Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

File:Mirow Schloss.jpg]]

Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born on 19 May 1744. She was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, Prince of Mirow (1708–1752), and his wife Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.{{harvp|Fitzgerald|1899 |pp=5–6}}

The children of Duke Charles were all born at the Unteres Schloss (Lower Castle) in Mirow.{{cite book |last1= Wurlitzer |first1= Bernd |last2= Sucher |first2= Kerstin |title= Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Mit Rügen und Hiddensee, Usedom, Rostock und Stralsund |year= 2010 |publisher= Trescher Verlag |isbn= 978-3897941632 |page= 313 }}

According to diplomatic reports at the time of her engagement to George III in 1761, Charlotte had received "a very mediocre education"{{Sfn|Fraser|2005|p=16}} and contemporary Britons including Elizabeth Montagu expressed anxiety about the supposed provinciality of Charlotte's upbringing.{{cite book |last1= Garrett |first1= Natalee |title= Queen Charlotte: Family, Duty, Scandal |year= 2025 |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-1032280400 |page= 20 }} Her parents hired notable individuals to tutor their children, among them Gottlob Burchard Genzmer and Friderike Elisabeth von Grabow.Garrett (2025), p.29 Charlotte received instruction in literature, botany, natural history, and languages including French, Italian, and Latin. She was also taught traditional pursuits for upper-class girls, including embroidery, dancing, singing, household management and religion{{snd}}the latter taught by a priest. Charlotte was also taught to play the harpsichord by composer Johann Georg Linike.Garrett (2025), p.30 The family lived a modest life at Mirow; only after her brother Adolphus Frederick succeeded to the ducal throne, in 1752, did Charlotte gain any experience of princely duties and of court life.{{harvp|Fitzgerald|1899}}{{pages needed |date=December 2020}}

File:Ziesenis - Queen Charlotte when Princess, Royal Collection.jpg, c. 1761]]

When George III succeeded to the throne of Great Britain upon the death of his grandfather, George II, he was 22 years old and unmarried. His mother, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and his advisors were eager to have him settled in marriage.

Charlotte was not originally considered as a potential bride, but the Hanoverian Minister in London, Baron Philip Adolphus von Münchausen, suggested her as a candidate, likely due to the positive relations between Hanover and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.Garrett (2025), p.36 The 17-year-old Charlotte appealed as a prospective consort partly because she had been brought up in an insignificant north German duchy and, therefore, would probably have had no experience or interest in power politics or party intrigues. That proved to be the case; to make sure, George III instructed her shortly after their wedding "not to meddle", a precept she dutifully followed.{{cite web |author=Jean L. Cooper and Angelika S. Powell |title=Queen Charlotte from her Letters |date=2003 |publisher=University of Virginia |url=http://people.virginia.edu/~jlc5f/charlotte/letter_intro.html |access-date=6 June 2018}}

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 bring Princess Charlotte to England. They reached Strelitz on 14 August 1761, and were received the next day by Duke Adolphus Frederick IV, Charlotte's brother, at which time the marriage contract was signed by him on the one hand and Lord Harcourt on the other.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-16 |title=The True Story of Queen Charlotte's Wedding |url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a43907021/queen-charlotte-wedding-true-story/ |access-date=2024-04-06 |website=Cosmopolitan |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2023-05-06 |title=Who Was Queen Charlotte's Brother, Adolphus Frederick IV? |url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a43688329/who-is-adolphus-frederick-queen-charlotte-brother/ |access-date=2024-04-06 |website=Town & Country |first=Emily |last=Burack|language=en-US}} Tragically, Charlotte's mother had died on 29 June, after giving encouragement to the betrothal following a correspondence with George III's mother, Princess Augusta.Garrett (2025), p.45

Three days of public celebrations followed, and on 17 August 1761, Charlotte set out for Britain, accompanied by Adolphus Frederick and the British escort party, among them one of Charlotte's new Ladies of the Bedchamber, Elizabeth Hamilton, 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon. On 22 August, they reached Cuxhaven, where a small fleet awaited to convey them to England. The voyage was extremely difficult; the party encountered three storms at sea and landed at Harwich only on 7 September. They set out at once for London, spent that night in Witham, at the residence of Lord Abercorn, and arrived at 3:30 pm the next day at St. James's Palace in London. They were received by the King and his family at the garden gate, which marked the first meeting of the bride and groom.Garrett (2025), p.64

At 9:00 pm that same evening (8 September 1761), within six hours of her arrival, Charlotte was married to George III. The ceremony was performed at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace, by the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Secker.{{harvp|Fitzgerald|1899 |pp=32–33}} Only the royal family, the party who had travelled from Germany, and a handful of guests were present. George III and Charlotte's coronation was held at Westminster Abbey a fortnight later on 22 September, after a brief honeymoon at Richmond Lodge.Garrett (2025), p.69

Upon her wedding day, Charlotte spoke little English. However, she quickly learned the language, albeit speaking with a strong German accent. One observer commented, "She is timid at first but talks a lot, when she is among people she knows."{{sfn|Fraser|2005|p=17}}

File:Johan Zoffany - Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) with her Two Eldest Sons - Google Art Project.jpg, 1765]]

Less than a year after the marriage, on 12 August 1762, the Queen gave birth to her first child, George, Prince of Wales. In the course of their marriage, the couple became the parents of 15 children,{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia= Encyclopedia Britannica |title= Charlotte, Queen of England |url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charlotte-queen-of-England |access-date= 26 May 2018}} all but two of whom (Octavius and Alfred) survived into adulthood.{{cite journal | url= http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/12437/pages/1 | title= St. James's, May 6 | journal= The London Gazette |date= May 1783 | issue= 12437 | pages= 1}}{{sfn|Weir|2008|p= 300}}{{sfn|Holt|1820|p= 251}}

St James's Palace functioned as the official residence of the royal couple, but the King had recently purchased a nearby property, Buckingham House, located at the western end of St James's Park. More private and compact, the new property stood amid rolling parkland not far from St James's Palace. Around 1762, the King and Queen moved to this residence, which was originally intended as a private retreat. The Queen came to favour this residence, spending so much of her time there that it came to be known as The Queen's House. Indeed, in 1775, an Act of Parliament settled the property on Queen Charlotte in exchange for her rights to Somerset House.

{{cite book

| last1 = Walford

| first1 = Edward

| author-link1 = Edward Walford

| chapter = Westminster: Buckingham Palace

| title = Old and New London

| url = https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol4/pp61-74#p15

| volume = 4

| location = London

| publisher = Cassell, Petter & Galpin

| date = 1878

| pages = 61–74

| access-date = 3 December 2018

| quote = In 1775 the property was legally settled, by Act of Parliament, on Queen Charlotte (in exchange for Somerset House, [...]); and henceforth Buckingham House was known in West-end society as the "Queen's House."

}}

Most of the couple's 15 children were born in Buckingham House, although St James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence.[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45183 Westminster: Buckingham Palace], Old and New London: Volume 4 (1878), pp. 61–74. Date accessed: 3 February 2009{{efn|The tradition persists of foreign ambassadors being formally accredited to "the Court of St James's", even though they present their credentials and staff, upon their appointment, to the Monarch at Buckingham Palace.}}{{efn|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's descendant, Sir Charles Sheffield, sold Buckingham House to George III in 1761.}}

File:Charlotte1767Cotes.jpg. Lady Mary Coke called the likeness "so like that it could not be mistaken for any other person".{{sfn|Levey|1977|pp=8–9}}]]

During her first years in Great Britain, Charlotte's strained relationship with her mother-in-law, Augusta, caused her difficulty in adapting to the life of the British court. Augusta interfered with Charlotte's efforts to establish social contacts by insisting on rigid court etiquette. Furthermore, Augusta appointed many of Charlotte's staff, among whom several were expected to report to Augusta about Charlotte's behaviour. Charlotte turned to her German companions for friends, notably her close confidante Juliane von Schwellenberg. Charlotte's personal correspondence with her brother Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. revealed the depth of her loneliness and of her frustration with the regulations of royal life.Garrett (2025), pp.82-3

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. 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, the Queen, her visiting brother Prince Ernest and Lady Effingham had gone for a walk through Richmond by themselves without any servants: "I am not satisfied in my mind about the propriety of a Queen walking in town unattended."{{sfn|Fraser|2005|p=23}}

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.{{cite web |url= http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/queens_lodge.html | title= Berkshire History|author= | work= Queen's Lodge |access-date= 1 April 2013}} The Queen was responsible for the interior decoration of their new residence, described by a 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."{{sfn|Fraser|2005|p=23}}

Charlotte treated her children's attendants with friendly warmth which is reflected in this note she wrote to her daughters' assistant governess, Mary Hamilton:

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.{{sfn|Fraser|2005|p=72}}

Charlotte did have some influence on political affairs through the King. Her influence was discreet and indirect, as demonstrated in the correspondence with her brother Charles. She used her closeness with George III to keep herself informed and to make recommendations for offices.Campbell Orr, Clarissa: Queenship in Europe 1660–1815: The Role of the Consort. Cambridge University Press (2004) Apparently her recommendations were not direct, as she on one occasion, in 1779, asked her brother Charles to burn her letter, because the King suspected that a person she had recently recommended for a post was the client of a woman who sold offices. Charlotte particularly interested herself in German issues. She took an interest in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779), and it is possible that it was due to her efforts that the King supported British intervention in the continuing conflict between Joseph II and Charles Theodore of Bavaria in 1785.

File:Dance_-_Queen_Charlotte%2C_Uppark_House.jpg by Nathaniel Dance-Holland, c. 1768]]

Some contemporaries, including Charlotte Papendiek, one of Charlotte's attendants, believed that George III first suffered from mental illness in 1765. Garrett (2025), pp.218-19 However, the royal governess, Lady Charlotte Finch recorded that the king was merely ill with a fever; unlike Mrs Papendiek, who was in July 1765, Lady Charlotte was present in the royal household at the time.{{cite book |last1= Hedley |first1= Olwen |title= Queen Charlotte |year= 1975 |publisher= John Murray |page= 95}} Mrs Papendiek claimed in her memoirs that Princess Augusta tried to keep Charlotte unaware of the situation in order to establish herself as regent.{{cite book |last1= Papendiek |first1= Charlotte |title= Court and Private Life in the Time of Queen Charlotte: Being the Journals of Mrs Papendiek, Assistant Keeper of the Wardrobe and Reader to Her Majesty, Edited by Her Granddaughter Mrs Vernon Delves Broughton |year= 1887 |publisher= R. Bentley & Son |volume=1 |page= 32-4 }} The Regency Bill of 1765 stated that if the King should become permanently unable to rule, Charlotte was to act as regent until the Prince of Wales came of age.

George III's bout of physical and mental illness started in October 1788 and lasted until March 1789. Charlotte was deeply distressed by the change in her husband's behaviour. The writer Frances Burney, at that time one of the Queen's attendants, overheard her moaning to herself with "desponding sound": "What will become of me? What will become of me?"{{sfn|Fraser|2005|p=116}} When the King collapsed one night, she refused to be left alone with him and successfully insisted that she be given her own bedroom. When the doctor, Richard Warren, was called, she was not informed and was not given the opportunity to speak with him about it. When told by the Prince of Wales that the King was to be removed to Kew, but that she should move to Queen's House or to Windsor, she successfully insisted that she accompany her spouse to Kew, telling her son "Where the king is, there I shall be."{{cite book |last1= Harcourt |first1= Edward William |title= The Harcourt Papers |year= 1880 |publisher= J. Parker & Co. |volume=4 |page= 601 }} However, she and her daughters were taken to Kew separately from the King and lived secluded from him during his illness. 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. Fitzgerald (1899)

During the 1788 illness of the King, a conflict arose between the Queen and the Prince of Wales, who suspected one another of desiring to assume the regency should the illness of the King become permanent, resulting in him being declared unfit to rule. Charlotte suspected her son of a plan to have the King declared insane with the assistance of Doctor Warren, and to take over the regency. Prince George's followers, notably Sir Gilbert Ellis, in turn suspected the Queen of a plan to have the King declared sane with the assistance of Doctor Francis Willis and Prime Minister William Pitt, so that he could have her appointed regent should he fall ill again, and then have him declared insane again and assume the regency. According to Doctor Warren, Doctor Willis had pressed him to declare the King sane on the orders of the Queen.

File:King George and Earl Howe aboard Qn Charlotte.jpg by Henry Perronet Briggs, 1828. George and Charlotte with Admiral Howe on HMS Queen Charlotte, 1794]]

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 Queen's guardianship. Garrett (2025), p.231 The conflict around the regency led to serious discord between the Prince of Wales and his mother. In an argument he accused her of having sided with his enemies, while she called him the enemy of the King. Their conflict became public when she refused to invite him to the concert held in celebration of the recovery of the King, which created a scandal. During this period, Queen Charlotte was caricatured in satirical prints which depicted her as an unnatural mother and a creature of the Prime Minister.Garrett, Natalee. "Albion's Queen by All Admir'd': Reassessing the Public Reputation of Queen Charlotte, 1761–1818". Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies (2022) 45 (3): pp. 6–9 In January 1789 The Times accused the Opposition of beginning "a most scurrilous attack on the queen, not only by private conversation, but through the medium of the prints in their interest".The Times, 15 January 1789, cited in Garrett 2022, p. 9 Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales finally reconciled, on her initiative, in March 1791.

As a result of the king's illness in 1788–89 and of the public attacks on her character, the Queen's personality altered: she developed a terrible temper and 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.{{sfn|Fraser|2005|loc=pp. 112–379 passim}} 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.

{{cite web

|url= http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/queens_lodge.html

| title= Berkshire History

|author=

| work= Frogmore House |access-date= 1 April 2013

}}

When the king's mental health declined again in 1804, it caused a serious rupture in the royal marriage. Despite the entreaties of her daughters and of the king's physicians, Queen Charlotte slept in a separate bedroom, had her meals separate from the king, and avoided spending time alone with him. Garrett (2025), pp.132-3

Image:Margaret botany.jpg

Image:Queen-charlotte-1744-1818.jpg, 1779]]

Charlotte and her husband 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.{{cite book |first1=Otto |last1=Jahn |first2=Sir George |last2=Grove |title=Life of Mozart |volume=1 |year=1882 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofmozart01jahn/}} [https://archive.org/details/lifeofmozart01jahn/page/38/mode/2up p. 39.]

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.Engel, Louis: From Mozart to Mario: Reminiscences of half a century, Volume 1, 1886, p. 275. 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, to the amazement of those present.Engel, Louis. From Mozart to Mario: Reminiscences of Half a Century, Volume 1, 1886, p. 39. Afterwards, the young Mozart accompanied the Queen in an aria which she sang, and played a solo work on the flute.Gehring, Franz Eduard. Mozart, 1911, p. 18. On 29 October, the Mozarts were in London 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 50 guineas.{{harvnb|Jahn|Grove|1882|loc=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofmozart01jahn/page/40/mode/2up p. 41]}}

Queen Charlotte was an amateur botanist who took a great interest in Kew Gardens. In an age of discovery, when such travellers and explorers 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.Murray, John. A Handbook for Travellers in Surrey, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, 1876, pp. 130–131. Her interest in botany led to the South African flower, the bird of paradise, being named Strelitzia reginae in her honour.{{Cite journal |date=1922 |title=Bird of Paradise Flower (Strelitzia Reginae) |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3951501 |journal=Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin |location=St. Louis, MO |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=27 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}

Queen Charlotte has also been credited with introducing the Christmas tree to Britain and its colonies.{{cite news| last = Simmons| first = John D.| title = How Queen Charlotte Mecklenburg brought Christmas tree here| newspaper = The Charlotte Observer| location = Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.| publisher = McClatchy Company| date = 10 December 2021| url = https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article256013462.html | access-date = 21 December 2021}} Initially, Charlotte decorated a single yew branch, a common Christmas tradition in her native Mecklenburg-Strelitz, to celebrate Christmas with members of the royal family and the royal household.{{cite news| last = Barnes| first = Alison| title = The First Christmas Tree| newspaper = History Today| date = 12 December 2006| url = https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/first-christmas-tree| access-date = 21 December 2021}} She decorated the branch with the assistance of her ladies-in-waiting and then had the court gather to sing carols and distribute gifts. In December 1800, Queen Charlotte set up the first known English Christmas tree at Queen's Lodge, Windsor.{{cite news| last = Sommerlad| first = Joe| title = Why Queen Charlotte Really Deserves The Credit For Bringing The Christmas Tree To Britain| newspaper = The Independent| location = London, U.K.| publisher = Independent Digital News & Media Ltd| date = 21 December 2018| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/christmas-tree-queen-charlotte-history-prince-albert-charles-dickens-a8694626.html| access-date = 21 December 2021}} That year, she held a large Christmas party for the children of all the families in Windsor and placed a whole tree in the drawing-room, decorated with tinsel, glass, baubles and fruits. John Watkins, who attended the Christmas party, described the tree in his biography of the Queen: "from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds and raisins in papers, fruits and toys, most tastefully arranged; the whole illuminated by small wax candles. After the company had walked round and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets it bore, together with a toy, and then all returned home quite delighted." The practice of decorating a tree became popular among the British nobility and gentry, and later spread to the colonies.

Among the royal couple's favoured 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.{{harvnb|Levey|1977|p=4}} 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.Appendix III of Flight & Barr Worcester Porcelain by Henry Sandon.

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.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofqueench00ryan#page/n5/mode/2up |title=The History of Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital from its foundation in 1752 to the present time, with an account of its objects and present state|year= 1885|publisher= Hutchings & Crowsley|first= Thomas |last=Ryan}}

Up until 1788, portraits of Charlotte often depict her in maternal poses with her children, and she looks young and contented;{{harvnb|Levey|1977|pp= 7–8}} however, that year, her husband fell seriously ill and became temporarily insane. It is now thought that the King had porphyria,{{cite journal |last1=Cox, Timothy M. |last2=Jack |first2=N. |last3=Lofthouse |first3=S. |last4=Watling |first4=J. |last5=Haines |first5=J. |last6=Warren |first6=M. J. |title=King George III and porphyria: an elemental hypothesis and investigation |journal=The Lancet |volume=366 |issue=9482 |pages=332–335 |date=2005 |pmid=16039338 |s2cid=13109527 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(05)66991-7}} though bipolar disorder has also been named as another possible underlying cause for his condition.{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=Timothy J. |last2=Wilkinson |first2=D. |title=King George III and porphyria: a clinical re-examination of the historical evidence |journal=History of Psychiatry |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=3–19 |date=2010 |pmid=21877427 |s2cid=22391207 |doi=10.1177/0957154X09102616}}{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=T. |title=King George III, bipolar disorder, porphyria and lessons for historians |journal=Clinical Medicine |date=June 2011 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=261–264 |doi=10.7861/clinmedicine.11-3-261 |pmid=21902081|pmc=4953321 }}{{cite journal |last1=Rentoumi |first1=V. |last2=Peters |first2=T. |last3=Conlin |first3=J. |last4=Gerrard |first4=P. |title=The acute mania of King George III: A computational linguistic analysis |journal=PLOS One |volume=3 |issue=12 |pages=e0171626 |date=2017 |bibcode=2017PLoSO..1271626R |pmc=5362044 |pmid=28328964 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0171626 |doi-access=free}} Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait of Charlotte at this time marks a transition point, after which she looks much older in her portraits; the assistant keeper of Charlotte's wardrobe, Charlotte Papendiek, wrote that the Queen was "much changed, her hair quite grey".{{harvnb|Levey|1977|p=7}}

File:Queen Charlotte by Sir Thomas Lawrence 1789.jpg in September 1789. His portrait of her was exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year. Reviewers thought it "a strong likeness".{{harvnb|Levey|1977|p=16}}{{efn|The building in the distance is Eton College Chapel, as seen from Windsor Castle.}}]]

The French Revolution of 1789 probably added to the strain that Charlotte felt.{{harvnb|Levey|1977|p=15}} She had maintained a close relationship with Queen Marie Antoinette of France. Charlotte was 11 years older than Marie Antoinette, yet they shared many interests, such as their love of music and the arts, about which they were both enthusiastic. Never meeting face to face, they confined 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.Fraser, Antonia: Marie Antoinette: The Journey, 2001; p. 287.

She was greatly distraught when she heard the news that the King and Queen of France had been executed.

File:Stroehling - Queen Charlotte, 1807, Royal Collection.jpg, 1807, Royal Collection]]

After the onset of his permanent madness in 1811, George III was placed under the guardianship of his wife in accordance with the Regency Bill of 1789.

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 spouse as his illness worsened in old age. While her son, the Prince Regent, wielded the royal power, she was her spouse's legal guardian from 1811 until her death in 1818. Due to the extent of the King's illness, he was incapable of knowing or understanding that she had died.{{harvnb|Ayling|1972|pp=453–455}}; {{harvnb|Brooke|1972|pp=384–385}}; {{harvnb|Hibbert|1999|p=405}}

During the Regency of her son, Queen Charlotte continued to fill her role as first lady in royal representation because of the estrangement of the Prince Regent and his spouse. 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. She also supervised the upbringing of her granddaughter, Princess Charlotte of Wales.

During her last years, she was met with a growing lack of popularity and was sometimes subjected to demonstrations. After having attended a reception in London on 29 April 1817, she was jeered by a crowd. She told the crowd that it was upsetting to be treated like that after such long service.

File:Inside Kew Palace (g) - geograph.org.uk - 4534916.jpg. The right is black and the left white because she was survived by her husband, King George III.]]

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).{{harvnb|Fitzgerald|1899|pp=258–260}} She was buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.{{cite web|url=https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/about-st-georges/royal-connection/royal-burials/royal-burials-chapel-since-1805/|title=Royal Burials in the Chapel since 1805|work=College of St George - Windsor Castle|accessdate=5 March 2023}} Her husband died just over a year later. She is the longest-serving female consort and second-longest-serving consort in British history (after Prince Philip, 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.{{cite web |title=Prince Philip, the longest-serving British monarch consort, dies aged 99 |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2021/4/prince-philip-the-longest-serving-british-monarch-consort-dies-aged-99-655309 |website=Guinness World Records |date=9 April 2021 |access-date=12 May 2023}}

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 ({{Inflation|UK-GDP|140000|1818|r=-5|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}{{Inflation-fn|UK-GDP|df=y}}), with her jewels accounting for the greater portion of her assets.{{cite news |title=The Late Queen's Will |work=The Times |date=9 January 1819 }} In her will, proven at Doctor's Commons on 8 January 1819, the Queen bequeathed her husband the jewels she had received from him, unless he remained in his state of insanity, in which case the jewels were to become an heirloom of the House of Hanover. Other jewels, including some gifted to Charlotte by the Nawab of Arcot, were to be evenly distributed among her surviving daughters. The furnishings and fixtures at the royal residence at Frogmore, along with "live and dead stock...on the estates", were bequeathed to her daughter Augusta Sophia along with the Frogmore property, unless its maintenance would prove too expensive for her daughter, in which case it was to revert to the Crown. Her daughter Sophia inherited the Royal Lodge. Certain personal assets that 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.

At the Queen's death, the Prince Regent claimed Charlotte's jewels, and on his death, they were in turn claimed by his heir, William IV. On William's death, Charlotte's bequest then sparked a protracted dispute between her granddaughter Queen Victoria, who claimed the jewels as the property of the British Crown, and Charlotte's now eldest-surviving son Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, who claimed the jewels by right of being the most senior male member of the House of Hanover. The dispute would not be resolved in Ernest's lifetime. Eventually in 1858, over twenty years after the death of William IV and nearly forty years after Charlotte's death, the matter was decided in favour of Ernest's son George, upon which Victoria had the jewels given into the custody of the Hanoverian ambassador.Van der Kiste, John (2004), George III's Children (revised ed.), Stroud, United Kingdom: Sutton Publishing Ltd, {{ISBN|978-0-7509-3438-1}}

The rest of Charlotte's property was sold at auction from May to August 1819. Her clothes, furniture, and even her snuff were sold by Christie's.Baker, Kenneth (2005), George IV: A Life in Caricature. London: Thames & Hudson, p. 114. {{ISBN|978-0-500-25127-0}}. It is highly unlikely that her husband ever knew of her death; he died blind, deaf, lame and insane 14 months later.Brooke, p. 386

File:Statue probably of Queen Charlotte, Bloomsbury, London.jpg, London]]

Places named after Charlotte include the Queen Charlotte Islands (now known as Haida Gwaii) in British Columbia, Canada, and Queen Charlotte City (now known as Daajing Giids) on Haida Gwaii; Queen Charlotte Sound (not far from the Haida Gwaii Islands); Queen Charlotte Channel (near Vancouver, Canada); Queen Charlotte Bay in West Falkland; Queen Charlotte Sound, South Island, New Zealand; several fortifications, including Fort Charlotte, Saint Vincent; Charlottesville, Virginia; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Charlotte, North Carolina;{{cite web|last1=Bernstein|first1=Viv|title=Welcome to Charlotte, a City of Quirks|url=https://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/welcome-to-charlotte-a-city-of-quirks/|website=The Caucus|date=3 September 2012 |access-date=4 June 2018}} Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; Mecklenburg County, Virginia; Charlotte County, Virginia; Charlotte County, Florida; Port Charlotte, Florida; Charlotte Harbor, Florida; and Charlotte, Vermont. The proposed North American colonies of Vandalia{{cite book|first=Otis K. |last=Rice|author2=Stephen W. Brown|title=West Virginia: A History|edition=2nd |publisher=University Press of Kentucky|date= 1994|page=30|isbn=978-0-8131-1854-3}}{{cite book|first=David W. |last=Miller|title=The Taking of American Indian Lands in the Southeast: A History of Territorial Cessions and Forced Relocations, 1607–1840|publisher=McFarland|date=2011|page=41|isbn=978-0-7864-6277-3}}{{cite book|first=Thomas J. |last=Schaeper|title=Edward Bancroft: Scientist, Author, Spy|publisher=Yale University Press|date=2011|page=34|isbn=978-0-300-11842-1}} and Charlotina were also named for her."The Expediency of Securing Our American Colonies, &c." (1763), p. 14. Reprinted in [https://books.google.com/books?id=RWYOAAAAIAAJ 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. In Tonga, the royal family adopted the name Sālote (the Tongan version of Charlotte) in her honour, and notable individuals included Sālote Lupepauʻu and Sālote Tupou III.{{cite book|last=Wood-Ellem|first=Elizabeth|author-link=Elizabeth Wood-Ellem|title=Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5LL854qzTAC|year=1999|publisher=Auckland University Press|location=Auckland, N.Z|isbn=978-0-8248-2529-4|oclc=262293605}}

Charlotte's provision of funding to the General Lying-in Hospital in London 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. The Queen Charlotte's Ball, an annual debutante ball that originally funded the hospital, is named after her.{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-queen-charlottes-ball-2017-for-affluent-debutantes-2017-9|title=Inside Queen Charlotte's Ball, the glamorous, Champagne-filled event for affluent debutantes from around the world|first=Alison |last=Millington|website=Business Insider|date=11 September 2017|access-date=14 September 2019}}

A lead statue probably of Queen Charlotte, dating to {{circa|1775}}, stands on Queen Square in Bloomsbury, London,{{NHLE|num=1245488|desc=Statue of a Queen at north end of Queen Square Gardens|fewer-links=yes|access-date=22 May 2023}}[https://bloomsburysquares.wordpress.com/sculptures/ Sculptures], Bloomsbury Squares & Gardens. Wordpress. Retrieved 4 June 2018. and there are two statues of her in Charlotte, North Carolina: at Charlotte Douglas International Airport{{Cite web|url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/540/|title=Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg, Charlotte|website=Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina|date=19 March 2010 |access-date=21 September 2020}} and at the International Trade Center.{{Cite web|url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/342|title=Queen Charlotte Walks in Her Garden, Charlotte|website=Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina|date=19 March 2010 |access-date=21 September 2020}}

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, was chartered in 1766 as Queen's College, in reference to Queen Charlotte.[http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/university_archives/ru_historical_sketch.shtml A Historical Sketch of Rutgers University] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822014043/http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/university_archives/ru_historical_sketch.shtml |date=22 August 2006 }} by Thomas J. Frusciano, University Archivist. Retrieved 4 June 2018. It was renamed in 1825 in honour of Henry Rutgers, a Revolutionary War officer and college benefactor. 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, retain their original names.Barr, Michael C. and Wilkens, Edward. {{NRHP url|id=73001113|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form for Queens Campus at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey}} (1973). Retrieved 5 September 2013.

Queen Charlotte was played by Frances White in the 1979 television series Prince Regent, by Helen Mirren in the 1994 film The Madness of King George,{{cite news|last=Maslin|first=Janet|author-link=Janet Maslin|title=Going Mad Without Being a Sore Loser|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/28/movies/film-review-going-mad-without-being-a-sore-loser.html|date=1994|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=4 June 2018}} by Golda Rosheuvel in the 2020 Netflix original series Bridgerton,{{cite web|last=Andrea Park|date=30 December 2020|title=What 'Bridgerton' Got Right About Queen Charlotte|url=https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a35092348/queen-charlotte-bridgerton-true-story/|access-date=1 January 2021|website=Marie Claire}} and by India Amarteifio in her younger years and Rosheuvel, in her older years, in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bridgerton-spinoff-netflix-young-queen-charlotte-1235122634/|title='Bridgerton' Spinoff Finds Its Young Queen Charlotte|first=Rick|last=Porter|website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=30 March 2022|access-date=2 January 2024|archive-date=11 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411213453/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bridgerton-spinoff-netflix-young-queen-charlotte-1235122634/|url-status=live}}{{Cite magazine |last=Berman |first=Judy |date=8 May 2023 |title='Queen Charlotte' Fixes What Was Broken About 'Bridgerton' |url=https://time.com/6278029/queen-charlotte-vs-bridgerton/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |magazine=Time |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Richardson |first=Kalia |date=11 May 2023 |title=Here's What to Know About 'Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/arts/television/queen-charlotte-bridgerton-history-shonda-rhimes.html |access-date=28 May 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}

Strelitzia, a genus of flowering plants native to South Africa that has become ubiquitous in warm-weather regions worldwide, is named for Charlotte's native Mecklenburg-Strelitz.{{Cite web|date=2017 |title=Strelitzia reginae Banks|url=http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:798194-1|website=Plants of the World Online| language=en |access-date=4 March 2023}}

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).{{Cite book|last=Pinches|first=John Harvey|author2=Pinches, Rosemary|title=The Royal Heraldry of England |series=Heraldry Today |year=1974|publisher=Hollen Street Press |location=Slough, Buckinghamshire |isbn=0-900455-25-X|page=297}}

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.[http://www.middlesex-heraldry.org.uk/publications/seaxe/Seaxe56-200909.pdf "Queen Charlotte's Hatchment returns to Kew"], The Seaxe, No. 56, September 2009.[http://www.hrp.org.uk/discoverthepalaces/Historyandstories/Surprisingstories/QueenCharlotteshatchment.aspx Queen Charlotte's hatchment] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101094028/http://www.hrp.org.uk/discoverthepalaces/Historyandstories/Surprisingstories/QueenCharlotteshatchment.aspx |date=1 January 2011 }}, Historic Royal Palaces website: Surprising stories. Retrieved 15 December 2010.

Image:Coat of Arms of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1761–1801).svg|Arms of Queen Charlotte, from 1761 to 1801

Image:Coat of Arms of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1801–1816).svg|Arms of Queen Charlotte, from 1801 to 1816

Image:Coat of Arms of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1816–1818).svg|Arms of Queen Charlotte, from 1816 to 1818

{{Clear}}

{{See also|Descendants of George III}}

File:George III, Queen Charlotte and their Six Eldest Children.png, 1770]]

File:Margarita de Castro e Souza genealogy and descent.JPG. This portion of Charlotte's ancestry has often been used to justify claims that she was of African descent.{{cite news |last1=Chabaku |first1=Motlalepula |title=Queen's Features Altered |newspaper=The Charlotte Observer |date=3 February 1989}}]]

Claims that Queen Charlotte may have had partial African ancestry first emerged in Racial Mixture as the Basic Principle of Life published in 1929 by German historian, Brunold Springer, who challenged her Thomas Gainsborough portrait as inaccurate.{{cite thesis |type=Master of Arts |last=Gregory |first=Bethany |date=2016 |title=Commemorating Queen Charlotte: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Memory, 1750 to 2014 |publisher=The University of North Carolina at Charlotte |page= 27|url=https://island1.uncc.edu/islandora/object/etd%3A362}} Based on her alternative portrait by Allan Ramsay and contemporary descriptions of her appearance, Springer concluded that Charlotte's "broad nostrils and heavy lips" must point to African heritage. Jamaican-American amateur historian J. A. Rogers agreed with Springer in his 1940 book Sex and Race: Volume I,{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/sexAndRacevol.1/|title=Sex and Race: Negro-Caucasian Mixing in All Ages and All Lands, Volume I: The Old World|first=J. A.|last=Rogers Freire|date=1967|access-date=20 February 2020|via=Internet Archive|page=206}}{{Cite web|date=23 March 2021|title=Explained: What we know of Queen Charlotte, claimed to be 'Britain's Black queen'|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/meghan-markle-racism-what-we-know-of-queen-charlotte-britains-black-queen-7222924/|access-date=28 August 2021|website=The Indian Express|language=en}} where he concluded that Queen Charlotte must be "biracial" or "black".

File:Allan Ramsay (1713-84) - Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) - RCIN 405308 - Royal Collection.jpg, 1761]]

Proponents of the African ancestry claim also hold to a literal interpretation of Baron Stockmar's diary, in which he described Charlotte as "small and crooked, with a real Mulatto face". Stockmar, who served as personal physician to the Queen's grandson-in-law Leopold I of Belgium, arrived at court just two years before Charlotte's death in 1816. His descriptions of Charlotte's children in this same diary are equally unflattering.{{cite book |last=von Stockmar |first=Christian Friedrich |author-link=Christian Friedrich von Stockmar |title=Memoirs of Baron Stockmar |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Company |year=1872 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1M0AQAAIAAJ&q=mulatto|page=50}}

In 1997, Mario de Valdes y Cocom, a genealogist and self-described "independent researcher",{{cite news | access-date = 24 May 2023 | url = https://www.huffpost.com/author/mario-valdes | title = Contributor Mario Valdes | publisher = Huffington Post | quote=Independent researcher specializing in still relatively unexplored areas of black history and the black image […] My PBS Frontline web site on […] I hope to elaborate more extensively […] I could go on […] I cannot help feeling}}{{cite news |last1=Ungoed-Thomas |first1=Jon |last2=Goncalves |first2=Eduardo |title=Revealed: The Queen's Black Ancestors |newspaper=The Sunday Times |date=6 June 1999 |quote=Mario Valdes, a professional genealogist from Boston, Massachusetts}} popularized and expanded on earlier arguments in an article for PBS Frontline,{{cite web |last1=de Valdes y Cocom |first1=Mario |title=The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families: Queen Charlotte |url= https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/royalfamily.html |website=Frontline |date=1997|access-date=23 February 2020}} which has since been cited as the main source by a number of articles on the topic.{{cite news |last=Brown |first=DeNeen |title=Britain's black queen: Will Meghan Markle really be the first mixed-race royal? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/11/27/britains-black-queen-will-meghan-markle-really-be-the-first-mixed-race-royal/|newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=20 February 2020 |date=28 November 2017}}{{cite news |last1=Park |first1=Andrea |title=What 'Bridgerton' Got Right About Queen Charlotte |url=https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a35092348/queen-charlotte-bridgerton-true-story/ |access-date=7 March 2021 |work=Marie Claire |date=30 December 2020}}{{cite news |last=Brown |first=DeNeen |title=Was Queen Charlotte Black? Here's what we know |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/was-queen-charlotte-black-heres-what-we-know/ |access-date=7 March 2021 |newspaper=The Seattle Times |date=25 February 2021}}{{cite news |last1=Owen |first1=Nathalie |title=The real story behind Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton |url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a35475998/queen-charlotte-bridgerton-real-royal/ |access-date=7 March 2021 |publisher=Cosmopolitan |date=12 February 2021}} Valdes also seized on Charlotte's 1761 Allan Ramsay portrait as evidence of African ancestry, citing the Queen's "unmistakable African appearance" and "negroid physiogomy" {{sic}}. Valdes claimed that Charlotte had inherited these features from one of her distant ancestors, Madragana (born {{circa|1230}}), a mistress of King Afonso III of Portugal ({{circa|1210}} – 1279).Mario de Valdes y Cocom [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/royalfamily.html "The blurred racial lines of famous families – Queen Charlotte"], PBS Frontline. His conclusion is based on various historical sources that describe Madragana as either Moorish[http://purl.pt/15305/3/ LEAO, Duarte Nunes de, Primeira parte das Chronicas dos reis de Portvgal (sheet 97)] or Mozarab,Sousa, António Caetano de, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_GbBBAAAAcAAJ História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa], Tomo XII, Parte II, 1735 (pp. 702 & 703). which Valdes erroneously interpreted to mean that she was black.

Although popular among the general public, the claims are rejected by most scholars.{{Cite news |last=Linge |first=Mary |date=13 November 2021 |title=Real-life queen of 'Bridgerton' wasn't biracial – but she was a badass |work=New York Post |url=https://nypost.com/2021/11/13/real-queen-bridgerton-wasnt-biracial-but-she-was-a-badass/ |access-date=15 March 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Hilton |first1=Lisa |title=The "mulatto" Queen Lisa Hilton Debunks a Growing Myth About a Monarch's Consort |url=https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/february-2020/the-mulatto-queen/ |website=TheCritic.co.uk |date=28 January 2020 |publisher=TheCritic |access-date=7 March 2021}}{{cite web |author=Jill Sudbury |title=Royalty, Race and the Curious Case of Queen Charlotte |url=http://acaciatreebooks.com/blog/royalty-race-and-the-curious-case-of-queen-charlotte/ |access-date=22 September 2020 |website=Acacia Tree Books|date=20 September 2018 }}[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/12/race-monarchy Stuart Jeffries, "Was this Britain's first black queen?"] The Guardian, 12 March 2009. Aside from Stockmar's jab at her appearance shortly before her death, Charlotte was never referred to as having any specifically African physical features, let alone ancestry, during her lifetime. Furthermore, her portraiture was not atypical for her time, and painted portraits in general should not be considered reliable evidence of a sitter's true appearance. The use of the term "Moor" as a racial identifier for Charlotte's ancestor Madragana is also inconclusive as during the Middle Ages the term was not used to describe race but religious affiliation.Blackmore, Josiah (2009). Moorings: Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa. U of Minnesota Press. pp. xvi, 18. {{ISBN|978-0-8166-4832-0}}.Menocal, María Rosa (2002). Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. Little, Brown, & Co. {{ISBN|0-316-16871-8}}, p. 241 Regardless, Madragana was more likely an Iberian Mozarab,{{Cite web|url=http://purl.pt/15305/3/|title=Primeira parte das Chronicas dos reis de Portvgal|website=purl.pt|access-date=14 September 2019}}{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/brasesdasalade01braauoft|title=Brasões da Sala de Sintra|first=Anselmo|last=Braamcamp Freire|date=14 September 1921|publisher=Coimbra : Imprensa da Universidade|access-date=14 September 2019|via=Internet Archive}}Felgueiras Gayo & Carvalhos de Basto, Nobiliário das Famílias de Portugal, Braga, 1989Pizarro, José Augusto de Sotto Mayor, Linhagens Medievais Portuguesas, 3 vols., Porto, Universidade Moderna, 1999. and any genetic contribution from an ancestor fifteen generations removed would be so diluted as to have a negligible effect on her appearance. Historian Andrew Roberts describes the claims as "utter rubbish", and attributes its public popularity to a hesitancy among historians to openly address it due to its "cultural cringe factor".

In 2017, following the announcement of the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, a number of news articles were published promoting the claims.{{cite news |last1=Blakemore |first1=Erin |title=Meghan Markle Might Not Be the First Mixed-Race British Royal |url=https://www.history.com/news/biracial-royalty-meghan-markle-queen-charlotte |date=10 May 2023|access-date=21 September 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Bates |first1=Karen Grigsby |title=The Meaning Of Meghan: 'Black' And 'Royal' No Longer An Oxymoron In Britain |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/11/29/567012180/the-meaning-of-meghan-black-and-royal-no-longer-an-oxymoron |access-date=23 September 2020}} David Buck, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson, was quoted by the Boston Globe as saying: "This has been rumoured for years and years. It is a matter of history, and frankly, we've got far more important things to talk about."{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/meghan-markle-prince-harry-engaged-royal-wedding-mixed-race-black-princess-british-monarchy-history-a8079251.html|title=Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wedding: Will the bride really be our first mixed-race royal?|first=Deneen L.|last=Brown|newspaper=The Independent|date= 28 November 2017}}

{{ahnentafel

|collapsed=yes |align=center |ref={{cite book|title=Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans| trans-title=Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AINPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA84|year=1768|publisher=Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel|location=Bourdeaux|language=fr|page=84}}

|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;

|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;

|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;

|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;

|1= 1. Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

|2= 2. Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg

|3= 3. Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen

|4= 4. Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

|5= 5. Princess Christiane Emilie of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

|6= 6. Ernest Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen

|7= 7. Countess Sophia Albertine of Erbach-Erbach

|8= 8. Adolphus Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

|9= 9. Duchess Marie Katharina of Brunswick-Dannenberg

|10= 10. Christian William I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

|11= 11. Countess Antonie Sibylle of Barby-Mühlingen

|12= 12. Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen

|13= 13. Countess Sophie Henriette of Waldeck

|14= 14. George Louis I, Count of Erbach-Erbach

|15= 15. Countess Amalia Katharina of Waldeck

}}

{{notelist|1}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Ayling |first=Stanley |date=1972 |title=George the Third |location=London |publisher=Collins |isbn=0-00-211412-7}}
• Barr, Michael C. and Wilkens, Edward (1973). {{NRHP url|id=73001113|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form for Queens Campus at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey}}. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
• {{cite book |author-link=John Brooke (English historian) |last=Brooke |first=John |date=1972 |title=King George III |location=London |publisher=Constable |isbn=0-09-456110-9}}
• {{cite book |last=Fitzgerald |first=Percy |date=1899 |title=The Good Queen Charlotte |url=https://archive.org/details/goodqueencharlo01fitzgoog |publisher=Downey Publishing |access-date=4 June 2018}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Flora Fraser (writer) |last=Fraser |first=Flora |date=2005 |title=Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=0-679-45118-8}}
• {{cite journal |last=Garrett |first=Natalee |date=2022 |title=Albion's Queen by All Admir'd': Reassessing the Public Reputation of Queen Charlotte, 1761-1818 |journal=Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=351–370 |doi=10.1111/1754-0208.12822 |s2cid=246071347 |doi-access=free |hdl=10023/24706 |hdl-access=free }}
• {{cite book |last=Garrett |first=Natalee |date=2025 |title=Queen Charlotte: Family, Duty, Scandal |publisher= Abingdon: Routledge |isbn=978-1-032-28041-7}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Christopher Hibbert |last=Hibbert |first=Christopher |date=1999 |title=George III: A Personal History |location=London |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-025737-3}}
• {{cite book |first=Edward |last=Holt |title=The public and domestic life of His late Most Gracious Majesty, George the Third |volume=1 |publisher=Sherwood, Neely, and Jones |location=London |year=1820 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mWMBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA256}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Michael Levey |last=Levey |first=Michael |date=1977 |title=A Royal Subject: Portraits of Queen Charlotte |location=London |publisher=National Gallery}}
• {{cite book|first=Alison|last=Weir|author-link=Alison Weir|title=Britain's Royal Families, The Complete Genealogy|publisher=Vintage Books|location=London|year=2008|isbn=978-0-09-953973-5}}

• {{cite book |last=Drinkuth |first=Friederike |date=2011 |title=Queen Charlotte. A Princess from Mecklenburg-Strelitz ascends the Throne of England |publisher=Thomas Helms Verlag Schwerin |isbn=978-3-940207-79-1}}
• {{cite book |last=Hedley |first=Olwen |date=1975 |title=Queen Charlotte |publisher=J Murray |isbn=0-7195-3104-7}}
• {{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Kassler |editor-first=Michael |date=2015 |title=The Diary of Queen Charlotte, 1789 and 1794 |volume=4 |encyclopedia=Memoirs of the Court of George III |location=London |publisher=Pickering & Chatto |isbn=978-1-8489-34696}}
• {{cite journal |last=Kassler |first=Michael |date=2019 |title=Queen Charlotte's 1789 Account Book |journal=Eighteenth-Century Life |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=86–100|doi=10.1215/00982601-7725749 |s2cid=208688081 }}
• {{cite magazine |last=Sedgwick |first=Romney |title=The Marriage of George III |magazine=History Today |date=June 1960 |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=371–377}}

{{Commons category-inline|Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz}}

• [https://www.royal.uk/queen-charlotte Queen Charlotte] at the official website of the British monarchy
• [https://www.rct.uk/collection/people/queen-charlotte-of-the-united-kingdom-1744-1818#/type/subject Queen Charlotte] at the official website of the Royal Collection Trust
• [http://people.virginia.edu/~jlc5f/charlotte/ Queen Charlotte, 1744–1818: A Bilingual Exhibit (c. 1994)]
• [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/royalfamily.html "The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families – Queen Charlotte"] at the PBS site
• {{UK National Archives ID}}
• Stuart Jeffries, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/12/race-monarchy "Was this Britain's first black queen?"] The Guardian (12 March 2009)
• [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp00845/charlotte-of-mecklenburg-strelitz Portraits of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz] at the National Portrait Gallery, London

{{S-start}}

{{S-hou|House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|19 May|1744|17 November|1818|House of Mecklenburg}}

{{S-roy|gb}}

|-

{{S-vac|rows=2|last=Caroline of Ansbach}}

{{S-ttl|title=Queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland|years=1761–1800}}

{{S-non|reason=Acts of Union 1800}}

|-

{{S-ttl|title=Electress consort of Hanover|years=1761–1814}}

{{S-non|reason=Title abandoned
Holy Roman Empire dissolved in 1806}}

|-

{{S-new|rows=2}}

{{S-ttl|title=Queen consort of the United Kingdom|years=1801–1818}}

{{S-vac|rows=2|next=Caroline of Brunswick}}

|-

{{S-ttl|title=Queen consort of Hanover|years=1814–1818}}

{{s-end}}

{{Navboxes

|title=Articles and topics related to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

|state=collapsed

|list1=

{{Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz}}

{{British consort}}

{{Royal consorts of Hanover}}

{{House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz}}

}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz}}

Category:1744 births

Category:1818 deaths

Category:18th-century British botanists

Category:19th-century British botanists

Category:18th-century British women

Category:19th-century British women

Category:Queens consort of the United Kingdom

Category:British women botanists

Category:Burials at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle

Category:Duchesses of Bremen and Verden

Category:Duchesses of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Category:Duchesses of Saxe-Lauenburg

Category:Electresses of Hanover

Category:George III

Category:Queens consort of Hanover

Category:House of Hanover

Category:House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Category:People from Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Category:People from Mirow

Category:Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Category:Mothers of British monarchs

Category:Mothers of German monarchs