Dr. Hedley’s references would, probably, be the one published in the autobiography of the Queen’s personal physician, Baron Stockmar, where he described her as having “…a true mulatto face.”. The Queen who had the first one in her house in 1800 introduced the Christmas tree to England. Lord Mansfield’s black grand niece, for example, Ms. Lindsay, was the subject of at least two formal full sized portraits. Queen Charlotte’s Portrait: Painters such as Sir Thomas Lawrence, who painted Queen Charlotte in the autumn of 1789 had their paintings rejected by the royal couple who were not happy with the representations of the likeness of the Queen. It was said to be decorated with, ‘sweetmeats, almonds and raisins in papers, fruits and toys. An exhibition took place in 2004, at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace displaying Charlotte and George’s collections and tastes in the arts. Charlotte’s heritage has been debated by historians such as Mario de Valdes y Cocom. 276-63, Wake County 2021 Multi-site Solar PV Project (RFP/Bid No. Set up as a charitable institution, it is the oldest maternity care institution in England. Queen Charlotte made many contributions to Britain as it is today, though the evidence is not obvious or well publicized. The show has raised discussions about the history of the Royal Family, particularly Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who is believed to be the UK’s first black monarch. Thus, from just a cursory look at the social awareness and political activism at that level of English society, it would be surprising if the Queen’s negroid physiogomy was of no significance to the Abolitionist Movement. Meghan Markle, incidentally, is the daughter of a white father and African-American mother. Born on 19 May 1744, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, styled as the Prince of Mirow, and Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. There was a wealth of positive symbolism that had been attributed to the black African figure during the Middle Ages. Sophia Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from 1751-1818, may hold that title. The Washington Post reported that Cocom claimed “Alfonso III of Portugal conquered a little town named Faro from the Moors. The Print Collector, Contributor / … This would make a great miniseries! He also married the niece of Lord Mansfield, the English judge whose 1772 decision was the first in a series of rulings that finally ended slavery in the British Empire. Yet hers was also a life increasingly blighted by tragedy. Queen Charlotte was born in a castle in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (in present-day Germany) as the daughter of a Duke and a Princess. She is buried at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. She was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, Prince of Mirow (1708–1752) and of his wife Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Her personal physician, Baron Stockmar described her as having “…a true mulatto face,” according to Africa Resource.com. Also the Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital was established in London. The House of Windsor has never denied Queen Charlotte’s claimed African ancestry. In 1761, when she turned 17, Princess Sophia was betrothed — rather unexpectedly — to the King of England, George III. Behauptung: Queen Charlotte of Britain was a mixed-race woman of African ancestry. Queen Charlotte is mentioned in the award winning cable series “The Crown” and information about her is widely available. Subscribe to Get Updates and the Latest Headlines. Sir Allan Ramsey produced the most African representations of the Queen and was responsible for the majority of the paintings of the Queen. The claims about Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz trace to a historian named Mario de Valdes y Cocom, who argued that Charlotte “though German, was directly descended from a black branch of the Portuguese royal family, related to Margarita de Castro e Souza, a 15th-century Portuguese noblewoman nine generations removed, whose ancestry she traces from the 13th-century ruler Alfonso III and his lover Madragana, whom Valdes takes to have been a Moor and thus a black African,” The Guardian reported. Sophia Charlotte was born on 19 May 1744. Her Christian faith was a protection and a method of endurance, as she quotes from the Bible and recognizes her role as a royal of God beyond her royal role on earth. She was extremely generous to Bach’s wife after Bach’s death. Copyright © 2021 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Queen Charlotte may have actually been Black. Contemporary accounts of her appearance are often cited as evidence that Charlotte was of mixed race heritage. Queen Charlotte was the youngest daughter of Princess Elizabeth Albertine Saxe-Hildburghausen and Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, otherwise known as Prince of Mirow. Six different lines can be traced from English Queen Charlotte back to Margarita de Castro y Sousa, in a gene pool which because of royal inbreeding was already minuscule, thus explaining the queen’s unmistakable African appearance. Queen Charlotte's African ancestry 1:24 sec, Six different lines can be traced from English Queen Charlotte back to Margarita de Castro y Sousa, thus explaining the Queen's unmistakable African appearance. Although the Queen had an interest in what was happening in the world, especially the war in America, she fulfilled her marital agreement. Queen Charlotte was the wife of King George III of England, and she is also regarded by many as England’s first black queen, although her possible mixed race heritage is not proven. Following Golda Rosheuvel’s star turn as the queen consort in Netflix drama Bridgerton, Catherine Curzon shares … In a 2009 episode of the PBS TV series, Frontline, Valdes 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, and noted that Baron Stockmar had described the Queen as having a “mulatto face” in his autobiography and that other contemporary sources made similar observations. Charlotte was mixed race in appearance, according to Frontline. In 1752, when she was eight years old, Sophie Charlotte's father died. Notably, Queen Charlotte was of African descent which adds intrigue and interest to this novel.