The Black Queen
The are three pieces of evidence that lead me to believe Queen Charlotte Sophia, consort to George III was of African heritage.
First, the Ramsey portrait made of her just before George III's cornation:
The Black Queen
You'll note the inset head image is definitely that of a woman of African heritage. I believe the inset image is the original. I have seen at least four other versions of the same head each rendered with distinct European features. In fact, so distinctly different are each of versions I've seen it is clear to me a concerted effort was made to render a version of the sitter's face completely different from what I believe was the Ramsey original.
Note also in the second version the hair from the first was clearly copied, or I should say, the face from the first erased and a more European one painted in its place.
Also, I've included a cartoon made of George III and Queen Charlotte where although both face's are exaggerated hers is clearly rendered in a distinctly ethnic way, a way to my eye, seems to be based on the way person I marked "original" looks.
There are other things...
In his dairy, Baron von Stockmar surgeon to the Queen writes about her, "She had the face of a true mulatto."
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On the link above please ignore Mario de Valdes y Cocom's nonsense about Queen Charlotte being nine times removed from a distant ancestor of African heritage, even if that were true, that wouldn't explain her "true mulatto face."
Many other comments are recorded about Queen Charlotte's looks and most have this in common: they speak of a woman who looked not like folks entirely expected, that she had a "frog-like" appearance, was "not pretty" etc.
Finally, for the purposes of the novel I'm writing about her, I'm presuming her "father" was a full-blooded African named
Abram Gannibal.
Gannibal was a noted Russian General who visited England several times during the 18th century.
ricland
